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![FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION
25/06/14
EDITION #0265 P03 RACONTEUR.NET
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i
f
t
Overview
or better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
the fortunes of the con-struction
industry and UK economy
appear wedded together.
In 2008, when the UK economy
went down as a whole, construction
fell faster and further, but bounced
back stronger, in 2009. Creating
outputs of £83 billion on the road to
recovery in 2012, the sector swelled
to provide one in every fifteen jobs
at the end of last year.
For growth to be sustainable,
however, it is not enough simply
that order books become fuller and
business more profitable – the sector
needs to change.
Unfortunately, change does not
suit everyone. Retreating to the com-fort
zone of “business as usual”, pur-suing
safe bets and fast bucks is slam-ming
the engine of transformation
into reverse. Chairman of Buildoff-site
Richard Ogden can already see
warning signs in rising material pric-es
and labour rates.
“There is little evidence that
growth is being driven by increased
productivity,” he says. “An absence
means inflation and a risk to jobs
and aspirations. The key is innova-tion
in product and process.”
Enabled by modern manufactur-ing,
digital technology and smart
logistics, the systemic innovation
Mr Ogden envisions takes place in a
global marketplace, where countries
and firms compete to produce what
is essentially a consumer product.
“I make no apologies for regarding
the construction industry as just an-other
manufacturing sector. I want
Construction may be booming, but the industry
must rebuild itself to face a challenging future,
writes Jim McClelland
choice in terms of size, specification
and performance – in short, I want to
be able to customise my purchase,”
he says. “I want rapid delivery and
assembly on-site, right-first-time
quality, performance in use that
matches the marketing. That is what
I expect when I buy a new car and I
can’t see why construction should be
any different.”
While not buying into the au-tomative
analogy, Shaun McCarthy,
chairman of the Supply Chain Sus-tainability
School, a collaboration
between 17 major contractors to
develop competence of more than
5,000 sub-contractors, still sees les-sons
to be learnt from manufactur-ing,
particularly around benefits of
integrated modelling.
“The BIM [building information
modelling] revolution is coming. It
can be transformational. However, it
requires completely different skillsets
from management and staff,” he says.
The revolution will be cultural,
not technical. Out go old adversarial
attitudes and in come new collabo-rative
ways of working. Citing “in-telligent
client” roles driving meg-aprojects,
such as Crossrail and the
Olympic Park, Mr McCarthy argues
that, without such a gearshift, tech-nological
potential may be wasted.
“We are seeing flat-pack houses
in Sweden, homes created using
3D-printing in China, concrete that
absorbs carbon, the list goes on. With-out
culture change these innovations
could wither on the vine,” he says.
Change will depend, of course,
not on a matter of either technology
or people, but both together. Head
of facilities management and Plan A
at Marks & Spencer Munish Datta ex-plains:
“I think the government’s In-dustrial
Strategy: Construction 2025
summarises transformative factors
rather well: ‘An industry that at-tracts
and retains a diverse group of
multi-talented people’ and ‘leads the
world in research and innovation,
transformed by digital design’. One
cannot be achieved without the oth-er
– technical innovation requires
cultural change and vice versa.”
What Whitehall strategy might
promise on paper is not, however,
being delivered with urgency or
certainty by Parliament in practice,
according to John Alker, director of
policy and communications at the
UK Green Building Council.
“The main thing that risks slow-ing
the rate of change is the state
of government policy – to date,
the main driver. Absolutely critical
policies are still in a state of flux,
notably regulations for minimum
performance in existing stock
and, despite the Queen’s Speech,
details of ‘zero carbon’ for new
build,” he says.
For construction, Mr Alker ar-gues,
taking the future of the sus-tainable
business model into its own
hands is starting to look like more
than just a desirable option; it is be-coming
essential.
“We have to make the business
case for sustainability in its own
right. That means taking into
account ‘whole-life’ value, not
just reduced resource and util-ity
costs, but also the benefit to
people in terms of health and pro-ductivity.
This is the hottest topic
in sustainable construction right
now,” he says.
Construction can yet rewrite its
own playbook and Mr Datta at M&S
sees grounds for optimism.
“I have high hopes the industry
can learn from the not-so-distant
past and define a new type of growth
borne out of a very different near-fu-ture
landscape – climate resistant,
frugal with resources, smart, cir-cular,
diverse, global and ultra-effi-cient,”
he says.
The question is who will step up
to the plate?
“The industry needs transforma-tional
players,” concludes Mr Mc-
Carthy. “In the 1960s, the Japanese
changed the way we thought about
cars; Microsoft made computers
accessible to all; Apple changed
mobile technology; Tesla is about
to transform the car industry again.
Where is the transformational lead-er
in construction?”
The future of construction is un-built;
the call for change-makers is out.
Prepare for business as unusual.
Distributed in
Publishing Manager
David Kells
Managing Editor
Peter Archer
Production Manager
Natalia Rosek
Commissioning Editor
Jim McClelland
Design, Infographics & Illustration
The Design Surgery
www.thedesignsurgery.co.uk
Contributors
STEPHEN COUSINS
Freelance journalist specialising in construction, architecture,
environment and technology, he writes regularly for RIBA
Journal, Construction Manager and Infoworks magazines.
MCCLELLAND
Sustainable futurist, speaker, writer and social-media
commentator, his specialisms include built environment,
corporate social responsibility and ecosystem services.
JAMES ROBERTS
Head of commercial research at property consultants
Knight Frank.
MIKE SCOTT
Freelance journalist, specialising in environment and
business, he writes regularly for the Financial Times,
Bloomberg New Energy Finance and 2degrees Network.
RUTH SLAVID
Freelance journalist specialising in architecture, landscape
and lighting, she is the author of six books about architecture.
MARK SMULIAN
Freelance journalist, he is a former editor of Housing Today.
Although this publication is funded through advertising and
sponsorship, all editorial is without bias and sponsored features are
clearly labelled. For an upcoming schedule, partnership inquiries or
feedback, please call +44 (0)20 3428 5230 or
e-mail info@raconteur.net
Raconteur Media is a leading European publisher of special interest
content and research. It covers a wide range of topics, including
business, finance, sustainability, lifestyle and the arts. Its special
reports are exclusively published within The Times, The Sunday
Times and The Week. www.raconteur.net
The information contained in this publication has been obtained
from sources the Proprietors believe to be correct. However, no legal
liability can be accepted for any errors. No part of this publication
may be reproduced without the prior consent of the Publisher.
© Raconteur Media
F
It is not enough simply that order books
become fuller and business more
profitable – the sector needs to change
THE FUTURE
IS UNBUILT
JIM McCLELLAND
London skyline in
2025 as visualised
by architectural
designer Dave
Edwards for the film,
The Machine](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/d80652d1-7c05-4c03-b6c7-9688ddbaa440-141120042249-conversion-gate01/85/FOC-doubles-02-2-320.jpg)
![FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION
25/06/14
EDITION #0265 P15 RACONTEUR.NET
/COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA
/RACONTEUR.NET
@RACONTEUR
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f
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FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION
25/06/14
EDITION #0265
RACONTEUR.NET
/COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA
/RACONTEUR.NET
@RACONTEUR
1
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f
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Top-Five Materials Waste And Sustainability
1.
3.
5.
This innovation could one day replace traditional solar panels, providing a
near-transparent alternative that can be applied to glazing or other building
materials. University of Oxford offshoot company Oxford Photovoltaics has
developed the thin-film solar cells using the mineral crystal perovskite, a
semi-transparent material, which when applied in an ultra-thin layer to sur-faces
is able to generate power from the sun’s rays. The firm’s scientists are
currently able to achieve a 15 per cent power conversion rate using a scaled-down
version of the technology, but this is expected to rise to over 20 per
The first prototype building incorporating a bioreactive facade filled with
algae was opened in Hamburg last year. Designed by Austria’s Splitterwerk
Architects and structural engineer Arup, the four-storey residential block
incorporates 64 “double-glazed” panels filled with a mixture of water and
unicellular algae, which grow in response to direct sunlight. The algae is
harvested and processed to produce methane gas that is either stored locally
or used to help fuel the building. The system also provides a clever source
of shading, as sunlight speeds up the rate of algae growth the glass becomes
cloudy, blocking direct sunlight from entering the building.
CURRENT AD
WRONG SIZE
Property
development
Page 18
SMART WALLS,
3D PRINTING AND
TOOTHBRUSHES
STRAIGHT TALKING ON
CIRCULAR
ECONOMY Innovative and sometimes offbeat
building materials are revolutionising
construction. Stephen Cousins has
Raconteur’s top five Construction and demolition, the largest producers
of waste in the UK, may only be paying lip service
to green initiatives, writes Jim McClelland
THIN-FILM SOLAR CELLS
SMARTWALL
Additive manufacturing or 3D printing found its first application on a live
construction project last September. When installing a polymer ETFE roof
over a garden at the 6 Bevis Marks office project in the City of London, main
contractor Skanska drafted in industrial 3D printing firm Quickparts to pro-duce
cladding for eight complex interfaces at the tops of steel columns sup-porting
the roof. Quickparts used a selective laser sintering machine that
fuses layers of powdered Nylon PA 12, to build up the complex shapes based
on the architect’s original computer-aided design file. The process was faster
and cheaper than alternative spliced steel-plate options.
TOOTHBRUSH INSULATION
BIOREACTIVE FACADES
3D-PRINTED CLADDING
2.
4.
cent in the near future, more efficient than regular silicon-based solar panels.
Installing partition walls in large buildings can be complex and time consum-ing.
Tradesmen erect half the structure, then electrical engineers install and
test their kit, and finally walls are closed up taped, joined and decorated. The
SmartWall intelligent walling system, developed by contracting group Laing
O’Rourke, is manufactured in a factory and delivered to site in a finished
state, incorporating cables and ductwork plus external plasterboard, then
simply dropped into position by crane, simultaneous with the superstructure.
The system is pre-treated for weathering, and also avoids the large amount
of noise, dust and waste that can be generated when cutting plasterboard.
Brick walls filled with unconventional insulation materials, including more
than 2,000 toothbrushes, video cassettes, floppy disks, CD cases and old
denim jeans form part of an innovative Waste House currently on-site in
Brighton. The two-storey building, designed by architects BBM and built
by Mears Group in collaboration with the University of Brighton, is being
built entirely out of unwanted waste, including carpet tiles, car-tyre rubber,
and nuts and bolts and timber decking from an old promenade. It aims to
demonstrate how buildings can avoid the carbon emissions associated with
the manufacture and delivery of conventional products.
