MDP + Partners aim to provide the best design solution to each individual brief and project regardless of scale or size. Building Ireland learned more about the Waterford-based business from Philip Doyle, one of its three directors, recently.
Business couldn’t have been much better for MDP + Partners in 2019 and, to top it all off, the firm ended the year with success at the annual Fit Out Awards this past November.
The company was successful in the Awards’ Residential category for its work on The Glass House in Co Waterford, having been shortlisted for four awards in total on the night at the Clayton Hotel.
Things have indeed come a long way since the inception of MDP + Partners two years ago after three men joined two companies together to set-up their new business venture.
Eddie Phelan, David Merrigan and Philip Doyle were the trio that had the vision for a different type of design practice, as the latter explained to Building Ireland recently.
“It was originally two companies and two years ago we joined it as MDP + Partners,” explained Philip.
“We’ve offices in Waterford and Dublin and have 10 full-time staff working with the company.”
MDP + Partners was created as result of the merger of two offices, Doyle and Partners and Merrigan Phelan Architects.
With a combined 40 years of experience in the construction industry between the all three directors, MDP + Partners was set-up with the aim to deliver high quality contemporary architectural solutions that maximize the potential of each project through a design led, fully integrated sustainable approach, on time and on budget.
Right now, the company is immersed in work with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) businesses in the capital. This is a key growth area for 2019. The practice also has a strong residential team which covers the high end one-off residential market along with the more traditional developer multi-unit schemes.
“We’re mainly in the commercial field and working on office and hotel fit-out,” said Philip.
“We’ve a lot of work out around Silicon Docks for FDI companies, American companies and use Virtual Reality as part of the process.”
The in-house and portable VR suites bring MDP + Partners’ designs to life, allowing them and their clients to fully experience new places and spaces and make informed decisions early on.
The company believe Virtual Reality is an effective translation of what’s in the designer’s head and allows them to put their ideas in front of clients and any project stakeholder without any ambiguity – as the company itself outlines, MDP is all about new tools and been innovative, and exploring ways to increase their abilities to design.
It had been the vision for all three directors when they came together in 2017.
For Philip, his own working back ground brought him halfway around the world and back before taking the decision to go out on his own.
“I’d worked for architectural practices in Dublin and Australia and when the recession hit I took the decision to set-up on my own,” he said.
“For the first five years, I was ticking over and three years ago we started winning bigger projects and eventually came together with Merrigan Phelan Architects after we’d done a few projects with them.”
2019 has been the best year business-wise so far, according to Philip, and there’s no sign of things slowing down either.
However, what’s more exciting is the fact that the company have secured projects in two of the biggest cities on earth for the coming year.
“This year has been brilliant and next year looks even better,” Philip enthused.
“The big goal is now to push projects that we recently won in New York and London.”
He continued: “We sat down and looked at a few things and what sectors we were going to get into. London was one of the obvious ones, going over and giving Virtual Reality presentations.
“New York is obviously a bit further away but we had a few contacts, went over and a project is after coming out of it for us.”
These are exciting times indeed for the two-year-old venture which has just completed projects for Arkphire (Sandyford, Co Dublin), Rapid7 Cyber Security Systems (Dublin), Colour Trend (Celbridge, Co Kildare), along with an Audi Showroom in Kilkenny and the above, award winning Glass House in Co. Waterford.
And the work keeps on coming it seems…
Since ‘Day One’, MDP + Partners has had the aim of providing the best design solution to each individual brief and project regardless of scale or size.
The company has also become specialists in certain fields through years of experience and have completed successful projects within the Hotel, Retail, Residential and Workplace industry, collaborating with clients to create remarkable projects to grow their business and grow their profits through the power of great design.
Asked why he thinks the company’s clients choose them first ahead of other competitors in the same industry, Wexford native Philip replied:
“First of all, with the three directors, one of us is always on the project. We stay heavily involved and projects just aren’t shipped down the line to the staff.
“Before any building is started, the clients can put on the VR goggles and fully understand its design.
“The VR gives them a full understanding of their design and we can iron out all of the issues.”
What more could a client ask for?
*For a view of MDP + Partners’ project portfolio over the past two years be sure and visit mdpandpartners.ie.
MDP + Partners
Head office:
2/3 Colbeck Street,
The Viking Triangle,
Waterford
Tel: 051 584589
[email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, February/March 2020, Vol 6 No 1
