Desmonde Associates was established in 1982. We have a team of highly skilled and experienced personnel providing advisory structural and civil engineering services Nationally and Internationally.
All of the works and services undertaken by the Firm have the personal direction and guidance of Philip Desmonde. He brings outstanding knowledge and innovative technical support to each project team.
Philip’s philosophy of practice is encapsulated by the phrase: Quality in all that we do.
He has never lost the enthusiasm for the challenge each new Project brings. He instils a strong motivation in all that work with him. He maintains close awareness of new technologies in materials, sustainability and computerised methods of analysis to produce imaginative and original solutions that offer value for money.
Philip has guided the design of some very large Projects. However he considers every case, no matter what size, to be an opportunity to apply his vision of quality in design.
Adam Desmonde
Philip Desmonde
Adam Weatherall
Ray Badgery
Ollie Ridge
Paul Foster
Desmonde Associates has over 25 years’ experience in all forms of structural design.
Through the art and practice of structural design, we transfer loads applied through usage, the environment and possible accident to the safe support of the ground. Our design process treats each Project as a unique challenge for delivering a solution that provides a sustainable, elegant structural skeleton which compliments the architectural treatment and setting whilst achieving value for money.
We continuously upgrade our knowledge and skill and utilise the latest computer aided design technologies and materials together with latest construction best practice.
We aim to achieve our Clients vision through collaborative working and total engineering.
Through the concept of “global engineering” we seek to add value by combining pioneering construction techniques within the context of our design solutions.
The range of our specialist areas includes
- Historic Buildings and major Civil Engineering Structures
- From High Rise to Deep Basements.
- Geotechnical engineering and Retaining Walls.
- Bridges and Embankment Structures.
- Regeneration of “Brown Field” Sites and former Mining Areas.
- Site Investigations, Structural Investigations and Viability Assessments.
- Utility Structures such as Dams and Tunnelling.
- Foundation Engineering.
- Maritime Structures
Tube Press Building , St Austell
Par and Fowey Harbour walls
Cliff Top House, St Ives
For many years, Philip and his colleagues have been in continuous demand for Expert Reports and for delivering Expert Evidence. Instructions have been provided by many Specialist Lawyers, Loss Adjusters, Insurers, Utility Companies and Property Owners for us to provide expert witness.
The key areas of our expert work encompass Construction Disputes and Injury Claims. We are able to provide an initial overview of the viability of an issue in dispute or proposed action.
Our capability includes Membership of Learned Professional Bodies and the British Academy of Experts.
Individually designed, investigative programmes are undertaken and where appropriate, laboratory assessments are made to support our Evidence.
Claims/Disputes
- Professional negligence
- Fire damage investigations
- Construction failures
- Contamination assessments
- Brickwork failures
- Lifting sling/rope/chain failures
- Cladding defects
- Shipping/cargo claims
- Concrete deterioration/disruption
- Marine accidents
- Explosion damage investigations
- Materials failures
- Foundation failures
- Metallurgical investigations
- Corrosion investigations
- Roofing failures
- Dampness investigations
- Stone cladding failures
- Boundary disputes
- Structural failures
- Flooding
- Welding failures
Personal Injury
- Asbestos exposure assessments
- Glazing failures and accidents
- Barrier and parapet failures
- Ladder failures
- Building fixture failures
- Pedestrian slip accidents
- Chemical investigations
- Product failures (eg bottles, tools, crash helmets)
- Floor/screed/tile failures
- Roofing tile accidents
- Scaffold failures
Structural failures and boundary dispute investigations
Geotechnical investigations and material testing
Specialist access techniques
Accident investigation
- Historic Buildings
- Historic Civil Engineeering Structures
- Engineering Archaeology
- Investigations, survey, structural assessment
- Quadrennial Inspections and Conservation Briefs
- Listed Building Consents and Scheduled Monument Applications
Over the last 25 years, Philip has been responsible for the successful completion of a very wide range of projects involving historic buildings and structures. These range from large stone masonry dams (Burrator Reservoir on Dartmoor National Park for example); from modest Barns to grand Manor Houses, Castle and Fortifications (such as the Tower of London, Bolsover Castle and Tintagel Castle); viaducts and aqueducts; and, on National Monuments (Stonehenge for example).
Maritime structures and their immediate environs are a speciality: the 6 dry docks of the historic area of the Portsmouth Naval Base, and the Royal William Yard in Plymouth for example. Important national buildings include St. Andrews House in Edinburgh; Banffy Castle, Transylvania, Romania; the Mary Rose enclosure; the Tower of London; and the Hampshire County Council County Records Office at St. Thomas’s Church in Winchester.
We carry out surveys; provide option studies; give specialist conservation advice (particularly on stone masonry, wrought iron, historic timber, below ground structures, and slate roof coverings). We undertake sampling and laboratory assessment of materials; historic research; and we have archaeological capability in support of our investigative work (particularly trial pits and excavations for new structures).
Royal William Yard, Plymouth
St Andrews House, Edinburgh
Historic Dockyard of HMNB Portsmouth
Banff Castle, Bontida, Transylvania
Desmonde Associates
48 Vicarage Road, St Agnes, Cornwall TR5 0TG
07961 033117
adam@desmondeassociates.co.uk