Truth is the built-environment sector has been
doing little more than paying lip service to actual
engagement with the circular economy
Construction is a big, hun-gry
and dirty beast. In
the UK it consumes more
than 400 million tonnes of materi-als
a year and, including demolition
and excavation, produces almost 80
million tonnes of waste.
Tidying up this mess is expensive.
Managing and disposing of waste has
been costing the industry around 1
per cent of turnover – 30 per cent or
more of pre-tax profits. The sector is,
however, getting cleaner.
Under recessionary pressures to
realise cost savings and resource
efficiencies, as well as operate with-in
tightening regulatory and fiscal
frameworks, construction has been
making steady, necessary progress
against waste reduction targets over
the last five years.
Albeit including a short-sight-ed
element of “downcycling” for
the sake of tax avoidance, positive
commercially motivated trends are
in evidence, acknowledges Richard
Buckingham, head of construction
and refurbishment at WRAP, an or-ganisation
which advises industry
on recycling more and wasting less.
“Waste management and minimi-sation,
recycling and landfill reduc-tions
have clear financial benefits,
and have gained ground. Among
major contractors, strong perfor-mance
is achieved regularly; it is not
unusual for landfill diversion rates
over 90 per cent.”Such incremen-tal
advances are beneficial in terms
of edging towards more sustainable
business models, but do not add up
to any overarching vision of strategic
and systemic change.
Holding the sector back from
making that imaginative leap into
the brave new world of the so-called
circular economy is a pervasive re-covery-
era tendency towards risk
aversion, according to Mr Bucking-ham,
with the result that inspiration-al
project success stories are, as yet,
in short supply.
“Examples of buildings or in-frastructure
addressing design for
deconstruction, solutions to enable
change of use, plus low embodied
carbon are rare,” he says. “Where is
the iPod building to revolutionise the
Walkman building?”
The Amsterdam Park 20|20 of-fice-
led development offers one
exemplar. Given that the primary
architect is William McDonough –
co-creator with Michael Braungart of
the cradle-to-cradle design standards
– this is perhaps not surprising. The
exception proves the rule.
Truth is the built-environment sec-tor
as a joined-up whole has been do-ing
little more than paying lip service
thus far to actual engagement with
the concept of the circular economy.
“I don’t believe the UK con-struction
industry has really en-tertained
the circular economy
as a serious proposition,” says
architect Nitesh Magdani, director
of sustainability at BAM Construct
UK. “The government needs to de-fine
the business case for UK plc,
understand potential benefits and
put some form of regulation in
place, as they have done with the
low-carbon agenda.”
Individual pieces of the jigsaw
are in place though, argues Martin
Clarke, director of the World Con-crete
Forum: “UK concrete gets it
– recycling, reuse, zero harm, more
from less are all mantras, we set tar-gets,
measure and report.”
However, the global problem is
getting bigger, not smaller, he coun-sels,
with a cultural shift needed
to get us off the current death-by-growth
trajectory.
“Concentration on change in
Western Europe only, in our sector,
will not change much. China and In-dia
must be put at the centre of our
attention – they have one shot to get
it right,” he says.
“Getting away from volume-re-lated
measurement of sales would
help. We must strive for more from
less right around the cycle of cra-dle-
to-cradle. Globally, we shift an
incredible 60 billion tonnes of raw
materials and finished products, a
volume that is growing rapidly. Get-ting
the same job done on any given
project with more profit but less vol-ume
is the key to circularity.”
A compelling commercial case for
building buyers and users is the cli-ent-
side catalyst for such a tectonic
shift, according to Graham Hilton,
director of the Alliance for Sus-tainable
Building Products (ASBP).
“Recognising cost and resource
benefits of extending building life
through adaptation and re-use of
components is the best way to drive
positive change, but requires a new
commercial approach which looks
at whole-life costs not just up-front
build costs,” he says.In terms of the
immediate game plan, he suggests
the biggest prize is to be found in the
public sector, where infrastructure
decisions are high risk, requiring
long-term financial commitments, in
danger of creating “stranded assets”.
“These assets become liabilities,
requiring expensive adaptation or
demolition to reclaim land, after
relatively modest changes in circum-stance
or use. Flexible techniques
for deconstruction and re-use
would extend building life and open
cheaper and lower-risk financing,”
says Mr Hilton.
DECONSTRUCTION
The ASBP is pioneering a circu-lar-
economy initiative called RE-Fab,
conceived to create a framework for
development of flexible-life build-ings,
underpinned by a series of de-sign,
build and operation principles
that will facilitate design for decon-struction
and re-use.
Looking down the track towards a
sustainable future for construction,
Mr Hilton imagines an industry very
different from the one on view today.
“In our RE-Fab world, in 2050, design
for adaptation deconstruction and re-use
would characterise mainstream
construction, with a massive reduc-tion
in abandonment and demolition
of unsuitable building stock,” he says.
“Buildings would consist of du-rable,
re-usable components, with
use and re-use part of a widespread
‘accounting’ system, based on BIM
[building information modelling],
and demonstrating the cost and en-vironmental
benefits.
“A building’s records would show
its impact in build, use, refurbish-ment
and at end-of-life, forming
part of the ongoing value chain in
all its forms.”
For Mr Buckingham, any such vi-sion
of the industry of tomorrow has
to be founded on the twin premises
that all new buildings are carbon pos-itive
and all refurbishments result in
carbon neutrality, so yoking together
the energy and waste agendas, and
placing carbon centre-circle.
Construction in the age of the cir-cular
economy would bring potential
benefits across the board, in the eyes
of Mr Magdani, who lists the win-ners,
in order of impact, as clients,
manufacturers, enlightened develop-ers,
demolition contractors (the new
brokers), designers and contractors.
He concludes: “Without exploring
benefits and impacts to the whole
value chain, we will probably be
slow to see change in our complex
industry.” For construction, closing
the loop is a team game. “There are
very few ‘experts’ in the field of cir-cular
economy at present, but for us
to embrace opportunities to increase
skills and employment, we need to
work together.”
The Floating Pavilion
at Rotterdam,
Netherlands is
an experiment
in sustainable
architecture and
climate-proof
development](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/d80652d1-7c05-4c03-b6c7-9688ddbaa440-141120042249-conversion-gate01/85/FOC-doubles-02-8-320.jpg)
FOC---doubles-02
- 1. P03 Rebuilding theconstruction Getting the UK building again Building with smartwalls, 3D industry to face fresh challenges P10 will sustain economic recovery P14 printing – and toothbrushes 25/06/14 #0265 RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 101101001001 110100101110 010010011011 101101001001 110100101110 010010011011 Project Collaboration for Building, Infrastructure, Energy
- 2. FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 25/06/14 EDITION #0265 P03 RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t Overview or better or for worse, in sickness and in health, the fortunes of the con-struction industry and UK economy appear wedded together. In 2008, when the UK economy went down as a whole, construction fell faster and further, but bounced back stronger, in 2009. Creating outputs of £83 billion on the road to recovery in 2012, the sector swelled to provide one in every fifteen jobs at the end of last year. For growth to be sustainable, however, it is not enough simply that order books become fuller and business more profitable – the sector needs to change. Unfortunately, change does not suit everyone. Retreating to the com-fort zone of “business as usual”, pur-suing safe bets and fast bucks is slam-ming the engine of transformation into reverse. Chairman of Buildoff-site Richard Ogden can already see warning signs in rising material pric-es and labour rates. “There is little evidence that growth is being driven by increased productivity,” he says. “An absence means inflation and a risk to jobs and aspirations. The key is innova-tion in product and process.” Enabled by modern manufactur-ing, digital technology and smart logistics, the systemic innovation Mr Ogden envisions takes place in a global marketplace, where countries and firms compete to produce what is essentially a consumer product. “I make no apologies for regarding the construction industry as just an-other manufacturing sector. I want Construction may be booming, but the industry must rebuild itself to face a challenging future, writes Jim McClelland choice in terms of size, specification and performance – in short, I want to be able to customise my purchase,” he says. “I want rapid delivery and assembly on-site, right-first-time quality, performance in use that matches the marketing. That is what I expect when I buy a new car and I can’t see why construction should be any different.” While not buying into the au-tomative analogy, Shaun McCarthy, chairman of the Supply Chain Sus-tainability School, a collaboration between 17 major contractors to develop competence of more than 5,000 sub-contractors, still sees les-sons to be learnt from manufactur-ing, particularly around benefits of integrated modelling. “The BIM [building information modelling] revolution is coming. It can be transformational. However, it requires completely different skillsets from management and staff,” he says. The revolution will be cultural, not technical. Out go old adversarial attitudes and in come new collabo-rative ways of working. Citing “in-telligent client” roles driving meg-aprojects, such as Crossrail and the Olympic Park, Mr McCarthy argues that, without such a gearshift, tech-nological potential may be wasted. “We are seeing flat-pack houses in Sweden, homes created using 3D-printing in China, concrete that absorbs carbon, the list goes on. With-out culture change these innovations could wither on the vine,” he says. Change will depend, of course, not on a matter of either technology or people, but both together. Head of facilities management and Plan A at Marks & Spencer Munish Datta ex-plains: “I think the government’s In-dustrial Strategy: Construction 2025 summarises transformative factors rather well: ‘An industry that at-tracts and retains a diverse group of multi-talented people’ and ‘leads the world in research and innovation, transformed by digital design’. One cannot be achieved without the oth-er – technical innovation requires cultural change and vice versa.” What Whitehall strategy might promise on paper is not, however, being delivered with urgency or certainty by Parliament in practice, according to John Alker, director of policy and communications at the UK Green Building Council. “The main thing that risks slow-ing the rate of change is the state of government policy – to date, the main driver. Absolutely critical policies are still in a state of flux, notably regulations for minimum performance in existing stock and, despite the Queen’s Speech, details of ‘zero carbon’ for new build,” he says. For construction, Mr Alker ar-gues, taking the future of the sus-tainable business model into its own hands is starting to look like more than just a desirable option; it is be-coming essential. “We have to make the business case for sustainability in its own right. That means taking into account ‘whole-life’ value, not just reduced resource and util-ity costs, but also the benefit to people in terms of health and pro-ductivity. This is the hottest topic in sustainable construction right now,” he says. Construction can yet rewrite its own playbook and Mr Datta at M&S sees grounds for optimism. “I have high hopes the industry can learn from the not-so-distant past and define a new type of growth borne out of a very different near-fu-ture landscape – climate resistant, frugal with resources, smart, cir-cular, diverse, global and ultra-effi-cient,” he says. The question is who will step up to the plate? “The industry needs transforma-tional players,” concludes Mr Mc- Carthy. “In the 1960s, the Japanese changed the way we thought about cars; Microsoft made computers accessible to all; Apple changed mobile technology; Tesla is about to transform the car industry again. Where is the transformational lead-er in construction?” The future of construction is un-built; the call for change-makers is out. Prepare for business as unusual. Distributed in Publishing Manager David Kells Managing Editor Peter Archer Production Manager Natalia Rosek Commissioning Editor Jim McClelland Design, Infographics & Illustration The Design Surgery www.thedesignsurgery.co.uk Contributors STEPHEN COUSINS Freelance journalist specialising in construction, architecture, environment and technology, he writes regularly for RIBA Journal, Construction Manager and Infoworks magazines. MCCLELLAND Sustainable futurist, speaker, writer and social-media commentator, his specialisms include built environment, corporate social responsibility and ecosystem services. JAMES ROBERTS Head of commercial research at property consultants Knight Frank. MIKE SCOTT Freelance journalist, specialising in environment and business, he writes regularly for the Financial Times, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and 2degrees Network. RUTH SLAVID Freelance journalist specialising in architecture, landscape and lighting, she is the author of six books about architecture. MARK SMULIAN Freelance journalist, he is a former editor of Housing Today. Although this publication is funded through advertising and sponsorship, all editorial is without bias and sponsored features are clearly labelled. For an upcoming schedule, partnership inquiries or feedback, please call +44 (0)20 3428 5230 or e-mail info@raconteur.net Raconteur Media is a leading European publisher of special interest content and research. It covers a wide range of topics, including business, finance, sustainability, lifestyle and the arts. Its special reports are exclusively published within The Times, The Sunday Times and The Week. www.raconteur.net The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources the Proprietors believe to be correct. However, no legal liability can be accepted for any errors. