Cornish architectural firm Poynton Bradbury Wynter Cole (PBWC) has appointed a new director, senior architect Laura Highton.

She joins current directors Cian Spowart, Chris Turner, and Simon Burgess at their St Ives practice.

Ms Highton is a specialist conservation architect registered with RIBA and brings a wealth of experience working with historic buildings.

Ms Highton said: "I’m very pleased to take on the role of director at PBWC.

"It’s a well-founded practice with high aspirations and the team consistently push themselves to be the best architects they can be and to find the right projects."

Ms Highton underlined the people-first ethos of PBWC and spoke of her desire to continue this while ensuring continued production of high-quality designs.

Her design experiences span large scale community and public buildings such as museums and visitor centres, and smaller residential projects.

She recently helmed designs for the £2.5 million refurbishment of the historic Market House in Penzance.

Ms Highton said: "PBWC are unique in what they offer – we are based in the far south of the UK, in a beautiful part of the country and we have excellent career opportunities, proving you don’t have to be city-based to be part of a leading architectural practice."

PBWC's recent induction into the ethical B Corp movement reiterates its commitment to innovative, sustainable, and community-centric architectural solutions.

Ms Highton also said: "The climate challenge continues to be highly relevant to us.

"At every stage of our designs, we look to introduce sustainable technologies.

"We push our clients to achieve the best, highly sustainable building for the right cost.

"We also look at the carbon footprint of our business and how that impacts on the projects we design."

Founded in 1973, PBWC is one of South West’s largest architect’s practices.

Director Chris Turner has said: "We are very excited to announce Laura’s appointment as a director.

"Laura’s expertise lies in the adaptive re-use of existing buildings, and she is particularly skilled at bringing new life and contemporary design into historic buildings and settings."