Bespa - Exeter

Bernard H.

Creative, energetic and hardworking - a real pleasure to work with.

Bespa managed the renovation of our newly purchased Grade 2 listed building in central Exeter.

We had a specific request for our own brief to be listened to but needed a company to provide direction and experience, working sympathetically with a Grade 2 building to provide flexible work spaces.

We had experience of working with the whole team at Bespa at various stages and without fail they were personable, knowledgeable and patient. The end designs and use of space were decided on as a result of them suggesting but also listening. It was very much a team project.

We ended up with the complete project costing well within a reasonable tolerance level from the initial budget. We did not feel Bespa's own project management fees were expensive and they did not increase over the duration of what was a slightly longer project than initially expected (due to some changes implemented to the project along the way).

The result of 9 months working with Bespa was an office that we are very proud of and people enjoy spending time in.

Practice Director of a legal business in Exeter.

Maggie S.

"The office space that Bespa has created makes it a pleasure to come into work to collaborate with colleagues, catch-up and be in an environment that promotes productivity, fun and a feeling of belonging and wellbeing."

Air M.

We wanted to create a space we could be proud of, where our team and our clients would enjoy spending time. Without Space’s input, we would never have achieved anything quite so amazing. From the design of the layout to the visual design, Tim and his team held our hand, made good suggestions, stopped us making mistakes and came up with brilliant and creative ideas. What’s more, the management of the process - seeing dozens of workers from several contractors buzzing around every day, all so well coordinated – was so impressive

Work W.

Good work when it is completed but project not finished on time

We moved offices this year as part of a significant relocation project for our company. The project was exciting and had a generous budget, designed to invigorate our business in line with new contracts . The move was a springboard for our staff to support a new corporate look and feel however, the offices also needed to be functional, to allow us to provide care to thousands of clients. Our environment needed to enable us to carry forward our services effectively and sensitively to meet their needs.

The work that has been completed has been to a good standard but the project was not managed effectively to enable it to deliver on time despite assurances it would all be fine. Given the nature of our business, this is more than a mere inconvenience and has led to issues of confidentiality and security for both staff and our records.

Staff have been unable to carry out meetings in rooms (as doors do not lock or close) with doors having to remain propped open as they are missing handles. This has impacted the new launch of our company we hoped to achieve with a flourish to a fizzle, dampening staff morale who were understandably nervous about such a big change.

In having to finish the project with the offices live, staff were made anxious by workmen coming into offices without introduction, not wearing ID badges and interrupting meetings. Productivity was also delayed as meetings had to be postponed (they could not be held in rooms with workmen banging and creating dust and mess which was then trampled through the space). Prioritization also seemed poor, with focuses on finishing touches like cupcakes and plants whilst offices were still not fit for purpose.

Matthew M.

Disappointing service overall.

The initial pitch is quite appealing but the nuances of delivering a large scale project are unfortunately beyond the team at Space. I am confident that if you are looking for a standard modern office, with no specific requirements and loads of cash to spare then they will probably do a very good for you. Sadly we've got some very specific requirements and once the project got a little complicated, it all became more painful than it needed to be.

Poor project management meant that they ran out of time. Instead of saying this they gave us false assurances that we could move in. Unfortunately where we are now is that, amongst many issues and unfinished parts, we have an office that needs to be kept secure where not a single door works properly and no clear timeline of when any of it will actually be finished.

The good:
- The staff are friendly enough, very easy to get along with and they are clearly passionate about what they do.
- The finished offices do look good.

The bad:
- They are exceptionally expensive.
- Space are quite dismissive, they don't want to listen to what you want or need and will deliver what they think works favouring aesthetics over functionality.
- They changed the specification continuously, chopping items which were essential for us to accommodate design elements.
- Communication was virtually non-existent and a lot of the odd design choices we just weren't consulted on.
- Poor project management, very often no one was on site and contractors were complaining that they didn't know what to do.
- They didn't understand our requirements and had no interest in actually delivering them. We were often misled into believing things were happening when they were not.
- They massively overshot the (reasonable) budget on the first cut and everything after that was blamed on the budget.

Albert G.

Space have done a fantastic job on our two new offices in Taunton and Weston-super-Mare!

Nigel B.

Fantastic company great staff pleasure dealing with 5*

Abby M.