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior consent of the Publisher. © Raconteur Media F It is not enough simply that order books become fuller and business more profitable – the sector needs to change THE FUTURE IS UNBUILT JIM McCLELLAND London skyline in 2025 as visualised by architectural designer Dave Edwards for the film, The Machine
- 3. FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 25/06/14 EDITION #0265 P04 RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 25/06/14 EDITION #0265 CASE STUDY FROM RUSSIA WITH LESSONS TO LEARN Building Information Modelling SMARTER BUILDING SAVES TIME AND MONEY Manufacturing techniques, combined with computer software to fully integrate data management, have the potential to transform the construction industry, as Ruth Slavid reports It is one of the most important and misunderstood aspects of construction. Building information modelling (BIM) is a topic where, in the opinion of many, “build-ing” and “modelling” dominate, where-as in fact it is the “information” aspect that is most important. BIM is all about the sharing of infor-mation between all parties to a pro-ject. Ideally it involves the design and construction teams, the client and the people who will be managing the pro-ject long after the other participants have left. The principle is very simple. When somebody updates a piece of information, everybody receives that update. And it should be possible to update a single element and have that information referenced by all other similar elements. The benefits are obvious – savings in working and reworking, avoidance of clashes, misunderstandings and errors on-site, and a new knowledge by clients of what they actually have and will get. Getting to this point, however, is not simple, and it has taken a major drive by government to persuade construc-tion companies to sign up to the idea and go through the pain involved in learning any new system. This has come about through gov-ernment requiring that Level 2 BIM is used on all publicly funded work by 2016, much of which is already in the pipeline. The government’s BIM Task Force defines Level 2 BIM as a series of domain-specific models, for example architectural or structural, with the provision of a single environment to store shared data and information. Data storage involves a procedure known as COBie UK 2012. This is a protocol that allows everybody to ex-change information, even if some of those people, who may be minor spe-cialist players, are not using sophisti-cated software. Even the BIM Task Force concedes that it is sometimes easier to say what BIM isn’t than what it is. It’s not just 3D computer-aided design. It’s not just a new technology application. It’s not next generation; it’s here and now. For a long time, there was resistance from the industry to implementing BIM. But, partly because of pressures from government, it is now making impres-sive progress and is one area where the UK is at the forefront. According to Richard Waterhouse, chief executive of NBS (National Build-ing Specification) and RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Enter-prises: “A majority of the industry has now adopted BIM, using it for at least one project in the last year. We have travelled some distance since we start-ed monitoring BIM adoption in 2010, when only 13 per cent were using BIM and 43 per cent were unaware of it. “For the design team, there are clear benefits of collaboration, vis-ualisation, co-ordination and infor-mation retrieval. This readily trans-lates into increased cost efficiencies and profitability. MAINTENANCE “For manufacturers, accurate product information can be deliv-ered into the heart of the building information model through the crea-tion and delivery of information-rich BIM objects. These objects have the potential to determine not only product choice in construction, but persistence and correct maintenance through a building’s life. “For clients, an information-rich model allows design outcomes to be modelled and agreed early in the build-ing lifecycle, at the briefing and design stages. The lifetime performance of a building can be maximised and effi-ciencies delivered, with standardised information delivered in COBie drops. Landings are made softer. Client out-comes are improved.” In the early days of BIM adoption, there was a tendency for some architects and other designers to miss the point. By working in three dimensions – an ap-proach that when you think about it is far more representative of the real world than are two-dimensional drawings – and being able to make and commu-nicate changes rapidly and accurately, there is a decrease in misunderstandings and disagreements. As Mr Waterhouse notes, this is a very real benefit to design teams, but it is of less significance to clients who ex-pect the designers to get things right, whatever the challenges. For clients, and it is of course clients who drive all construction, the benefits are related, but different. Forward-thinking organisations want the information that will allow them to manage their assets in the future and this means understanding what they are getting from a project in a way that is useful. They need, for example, a real understanding of costs so they can make an informed decision about whether to replace or refurbish an item. Heathrow Airport, which is a leader in this area, has set up a GIS-based sys-tem called Heathrow Map Live that al-lows all staff access to live information, and gives them the ability to feedback changes and corrections. In this way, informed clients will come to under-stand their assets better and use them more effectively. Over time, as these clients gain more knowledge of what works in practice, they should be able to make better de-cisions, understanding whether and when they need a new facility, and also making precise demands about what goes into a new building. It has always been true that having a good client is essential to achieve a good building. By harnessing the pow-er of BIM, good clients can become even better. If knowledge is power, BIM should give the construction industry and its clients the power to gather and implement knowledge in a way that was never possible before. It is all about the sharing of information between all parties to a project International construction com-pany Mace is pioneering the use of building information modelling (BIM) with a major project in the Russian city of St Petersburg. The $2-billion development for client SPb Renovation consists of medium and high-rise residential buildings arranged along a river frontage. For construction purpos-es they are divided into five zones, totalling just under one million square metres of accommodation. Mace has worked with the design teams and client to come up with a “chassis” approach to stand-ardise manufacture and on-site assembly of structures. Buildings have varying forms and finishes, as standardisation is at an un-derlying, rather than immediately visible, level. After comparing different structur-al approaches, the team settled for hybrid construction – a mixture of concrete and steel – rather than precast concrete because this offered a significant weight saving, cutting the frame weight to nearly a third. This meant foun-dations could also be reduced, which is particularly important because St Petersburg has poor ground conditions. As a result, the embodied carbon of the buildings was significantly reduced. The project has a library of standard components, which everyone involved can access, and both specify and procure from local suppliers. BIM data and subsequent pro-cesses facilitate the co-ordina-tion and interface between those designing the vertical buildings, the horizontal infrastructure and the public realm, as well as managing the project throughout its lifecycle. Mace has developed a method of asset lifecycle integration, called ALi 360, to implement BIM and optimise asset performance, sharing efficiency savings with clients and supply chain part-ners. The company is also using ALi 360 for cost management, schedule control, and sales and marketing strategy. It calculates this approach is cut-ting building time on the largest zone in St Petersburg by a year. Resulting cost savings for the client are further increased by the ability to begin earlier gener-ation of income from completed accommodation. It is the intention of Mace to use the Russian project as an exemplar for work in the UK and elsewhere. of the largest UK architects’ practices are now using BIM 100% Source: NBS National BIM Report 61% say BIM brings cost efficiencies 52% say it increases speed of delivery 45% say it boosts profitability Source: The Architects’ Journal
- 4. P06 FUTURE OFCONSTRUCTION FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION RACONTEUR.NET 25/06/14 25/06/14 P07 EDITION #0265 EDITION #0265 /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t Workforce SKILLED WORKERS FROM DIVERSE GROUPS The traditional image of the building site needs to change with the times and a skilled workforce recruited from unexpected places, writes Mark Smulian An outdated image of men – and it usually was only men - in filthy overalls, dig-ging holes in pouring rain, still clings. It has to change. With the begin-nings of an economic recovery, the country is building again and con-struction does not want to be caught out by yet another skills shortage when demand increases. As the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has shown, employment is picking up from the depths of the recession to an expect-ed 2.65 million this year and pushing 2.7 million by 2016. Perhaps the most radical ap-proach is to change the nature of construction itself by using com-ponents made in factories, trans-ported to sites and fitted together into buildings, though convention-al work, like excavation, would of course still be needed. Laing O’Rourke is among major contractors promoting this ap-proach, according to its sustainabil-ity director Caroline Blackwell. “Off-site work is the way we are starting to go,” she says. “That changes our needs from traditional trades to being much more about manufacturing, with a lot of empha-sis on logistics, planning and design, and on lifting and crane strategies. “We think that has a totally different skills profile with a lot more profession-al and semi-professional jobs, which suits the way the UK is going as more people go into tertiary education.” Ms Blackwell concedes the indus-try must convince clients of the mer-its of off-site construction, though hopes that offering greater speed will help. Another persuasive factor, for both conventional and off-site projects, is the use of building information mod-elling, so “you can show a client the whole building in a virtual model”. She adds: “Young people find working with computers and en-gineering very attractive, and it is open to a far more diverse group than construction was before.” For traditional site work, Ms Blackwell says: “Sites are now clean-er and more attractive places to work. In the past 20 years there has been a fundamental change in safety and this is now a good and exciting place to work.” Vicky Skene, director of employee engagement and inclusion at Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK, puts emphasis on widening the pool of potential recruits. Only a few years ago, a construc-tion contractor taking an initiative on sexual orientation might, to say the least, have provoked comment and a disability initiative cause only slightly less surprise. But these have been among Bal-four Beatty’s approaches. Ms Skene says: “We are doing this because it’s good for business. If you just recruit among groups, which you always recruited from, then when you’re looking at a project, you are always going to get the same answers; you don’t get people who think differ-ently, so you miss out on original perspectives. There is a lot of evi-dence for that.” She says Balfour Beatty’s diversity work is starting to make a difference with, for example, more female staff returning after maternity leave once the company actively drew attention to this possibility. “It’s about not losing talent. For ex-ample, if someone applied for a job, but says family responsibilities mean they want to work four days a week, we’ll allow that if we can,” she says. Balfour Beatty’s employee survey this year will ask about sexual ori-entation and the company has set up a staff lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender network. TRADITIONAL Ms Skene says: “It is really brave, given traditional attitudes, and we were not sure how it would be re-ceived, but it has landed really well among our staff and allows the in-dustry to be more open.” Work on disabilities looks at how people could be supported into work appropriate to their capabilities. “It could mean office work, but could also be on-site,” Ms Skene says. “For example, people with dyslexia or dyspraxia may need only some small adjustments made and they can work.” Unconscious bias training has started with senior managers and will be spread through the company to site “toolbox talks”. To more generally burnish the industry’s image, younger Balfour Beatty staff are working with school students through the Duke of Edin-burgh’s Award scheme to promote construction “as an OK place to work and not somewhere just con-cerned with digging holes”, she says. “My view is that the industry’s problem is not one of pay, but rath-er this perception that we just stick spades in the ground – and there is an education piece to be done.” DIVERSITY The CITB, which provides indus-trywide training, is also at work on diversity. Employer services director Mike Bilayj says: “We are encourag-ing the industry to ensure it has a diverse intake. Ethnic minority and women entrants are needed because, with the recovery, the in-dustry is already experiencing skills shortage and it will only get worse unless it can harness the skills of the best people. The skills needed are out there in groups the industry has not reached before.” Mr Bilayj says the industry “can-not rely on careers services” to solve its image problem and “we need to get across the opportunities and good long-term prospects in everything from trade to technical posts to professional ones”, in par-ticular through work in schools. Economic reasons will bring com-panies round to embracing diversity and improving the industry’s image, as otherwise: “It will simply not have the skilled workforce it needs.” He concludes: “This is all in the industry’s own interest.” DO The skills needed are out there in groups the industry has not reached before FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 24/06/14 EDITION #0265 RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEURMEDIA @RACONTEUR 1 i f t Commercial Feature Solving the construction jobs crisis Steve Radley, the Construction Industry Training Board’s policy and strategic planning director, warns of a recruitment crisis facing the sector To help address staff losses and retirements, and fill new jobs, an additional 120,000 apprenticeships will be required by 2019 – about 25,000 new starts a year The recession might be over, but the construction industry is still feeling the effects of what have been a tough few years for the sector. In short, it is facing a recruit-ment crisis. The figures make stark reading. Since 2008, 390,000 workers have left the industry, reluctantly let go by companies struggling to survive. As previous recessions have shown, it’s difficult to rehire employees once they have left. Another 400,000 will reach retirement age in the next five years. This actual and potential depletion of the workforce is becoming a real issue now the industry is returning to growth. Construction Industry Train-ing Board (CITB) figures show that more than 180,000 new construction jobs will be created in the next five years in the commercial, retail and residential sectors. To help address staff losses and re-tirements, and fill the new jobs, an ad-ditional 120,000 apprenticeships will be required by 2019 – about 25,000 new starts a year. This is a huge chal-lenge, one that requires action by the government and everyone involved in the industry. At CITB we are tackling the challenge head on. In 2013, we helped 5,000 young people start a construction ap-prenticeship in their local community and are currently providing grants of up to £10,250 for any construction em-ployer looking to take on an apprentice. Our Shared Apprenticeship Schemes are being rolled out across the country. These enable apprentic-es to complete a full apprenticeship programme with a number of different employers. This spreads the costs for businesses and makes it more likely that longer-term investment in appren-ticeships is maintained. We have helped the industry devel-op 30 national skills academies for construction, which provide hands-on training, and have developed procure-ment guidance, Working together to boost local construction apprentice-ships through public procurement, for government departments, agencies and local authorities. But it’s not enough. More needs to be done. The government is trying to create a training market where providers are responsive to what employers need. This is welcome, but it must make sure that any new measures make it as simple as possible for companies to invest in training, especially smaller businesses that don’t have the capac-ity to invest in complex administration. Apprenticeships are the lifeblood of the construction industry, and the best way of growing a talented and diverse workforce for the future. So getting the recruitment and training model right is vital for the 309,000 companies – the majority of them small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – that make up the industry. Acting on the recommendations of the Richard Review of Apprentice-ships, the government has thrown down a gauntlet to the industry, intro-ducing a fundamental shift in the way apprenticeships are funded and deliv-ered, to give employers more control and access to the quality training their businesses need. To support this work, CITB is work-ing with the industry to implement the first trailblazer of the government’s ap-prenticeship reforms and has set up a high-level Apprenticeship Commission to deliver an apprenticeship strategy for the construction sector by the end of the year. Beyond recruitment, the govern-ment’s Industrial Strategy has set ambitious targets for construction to meet by 2025 – 33 per cent lower cost, 50 per cent faster delivery, 50 per cent lower emissions and halving the export trade gap. Reducing the trade gap is a lauda-ble aim, but construction SMEs, which make up 95 per cent of the sector, tell us that to increase exports they need support to identify foreign markets and overcome export barriers. If they get this support, SMEs will not only be able to reduce the trade deficit, but will also become resilient to the volatility of economic cycles. The government is a major custom-er for the construction industry, wheth-er through big national infrastructure projects or local authority schemes. While it has started to provide compa-nies with more certainty on upcoming infrastructure projects, the govern-ment must now provide more detail so businesses can plan the next four or five years ahead. The industry has a key role to play in its own success, too. Career advisers are out of touch with what’s happening in the sector and are not promoting careers. Recent research shows that more than 35 per cent of advisers think a career in con-struction is unattractive, while 82 per cent of teachers don’t believe they have the appropriate knowledge to advise pupils on their career choices. Construction employers need to vis-it schools and explain the benefits of a career in the sector. They need to tell youngsters how it’s becoming a highly skilled, rewarding profession that, in many cases, it is extremely well paid and exciting – the building of the Olym-pic Park and the use of cutting-edge building information modelling are evidence of that. The industry also plays an impor-tant role in tackling climate change through designing and constructing more energy-efficient buildings, de-veloping smart materials and building zero-carbon homes. Many young peo-ple are motivated by climate change and, if they choose to work in the con-struction industry, can help address the challenges it poses. A high-performing, efficient con-struction industry has a huge role to play in delivering economic growth. It is in all our interests to ensure that construction, as one of the corner-stones of the UK, delivering £2.84 to the economy for each £1 invested, is given every opportunity to succeed. We must all work together to make this happen. Back to work Page 10 Cranes tower over London as the economy - and construction - picks up
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P08 FUTURE OFCONSTRUCTION FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION RACONTEUR.NET 25/06/14 25/06/14 P09 EDITION #0265 EDITION #0265 /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 24/06/14 EDITION #0265 RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEURMEDIA @RACONTEUR 1 i f t Commercial Feature Evolution of construction The construction industry plays a vital role in the UK economy, responsible for some 6 per cent of total GDP and 10 per cent of employment – and it is undergoing a radical transformation The traditional view of construction is seriously out of date as the intro-duction of new processes, new tech-nologies and new ways of working is turning the industry on its head. “We’re rapidly moving away from the traditional model to one driven by digi-tal engineering, offsite manufacturing and component assembly,” accord-ing to Andy Thomson, Laing O’Rourke project director at the Alder Hey in the Park project in Liverpool. No longer is construction about dirty, dangerous sites with hundreds of people clambering around sky-high scaffolds. Today it’s about harnessing technology to plan a full development virtually, testing every scenario that may affect construction and opera-tion, and building with components manufactured offsite, to ensure qual-ity and minimise disruption. Laing O’Rourke call this Design for Manu-facture and Assembly or DfMA. There are a number of key elements to the process, but the most funda-mental are the use of digital engineer-ing and modular construction. Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust’s new 270-bed children’s hospital is a prime example of the difference this can make, both in terms of the con-struction programme and ensuring that the client’s – in this case patients’ – needs are fully met. Mr Thomson says that one of the major drivers of the new approach to construction is “ensuring a compo-nent assembly methodology is con-sidered within the design right from the outset” as this can transform the ability to deploy resources rapidly. What Laing O’Rourke’s process ensures is the smooth running of a project from start to finish. The rela-tionship with the client from the ear-liest stages ensures that delivery is achieved as a partnership between client and the engineering group, no matter what sector. David Houghton, NHS health park project manager at Alder Hey, says: “The architect took ideas from the children and created a design that had the necessary modern hospital requirements, but also incorporated the children’s needs.” The benefit of the virtual engineering model, he says, “is we can look at a wireframe model in 3D, and have graphics and visuals of how the design makes people feel in the space”. The process allows scenario testing of anything that might impact a pro-ject, from accessibility, maintenance access, new energy-management models and even water use. This can make a critical difference in the devel-opment of anything from a commer-cial building to an energy plant, from transport to wider infrastructure. The use of such virtual engineering can ensure that any and every project can benefit from stress testing the design before the ground is struck. “It ensures that the structural, en-gineering and architectural elements are integrated into a virtual prototype, allowing the whole scheme to be fully visualised and co-ordinated on screen before commencement on site. It also enables a seamless information trans-fer to our offsite manufacturing facili-ties,” says Mr Thomson. The second element that is trans-formational is the use of modular construction. It limits disruption to the environment, delivering components as and when needed, without the need for space for materials. Not only does this minimise disruption, but it also has strong sustainability benefits, from few-er vehicle movements to less waste. faster delivery with Laing O’Rourke’s new approach With up to 70 per cent of a building coming in as components, it allows a move towards just-in-time manufac-turing and delivery, therefore stream-lining the construction process; effec-tively it transforms that process into a logistics exercise. Composite rooms or pods can be built for specific purposes, such as bathrooms, and simply lifted into place. With the flooring, electrics, fittings and plumbing pre-installed offsite, a crane can lift the pod into position where it can be placed in line with the schedule. Built in Laing O’Ro-urke’s own factories, there is certainty about the quality and how it integrates into the rest of the build. Modular construction is even more important in the heart of the city, through eliminating the need for onsite storage. Effective delivery of a major commercial development at The Leadenhall Building in London meant offsite manufacturing was essential. With the development being deployed in the heart of the City of London, it was imperative not to impact commer-cial flow in the area. Through the deployment of mod-ular construction units, which made up 85 per cent of the Leadenhall development, disruption was min-imised and the build accelerated. Mr Thomson says: “Nowadays the expertise demanded in construc-tion has changed dramatically, with logistics and craneage utilisation of paramount importance for example, ensuring manufactured components are installed into a building within a rigorous production sequence.” This new approach to construction could have a vital role to play in the UK’s future construction plans. There is recognition that a growing economy must invest in infrastructure and in-deed the government’s Infrastructure UK will oversee a 2015-16 spend of more than £50 billion. At the same time managing costs and increasing carbon and resource ef-ficiency is becoming critical. The 2013 government report Construction 2025 lays out plans to put UK construction at the forefront of the global market. It pro-poses a 33 per cent reduction in con-struction costs, a 50 per cent reduction in overall time to deployment, as well as in greenhouse gas emissions. It seems clear that lean construction approach-es, such as DfMA, are very much the way of the future for the sector. Mr Houghton is clear that Alder Hey didn’t select a partner because of the process they use, but because of the bid, design, time to delivery, costs and quality. However, he acknowledg-es that the impact of the process in other Laing O’Rourke projects had im-pressed. “We set them an impossible task and they delivered,” he says. To find out more, please visit www.laingorourke.com We knew at the outset that delivering a project of the scale and engineering complexity of The Leadenhall Building, in the heart of the City, would require the most advanced and cutting-edge construction techniques … Nigel Webb, head of developments, British Land weeks to deliver 98,000sq-m children’s hospital weeks to deploy the structure and facade Pioneering architect Duncan Baker-Brown makes the case for sustainable architecture and argues that we cannot afford to be wasteful Opinion market for new materials like every-body else and pay proper money. At the other end of this linear process is the reality that we all get penalised hugely for throwing stuff away – the cost of skips has risen about threefold over the last 18 months. So, we live in a world where raw materials are scarce, which in turn affects the cost of new stuff, much of which is wast-ed – 20 per cent on building sites – which in turn raises the cost of new buildings. If you can avoid buying raw material and throwing stuff away so much, then today you will make more money, and this will be-come more prevalent in the future as populations rise. COST The other issue is the rising cost, fi-nancial and environmental, of acquir-ing land for development. We need to recognise the stuff that currently fills our amazing cities and towns for what it is – valuable infrastructure to build upon, literally and meta-phorically. The retrofitting or design tweaking of our existing buildings, amenities, landscapes and services could, in my opinion, allow our cit-ies to develop sustainably, to support a growing population while providing green energy, low-energy buildings, water reclamation and clean air. As a society we must realise that we cannot go on demolishing our previous generations “heroic”, but perhaps failing, developments. We have to be cleverer than that and learn how to adapt without flatten-ing them and the communities they support. Our future eco-cities are already around us. It is up to the de-sign and construction industries to respond to the challenge of realising there is no such thing as waste, just stuff in the wrong place. There are enormous challenges that present themselves. The good news is that our designers and con-tractors are already working on ways to deal with issues of material and land scarcity. They have to do this now as we cannot afford the cost, financially and environmentally, of continuing with the old “slash-and-burn” mentality that still prevails in many national governments. Make do and mend? It’s where the money is to be made and it will help us live in harmony with planet Earth. Good news then. Not a new idea, but a good one. T Brighton's Waste wenty years ago last month, my practice partner Ian McKay and I completed and opened the Royal Institute of British Architect’s House of the Future, a late-20th century attempt to prove a four-bedroomed contemporary dwelling could be “a sustainable design”, which in the mid-1990s meant extremely ener-gy- efficient in use. “FutureHouse”, as we called it, employed “passive” devices such as a two-storey south-facing con-servatory and an earth plenum be-low the ground floor, to pre-cool or pre-warm air entering the building; hot water from solar thermal panels was dumped in a super-insulated basement. These devices, together with lots of insulation and exposed thermal mass, ensured that Future- House satisfied the RIBA brief for a very low-energy building. At the time it scored an implausible eleven out of ten on the National Home Energy Rating checklist. Despite all of the above, a number of informed individuals noted it was the incorporation of a home office that would have the biggest positive effect on planet Earth, as it implied that people living in FutureHouse would commute to work far less than most. Then as now, energy consump-tion at home and in the workplace was stable, while energy consumption on our roads and in our skies was in-creasing almost exponentially. So, despite our careful selection of materials, married with building fabric airtightness and passive solar technology, it was human behaviour that really made the difference, as far as reduction of energy and resource consumption were concerned. Fast forward 20 years – via my own new-build home Sparrow- House in 2004, designed to prove eco-architecture can be cost effec-tive to build as well as to run and maintain; the House that Kevin Built in 2008, for Kevin McCloud’s Grand Designs Live, the UK’s first EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) A-star-rated dwelling and first pre-fabricated house made from organic compostable material; and the just-opened Brighton Waste House, the first permanent building in the UK made from more than 85 per cent waste material – and issues relating to how to develop human settle-ments, while existing in harmony with the planet, are still largely un-answered. PRICES I believe there are a couple of main drivers that will inform current and future construction projects: the issues of resource and land scarcity or security. Whether you want to build in Pimlico, Porto or Mumbai, materials are scarce and expensive, and land prices pretty much univer-sally sky high. If we focus on the UK construc-tion industry, the clever money is investing in realising the true value in material and products that we throw away every day. Apple has just started to appreciate this. Their latest must-have-today-obsolete-to-morrow gadgets will be recycled by Apple at the end of their useful lives. This has involved a huge invest-ment in gadget reclamation infra-structure on Apple’s part because they at last realise, as many other large companies do, that they are wasting a huge amount of money and potential profit by allowing their products to be thrown away by others. So it’s not only poor com-munities around the world that are re-using and re-appropriating stuff, it’s big business. The issue is also affecting the UK construction industry. Buying block work or timber has never been more difficult. That may partly be because our building suppliers have been virtually dormant for five years and need time to start up production again. However, it is also because the cost of the raw materials required to manufacture stuff is rising rapidly. If we look back in time a couple of hundred years, you will see the wonderful Georgian and Victorian infrastructure – buildings, roads, sew-ers and so on – which we still rely on and admire, was built with materials which cost virtually nothing as we plundered our empire for natural re-sources. Today, we have to go to the DON’T SCRAP STUFF THAT STILL HAS A LIFE House is construct-ed of mainly waste materials We cannot afford the cost, financially and environmentally, of continuing with the old ‘slash-and-burn’ mentality that still prevails in many national governments
- 6. P10 FUTURE OFCONSTRUCTION FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION RACONTEUR.NET 25/06/14 25/06/14 P11 EDITION #0265 EDITION #0265 /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t Infrastructure GETTING THE UK BUILDING AGAIN UK infrastructure is in urgent need of renewal and major building projects represent an opportunity to kick-start the construction industry as it emerges from the Great Recession. Mike Scott reports Infrastructure was a ma-jor focus of the Queen’s Speech earlier this month, as the government put forward new legislation designed to encourage in-vestment in the sector. Not before time, perhaps, as a review last year by Sir John Armitt pointed out there is growing evidence the UK’s infrastructure has not been renewed or enhanced when needed. “Indeed in 2012, the World Eco-nomic Forum ranked the UK 24th for the overall quality of its infrastruc-ture,” Sir John continued. Causes for concern include: • Fears that the cost of traffic con-gestion in the UK could rise to an estimated £36 billion a year by 2025; • The threat posed to the UK’s position as an international aviation hub by a lack of investment in run-way capacity in South-East England; • That a fifth of the UK’s electricity generating capacity is due to come offline within ten years; • And the fragility of the UK’s water supply, demonstrated by the droughts of 2011 and 2012. Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledges the problems and has highlighted the importance of the in-frastructure sector to the UK’s econ-omy and future prosperity. In a 2012 speech to the Institu-tion for Civil Engineers, Mr Camer-on conceded: “The truth is we are falling behind; we are falling behind our competitors and we are falling behind the great world-beating, pi-oneering tradition set by those who came before us. “There is now an urgent need to repair the decades-long degradation of our national infrastructure and to build for the future with as much confidence and ambition as the Vic-torians once did.” Yet little action followed those stirring words because of the need to tackle the UK debt crisis. However, there are now signs that the sector is picking up after a period of retrench-ment, which came about as a result of the most serious financial crisis since the Second World War. “We are at a moment when there is a need for renewal. UK infrastruc-ture is still in recovery mode, but it is showing greater signs of life month by month,” says Steve Morriss, chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at engineering con-sultancy Aecom. “There is some pretty exciting stuff going on.” The extent to which the Prime Minister’s words have been translat-ed into action will be revealed in the State of the Nation: Infrastructure 2014 report due to be launched tomorrow by the Institution of Civil Engineers, which will assess the government’s progress on infrastructure develop-ment since 2010 and grade each in-frastructure network from A to E. In its last report in 2010, energy and local transport were graded D “at risk”, so those sectors will be un-der the spotlight this time around. There will also be a focus on flood defences given the impact of the winter flooding. FUNDING According to the Department for Transport, the government’s cur-rent Infrastructure Bill, outlined in the Queen’s Speech, should help to create stable long-term funding for work on the country’s major road network, ensuring smoother, quicker and quieter journeys. The Bill should also make it easier to sell surplus and redundant public sec-tor land and property to help build more homes on brownfield sites, “Investment in infrastructure is central to the government’s long-term economic plan and that is Number of projects why we are spending almost £73 billion over the period 2015 to 2021 on transport alone,” says Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. “This Bill will hugely boost Britain’s com-petitiveness in transport, energy provision, housing development and nationally significant infrastructure projects. These powerful new meas-ures will drive investment, making it easier, quicker and simpler to get Britain building for the future.” “There is an element of catch-up,” says Professor Denise Bower, chairman of the Institution of Civil 9% Engineers and executive director of the Major Projects Association. “The rate of spend had dropped, but it is now picking up again.” Major projects under way or moot-ed include Crossrail, the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail route and Thames Tideway Tunnel. The sector is also benefitting from the success of the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the delivery of the facilities without the disruption and chaos that have dogged other major events, such as this year’s foot-ball World Cup in Brazil. 70 80 12% 88% “As a nation, the Olympics helped recreate a belief in Britain’s ability to take on these challenges and deliver a complex urban de-velopment in a relatively short pe-riod of time,” says Andrew Comer, a partner in the environment and infrastructure practice at engineer-ing consultants Buro Happold, who worked on the Olympics. “There is a more positive mood,” says Professor Bower. “We delivered the Olympics on time and on budget, and Crossrail is going well. Confi-dence is building in our ability to NORTH WEST • M60 J24-27 and 1-4, the M62 J10-12, the M56 J6-8, and the M6 J16-19 and 21a-26 managed motorway schemes • Mersey Gateway Bridge government investment and pre-qualification for a UK Guarantee • High Speed 2 rail • Northern Hub rail link upgrade programme • Manchester City deal finalised • Rebuilding 39 schools as part of the Priority School Building Programme WEST MIDLANDS SOUTH WEST deliver, but we need to attract fund-ing to keep the momentum going.” Meanwhile, the industry is confi-dent that many of the lessons being learnt on the Crossrail project, par-ticularly in relation to complex tun-nelling, will make the development of HS2 run more smoothly, when it is finally approved CERTAINTY Yet there is also a feeling in the in-dustry that the market needs more certainty and quicker decision-mak-ing from policymakers, who favour infrastructure because it has the potential to create jobs and enhance other areas of the economy. But politicians seem unable to take the difficult decisions that are needed because they have one eye on the political calendar. Part of the problem is that infra-structure is intrinsically a long-term issue, with projects taking many years to plan, finance, build, operate and then decommission. “Taking the long-term view, it is easy to see that these projects are great for the country, but in the short term they are often expensive and controversial,” says Aecom’s Mr Morriss, citing the need for more capacity at Heathrow Airport as a prime example of where more rapid decision-making is needed. In this regard, the National Infra-structure Plan, introduced by the Coalition government, has helped – to an extent. It sets out the priorities and framework for infrastructure needs in the UK. “It’s a good starting point,” says Richard Laudy, head of infrastructure at Pinsent Masons, a law firm specialising in the sector. “But a number of commentators feel that it is very much a wish list that does not really tackle some of the big issues around need and funding.” The infrastructure plan is “only a list of the key projects likely to be delivered over the next four to six years”, agrees Mr Comer. “No one has really grasped the nettle and started to think more strategically about what the country needs in the long term.” Like the Armitt review, Mr Laudy suggests setting up an independent body, along the lines of Australia’s YORKSHIRE AND HUMBER • A63 Castle Street access improvements to the Port of Hull to relieve congestion and improve safety • A160/180 Immingham dualing scheme • Trans-Pennine rail electrification • Additional rail capacity in Sheffield and Leeds • Electric spine rail enhancement programme • A1 Leeming to Barton conversion of dual carriageway to three lanes • York super-connected city • UK Guarantee issued for Drax biomass conversion • Rebuilding 36 schools EAST MIDLANDS • A38 Derby junction improvements • M1 J24-25 managed motorway scheme at Long Eaton • M1 J28-31 accelerated delivery pilot • Electric spine rail enhancement programme • MIRA Technology Park – Automotive Re-search Centre* • Derby super-connected city • Rebuilding 28 schools EAST OF ENGLAND National Infrastructure Commission, which is addressing tough questions around priorities in a country that has a major infrastructure deficit like the UK. “But they have taken the whole debate away from politicians and have independent people mak-ing the decisions,” he says. Professor Bower concludes with a note of caution: “I am not sure the answer is just to build more things. Smarter asset management is abso-lutely crucial. It is about thinking more intelligently about what we want and how to get there.” Confidence is building in our ability to deliver, but we need to attract funding to keep the momentum going OVERVIEW OF UK INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS LONDON SOUTH EAST • A19 Testos flyover construction • A19/A1058 coast road near Newcastle to improve access to Port of Tyne and major employment sites • A1 upgrade works at Lobley Hill • High Speed 2 • Increased rail capacity on East Coast Main-line and Newcastle line • New InterCity Express rolling stock • Rebuilding 31 schools • M4 J3-12 London to Reading managed motorway scheme • M23 J8-10 managed motorway scheme near Gatwick • Managed motorway schemes on the M20 J3-5 • Maidstone, M27 J4-11 and the M3 J9-14 near Southampton • A21 upgrade Tonbridge to Pembury • A27 Chichester Bypass improvements • M20 J10a • A2 Ebbsfleet Junction • A2 Bean • Lower Thames Crossing • East-West rail project from Oxford to Bedford, via Milton Keynes and Aylesbury • Upgrade Harwell Science and Innovation Campus* • Rebuilding 27 school • Crossrail 2 examining funding and financing options • Upgrades to Piccadilly and Bakerloo tube lines • Gospel Oak and Barking electrification • High Speed 2 • Thameslink upgrade • Improvements to London Waterloo Station • Increased capacity across London, including at London Bridge, Victoria and St Pancras stations • Rebuilding 46 schools • Managed motorway schemes on M5 J4a-6 south of Birmingham, M1 J13-19 Rugby, M6 J2-4 and J13-15 • M54/M6 link road Wolverhampton • High Speed 2 • Rebuilding 22 schools • Electrification of Great Western Mainline • Capacity upgrade to Bristol Temple Meads Station • New Heathrow link from the Great Western Mainline • Hinkley C Nuclear Power Station pre-quali-fication for a UK Guarantee • Rebuilding 17 schools • A14 Huntingdon to Cambridge • A5-M1 new link road • M25 J30 improvement works • Lower Thames Crossing • Upgrade Barbraham Research Institute • Alconbury Enterprise Campus* • Cambridge super-connected city • Rebuilding 15 schools NORTH EAST FUNDING MIX FOR EACH INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR (£BN) % Paid Taxpayer Consumer Both OVERALL £377.1 TRANSPORT £121.4 ENERGY £218.8 COMMUNICATIONS £14.3 FLOOD £3.9 INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL £0.8 WASTE £2.3 WATER £15.1 NUMBER AND VALUE OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES MAPPING INFRASTRUCTURE £bn East Midlands 10 20 5 30 40 10 50 60 15 20 East of England North East North West South East South West West Midlands Yorkshire & Humber 31 65 45 67 27 34 45 35 Number of projects Capital value £bn Source: HM Treasury, Major Infrastructure Tracking Unit, 2013 Source: HM Treasury, Major Infrastructure Tracking Unit, 2013 16% 18% 66% 5% 95% 88%% 46% 46% 10% 90% 32% 68% 80% 11% 100% Source: HM Treasury, Investing in Britain’s Future, 2013
- 7. P12 FUTURE OFCONSTRUCTION FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION RACONTEUR.NET 25/06/14 25/06/14 P13 EDITION #0265 EDITION #0265 /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t DO BIM: The clock is ticking – time to act is now Adoption of efficient building information modelling using shared data will bring UK construction into the 21st century, says 4Projects by Viewpoint Deadlines make things happen. On May 31, 2011, the UK Government Construction Strategy signalled the intention to mandate collaborative 3D building information modelling (BIM) as a minimum requirement by 2016. Essentially, the clock had started ticking for level 2 (L2) BIM compliance on all public, centrally procured projects. Minister for the Cabinet Office Fran-cis Maude heralded the introduction of specific targets for BIM as a new dawn in the development of a modern, compet-itive industry. According to Mr Maude: “This Government’s four-year strategy for BIM implementation will change the dynamics and behaviours of the construction supply chain, unlocking new, more efficient ways of working. This whole sector adoption of BIM will put us in the vanguard of a new digital construction era and position the UK to become world leaders in BIM.” If we fast-forward to 2014, roughly half-way towards the effective action date, has the reality on the ground matched the rhetoric? The numbers are positive. The lat-est NBS National BIM Report found awareness of BIM has become almost universal throughout construction, ris-ing from 58 per cent in 2010 to 95 per cent in 2013. In terms of application on site, figures from marketers Competitive Advantage for 2013 show BIM be-ing used for 3.9 per cent of all UK construction projects, representing some £3.8 billion in value. Come 2016, its penetration is forecast to rise to 50.8 per cent of total work, worth £55.1 billion. Furthermore, an architecture, engi-neering and construction (AEC) supply chain survey, undertaken by BIM soft-ware solutions 4Projects by Viewpoint in February, found 75 per cent of re-spondents believe the UK government was right to mandate L2, along with associated industry foundation class-es (IFC) and construction operations building information exchange (COBie). However, only 2 per cent of that same AEC sample believe they are ac-tually L2 compliant and, to put matters into perspective, 65 per cent still only use e-mail as their primary informa-tion- sharing mechanism. It seems clear that, while under-standing the direction of travel might be one thing, determining the busi-ness case for how and when to jump aboard the BIM train is quite another. The industry still has ground to make up, as Rebecca Hodgson-Jones, head of BIM at Sir Robert McAlpine, and steering lead for the BIM 2050 Group, acknowledges: “The government task group have set solid foundations which will enable the industry to deliver im-proved outcomes and, although we still have a long way to go, with many challenges ahead, BIM is here to stay and momentum is rapidly building.” In her analysis, BIM opens the door to the kind of industry-wide progress the built environment sector has been seeking for some time. “BIM provides a golden opportunity to drive efficien-cies and deliver safer, more sustaina-ble solutions,” she says. “Numerous industry leaders have commented on the need for the construction industry to become technology-enabled and we now have the perfect storm. Capa-bility in the market is evolving and the gap between aspiration and capacity is closing.” Collaboration is key, she concludes: “Successfully implementing BIM re-quires co-operation from the complete team. It is essential those engaged at the outset are on board.” With construction rethinking how it does business, this technology-driven cultural shift must be directly manifest in appropriate contractual terms. The existing legal landscape, how-ever, is not an ideal place to start such a journey, as Chris Hallam, partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, explains: “Collaboration is not a new concept for the industry. For over a generation, the government and in-dustry stakeholders have striven to create a Utopia of a more collabora-tive construction industry. Alun Baker, managing director, EMEA BIM provides a golden opportunity to drive efficiencies and deliver safer, more sustainable solutions The answer, according to Mr Spark, is software-as-a-service (SaaS). “This is the beauty of SaaS – it offers the flexibility of having all the function-ality of a comprehensive BIM eco system, but simply in a browser,” he says. “With the BIM boom imminent, the priority is getting firms over the decision-making hurdle and into the game in time to make the most of the opportunities emerging. SaaS takes away the ‘fear factor’ and puts all your players on the pitch.” In the current market, with recov-ery only recently the word on con-struction lips, clients, designers, contractors and suppliers alike are all under pressure, both to ena-ble innovation on live projects as a matter of urgency and future-proof investment at the same time. The combination of inclu-sive interoperability through CDE, plus speed of deploy-ment, affordability and flexibility via SaaS, help create optimum condi-tions for return on investment (ROI). A recent Smart- Market report for McGraw Hill Con-struction found 75 per cent of BIM users reported ROI benefits. Market confidence is building and a sense of urgency growing. Latest figures from the Royal Insti-tution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) show 72 per cent surveyed now believe it is crucial to invest in BIM within the next 12 months. Engagement is everywhere and the benefits of BIM are all dependent on who you are and what you do within the construction lifecycle, concludes Alun Baker, managing director EMEA, 4Projects by Viewpoint. “Clients are concerned with whole life cost, from concept to operation, and efficiencies that can be made to bring this down,” says Mr Baker. “Contractors want to win BIM work which could be adversely affected if they don’t adapt. Driving the efficien-cies of BIM helps them in their involve-ment in the lifecycle. “Therefore, across the board, the business imperative is clear – the time to act on BIM is now.” To find out more contact 4Projects by Viewpoint on 0845 330 9007 or e-mail info@4projects.com www.4projects.com/4BIM With the BIM boom imminent, the priority is getting firms over the decision-making hurdle and into the game in time to make the most of the opportunities emerging “The problem is that the majority of construction contracts are not very collaborative. The relationship between parties often ends up being an adver-sarial one, with each party incentivised to look after its own interests, rather than the wider interests of a project.” For the industry to get where it wants to go, things will need to change. Old ways of working will be out and, in the opinion of Mr Hallam, BIM has the potential to fulfil the transformative role and be the engine of change need-ed, pushing and pulling construction across the innovation threshold. The market is ready for new mindsets and legal models, he concludes, as evi-denced by the results of a recent survey undertaken by Pinsent Masons. “There is a feeling that BIM and associated technological advances are fostering a more connected, communicative and joined-up approach in the construction industry, particularly among the ‘lead-ers of tomorrow’,” he says. This could be a catalyst that finally drives the construction sector towards a truly collaborative way of working. If so, it is inevitable that forms of con-tract will need to change. OF RICS DELEGATES SAY IT’S CRUCIAL TO INVEST IN NEXT 12 MONTHS “This sentiment is supported in the survey,” says Mr Hallam. “Two-thirds believed that the existing forms of contract and approaches taken to contracting are not fit for purpose in a BIM-enabled world. Further, 69 per cent said that existing contracts fail to adequately address the means by which collaborative contracting can be achieved. This is evidence of an indus-try crying out for a different approach.” This appetite for change is being fuelled not just by government policy, but by opportunity for competitive ad-vantage for business differentiators, according to Steve Spark, vice presi-dent business development, EMEA, at 4Projects by Viewpoint. “For pro-ject delivery teams, benefits can in-clude improved cost efficiencies and control, time savings, risk mitigation and defect minimisation, reduced re-source consumption and waste costs, plus better workflow management,” he says. “For asset managers, on the other hand, benefits are being realised in terms of reduced cost of construc-tion, operation and maintenance, enhanced facilities management, smarter decision-making on design issues, better lifecycle management and ‘soft landings’. “For all concerned, supply-chain inte-gration and process management hold the keys to unlocking project and asset data, and to bringing home the bene-fits. Ultimately, it is all about the data.” To turn information into intelligence, project data communication needs to be in a language and format that each individual recipient can both under-stand and use in their own business environment, as well as share with other actors, no matter what their re-spective system. The universal platform that enables this degree of integrated workflow and unleashes the true collaboration po-tential of BIM, the game-changer for construction, is a common data environ-ment (CDE), as marketing pro-grammes manager at 4Projects by Viewpoint Adam Page explains. “The 4Projects CDE brings together all project information in one place. It is the central point for data. Multiple parties feed their data, such as doc-uments, drawings and plans, into the CDE and, even though each stakehold-er might be using different software within the BIM technology eco system, it all integrates so it can be accessed by everyone – there are no technology barriers,” he says. “Utilised across the full lifecycle, the CDE is vital for control and visibil-ity, efficiency and performance, plus delivery of the quality of information necessary for asset-phase utilisation. Who you are dictates what data you need from the CDE, with data the key driver for BIM.” Satisfying data requirements is not just a matter of what is accessed or shared, but how, when and where. Col-laborative BIM needs to be easy and cost effec-tive to rollout beyond or-ganisational barriers across a diverse supply chain. There should be no limits on users and no need for IT or procurement departments. HAVE YOU BEEN ON A PROJECT USING BIM IN THE PAST YEAR? 2014 2013 54% WHAT ISSUES DO YOU FACE WHEN IMPLEMENTING BIM? TOP BENEFITS CITED BY CONTRACTORS IN EUROPE YES NO EUROPE ALL REGIONS 14% Source: McGraw Hill Construction 2013 PROCESS BENEFITS OF BIM COLLABORATE WITH OWNERS/DESIGN FIRMS BETTER COST CONTROLS/ PREDICTABILITY PROJECT BENEFITS OF BIM REDUCE ERRORS AND OMISSIONS REDUCE OVERALL PROJECT DURATION INTERNAL BENEFITS OF BIM ENHANCING YOUR ORGANISATION’S IMAGE INCREASED PROFITS BIM 2014 2013 COST 5% 13% TRAINING 17% 15% CULTURE CHANGE 53% 23% LEGAL 1% 0% SOFTWARE 10% 13% EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION 13% 15% Source: RICS Conference Survey 2014 54% 47% 47% BIM TECHNOLOGY ECO SYSTEM Commercial Feature
- 8. FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 25/06/14 EDITION #0265 P15 RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 25/06/14 EDITION #0265 RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t Top-Five Materials Waste And Sustainability 1. 3. 5. This innovation could one day replace traditional solar panels, providing a near-transparent alternative that can be applied to glazing or other building materials. University of Oxford offshoot company Oxford Photovoltaics has developed the thin-film solar cells using the mineral crystal perovskite, a semi-transparent material, which when applied in an ultra-thin layer to sur-faces is able to generate power from the sun’s rays. The firm’s scientists are currently able to achieve a 15 per cent power conversion rate using a scaled-down version of the technology, but this is expected to rise to over 20 per The first prototype building incorporating a bioreactive facade filled with algae was opened in Hamburg last year. Designed by Austria’s Splitterwerk Architects and structural engineer Arup, the four-storey residential block incorporates 64 “double-glazed” panels filled with a mixture of water and unicellular algae, which grow in response to direct sunlight. The algae is harvested and processed to produce methane gas that is either stored locally or used to help fuel the building. The system also provides a clever source of shading, as sunlight speeds up the rate of algae growth the glass becomes cloudy, blocking direct sunlight from entering the building. CURRENT AD WRONG SIZE Property development Page 18 SMART WALLS, 3D PRINTING AND TOOTHBRUSHES STRAIGHT TALKING ON CIRCULAR ECONOMY Innovative and sometimes offbeat building materials are revolutionising construction. Stephen Cousins has Raconteur’s top five Construction and demolition, the largest producers of waste in the UK, may only be paying lip service to green initiatives, writes Jim McClelland THIN-FILM SOLAR CELLS SMARTWALL Additive manufacturing or 3D printing found its first application on a live construction project last September. When installing a polymer ETFE roof over a garden at the 6 Bevis Marks office project in the City of London, main contractor Skanska drafted in industrial 3D printing firm Quickparts to pro-duce cladding for eight complex interfaces at the tops of steel columns sup-porting the roof. Quickparts used a selective laser sintering machine that fuses layers of powdered Nylon PA 12, to build up the complex shapes based on the architect’s original computer-aided design file. The process was faster and cheaper than alternative spliced steel-plate options. TOOTHBRUSH INSULATION BIOREACTIVE FACADES 3D-PRINTED CLADDING 2. 4. cent in the near future, more efficient than regular silicon-based solar panels. Installing partition walls in large buildings can be complex and time consum-ing. Tradesmen erect half the structure, then electrical engineers install and test their kit, and finally walls are closed up taped, joined and decorated. The SmartWall intelligent walling system, developed by contracting group Laing O’Rourke, is manufactured in a factory and delivered to site in a finished state, incorporating cables and ductwork plus external plasterboard, then simply dropped into position by crane, simultaneous with the superstructure. The system is pre-treated for weathering, and also avoids the large amount of noise, dust and waste that can be generated when cutting plasterboard. Brick walls filled with unconventional insulation materials, including more than 2,000 toothbrushes, video cassettes, floppy disks, CD cases and old denim jeans form part of an innovative Waste House currently on-site in Brighton. The two-storey building, designed by architects BBM and built by Mears Group in collaboration with the University of Brighton, is being built entirely out of unwanted waste, including carpet tiles, car-tyre rubber, and nuts and bolts and timber decking from an old promenade. It aims to demonstrate how buildings can avoid the carbon emissions associated with the manufacture and delivery of conventional products. Truth is the built-environment sector has been doing little more than paying lip service to actual engagement with the circular economy Construction is a big, hun-gry and dirty beast. In the UK it consumes more than 400 million tonnes of materi-als a year and, including demolition and excavation, produces almost 80 million tonnes of waste. Tidying up this mess is expensive. Managing and disposing of waste has been costing the industry around 1 per cent of turnover – 30 per cent or more of pre-tax profits. The sector is, however, getting cleaner. Under recessionary pressures to realise cost savings and resource efficiencies, as well as operate with-in tightening regulatory and fiscal frameworks, construction has been making steady, necessary progress against waste reduction targets over the last five years. Albeit including a short-sight-ed element of “downcycling” for the sake of tax avoidance, positive commercially motivated trends are in evidence, acknowledges Richard Buckingham, head of construction and refurbishment at WRAP, an or-ganisation which advises industry on recycling more and wasting less. “Waste management and minimi-sation, recycling and landfill reduc-tions have clear financial benefits, and have gained ground. Among major contractors, strong perfor-mance is achieved regularly; it is not unusual for landfill diversion rates over 90 per cent.”Such incremen-tal advances are beneficial in terms of edging towards more sustainable business models, but do not add up to any overarching vision of strategic and systemic change. Holding the sector back from making that imaginative leap into the brave new world of the so-called circular economy is a pervasive re-covery- era tendency towards risk aversion, according to Mr Bucking-ham, with the result that inspiration-al project success stories are, as yet, in short supply. “Examples of buildings or in-frastructure addressing design for deconstruction, solutions to enable change of use, plus low embodied carbon are rare,” he says. “Where is the iPod building to revolutionise the Walkman building?” The Amsterdam Park 20|20 of-fice- led development offers one exemplar. Given that the primary architect is William McDonough – co-creator with Michael Braungart of the cradle-to-cradle design standards – this is perhaps not surprising. The exception proves the rule. Truth is the built-environment sec-tor as a joined-up whole has been do-ing little more than paying lip service thus far to actual engagement with the concept of the circular economy. “I don’t believe the UK con-struction industry has really en-tertained the circular economy as a serious proposition,” says architect Nitesh Magdani, director of sustainability at BAM Construct UK. “The government needs to de-fine the business case for UK plc, understand potential benefits and put some form of regulation in place, as they have done with the low-carbon agenda.” Individual pieces of the jigsaw are in place though, argues Martin Clarke, director of the World Con-crete Forum: “UK concrete gets it – recycling, reuse, zero harm, more from less are all mantras, we set tar-gets, measure and report.” However, the global problem is getting bigger, not smaller, he coun-sels, with a cultural shift needed to get us off the current death-by-growth trajectory. “Concentration on change in Western Europe only, in our sector, will not change much. China and In-dia must be put at the centre of our attention – they have one shot to get it right,” he says. “Getting away from volume-re-lated measurement of sales would help. We must strive for more from less right around the cycle of cra-dle- to-cradle. Globally, we shift an incredible 60 billion tonnes of raw materials and finished products, a volume that is growing rapidly. Get-ting the same job done on any given project with more profit but less vol-ume is the key to circularity.” A compelling commercial case for building buyers and users is the cli-ent- side catalyst for such a tectonic shift, according to Graham Hilton, director of the Alliance for Sus-tainable Building Products (ASBP). “Recognising cost and resource benefits of extending building life through adaptation and re-use of components is the best way to drive positive change, but requires a new commercial approach which looks at whole-life costs not just up-front build costs,” he says.In terms of the immediate game plan, he suggests the biggest prize is to be found in the public sector, where infrastructure decisions are high risk, requiring long-term financial commitments, in danger of creating “stranded assets”. “These assets become liabilities, requiring expensive adaptation or demolition to reclaim land, after relatively modest changes in circum-stance or use. Flexible techniques for deconstruction and re-use would extend building life and open cheaper and lower-risk financing,” says Mr Hilton. DECONSTRUCTION The ASBP is pioneering a circu-lar- economy initiative called RE-Fab, conceived to create a framework for development of flexible-life build-ings, underpinned by a series of de-sign, build and operation principles that will facilitate design for decon-struction and re-use. Looking down the track towards a sustainable future for construction, Mr Hilton imagines an industry very different from the one on view today. “In our RE-Fab world, in 2050, design for adaptation deconstruction and re-use would characterise mainstream construction, with a massive reduc-tion in abandonment and demolition of unsuitable building stock,” he says. “Buildings would consist of du-rable, re-usable components, with use and re-use part of a widespread ‘accounting’ system, based on BIM [building information modelling], and demonstrating the cost and en-vironmental benefits. “A building’s records would show its impact in build, use, refurbish-ment and at end-of-life, forming part of the ongoing value chain in all its forms.” For Mr Buckingham, any such vi-sion of the industry of tomorrow has to be founded on the twin premises that all new buildings are carbon pos-itive and all refurbishments result in carbon neutrality, so yoking together the energy and waste agendas, and placing carbon centre-circle. Construction in the age of the cir-cular economy would bring potential benefits across the board, in the eyes of Mr Magdani, who lists the win-ners, in order of impact, as clients, manufacturers, enlightened develop-ers, demolition contractors (the new brokers), designers and contractors. He concludes: “Without exploring benefits and impacts to the whole value chain, we will probably be slow to see change in our complex industry.” For construction, closing the loop is a team game. “There are very few ‘experts’ in the field of cir-cular economy at present, but for us to embrace opportunities to increase skills and employment, we need to work together.” The Floating Pavilion at Rotterdam, Netherlands is an experiment in sustainable architecture and climate-proof development
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P16 FUTURE OFCONSTRUCTION FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION RACONTEUR.NET 25/06/14 25/06/14 P17 EDITION #0265 EDITION #0265 /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t Opinion Best-selling author on architecture Phyllis Richardson calls for better design of small homes to house a growing population with dignity It’s not building less that gives us more, but building better FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION 24/06/14 EDITION #0265 RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEURMEDIA @RACONTEUR 1 i f t P06 Commercial Feature Shift from output to outcomes Although there’s a huge amount of infrastructure investment taking place, the future of construction will not be wholly about building, but about delivering better service to customers – us Functioning, efficient infrastruc-ture is fundamental to the success of economies and societies, yet resource constraints, population growth, climate change and limited investment threaten infrastructure in ways never experienced before. The challenge to the UK infrastruc-ture industry is to deliver ever-better service despite the constraints. The future of construction will be in help-ing the infrastructure industry to meet these challenges, but it needs to be transformed to achieve this. A paradigm shift is afoot in the infra-structure industry as its focus moves from building assets to providing bet-ter customer service. For an emerging economy’s infra-structure, the primary aim is to build new assets and to get them into use fast – construction is all about output. But in the UK today, our built envi-ronment is characterised by highly de-veloped, existing infrastructure. For ex-ample, the total value of existing water infrastructure in England and Wales is £350 billion, while the value of new wa-ter sector construction is £1.8 billion a year. It’s a similar picture across the road, rail, electricity and gas sectors. It is the high level of development of this established infrastructure that is pivotal to the change under way: asset owners and operators are increasingly focusing on the service they provide to their ultimate customers – the payers of fares, bills and taxes, who use the infrastructure: us. And for the construction industry, this has profound implications. In-stead of focusing on output, construc-tion needs to focus on outcomes for the ultimate customer. “We’re looking at a future for the construction industry that is about more than just construction; it’s about customer outcomes, value and efficiency,” says Mark Enzer, practice manager for water at global engineer-ing consultants Mott MacDonald. Customers want better service, lower bills and less disruption. The fare-payer cares about getting a seat, not about how the capacity on their train line is going to be increased. Therefore, the construction indus-try can improve outcomes for the customer in a variety of ways, not only by building new assets, but also by in-creasing the capacity, efficiency and resilience of existing ones. This can be achieved by managing demand, exploiting technology and improving delivery to increase efficiency, capaci-ty and resilience. With a focus on outcomes, con-struction will not always be the right answer. And if the right answer in-volves less construction, the industry should in future be rewarded for the value they add for the customers, not just for the assets they build. A range of emerging new practices are enabling the construction industry to respond to the changing infrastruc-ture landscape. TRANSFORMATION IN DELIVERY The use of building information mod-elling (BIM) is already beginning to trans-form construction. BIM facilitates both design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) and offsite manufacture, offer-ing manufacturing-style efficiencies and making construction a matter of logis-tics and assembly. DfMA enables new assets or asset enhancements to be slotted into place in a fraction of the time required for traditional building. Benefits for customers come in the form of less disruption and lower bills. outcomes can enable very substantial efficiencies throughout the process of delivery. Many potentially transforma-tive solutions are produced by suppliers and manufacturers, tiers of the supply chain that historically have had a weak voice. Integration helps them to realise their innovative potential and get val-ue- adding ideas to the customer. TRANSFORMATION IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT The unstoppable rise of information is one of the major trends that offers more opportunity than threat for the infrastructure industry. BIM is funda-mentally about information, and it is proving revolutionary in enabling col-laboration and integration. But it is only the tip of an information manage-ment iceberg. BIM can provide continuity of in-formation throughout the delivery process, from design to construc-tion. But there is even more value in managing information throughout the asset’s whole lifecycle, combin-ing data about its physical properties, condition and performance. “Smart infrastructure”, fitted with instruments providing real-time feed-back and control is now being created. And, as information technology begins to master big data management, an “internet of infrastructure” is emerg-ing, offering the potential for even more customer-centred solutions that are not predicated on construction. “Asset owners must provide leadership to shift the construction industry’s focus from output to out-comes. They understand the needs and expectations of their customers and can structure investment, pro-curement and reward to drive the industry to meet them,” says Richard Shennan, practice manager for build-ings at Mott MacDonald. A number of leading infrastructure industry organisations are already showing the way, creating the environ-ment and imperative for change. Transformation is in the air and, as the construction sector responds we, the customers, will benefit. To find out more: www.mottmac.com e-mail: mark.enzer@mottmac.com Instead of focusing on output, construction needs to focus on outcomes for the ultimate customer Mark Enzer, practice manager, Mott MacDonald BIM also facilitates product-based delivery in which standard components and assemblies are developed once, but used many times across a whole programme of work. This creates the potential to develop designs by picking from a BIM “product catalogue”. Both approaches are closely al-lied to carbon and cost-savings. The government’s Infrastructure Carbon Review, published in November 2013, showed that reducing carbon reduces cost in the construction and operation of infrastructure assets. Simply, car-bon is a measure of resource and en-ergy efficiency. Companies that have set out to reduce carbon have driven innovation yielding better solutions and commercial savings. TRANSFORMATION IN INTEGRATION The construction industry is made up of numerous tiers, collectively termed the supply chain. Historically, this supply chain has been fractured, but there is great value in integrating it, particularly for long-term programmes of work. Alliances based on aligning business objectives with customer Above: The UK’s Anglian Water has pioneered use of BIM and product-based delivery to enhance its infrastructure network with minimum disruption and cost to customers; installation of this water treatment unit cost 20 per cent less, was 90 per cent faster and involved 40 per cent fewer carbon emissions than a conventional construction solution FOR BETTER HOUSING BIGGER IDEAS The housing debate is a lot about numbers. In fact, a recent forum discussion as part of the London Festival of Architecture was titled Housing Lon-doners: Is it Just a Numbers Game? And there are some big numbers to contend with. It is estimated that by 2050, 70 per cent of the world’s pop-ulation will be living in cities. There will be ten million people living in London by 2031, 78 million in the UK by 2050. Statistics may vary, but there is general agreement the overall urban population will continue to grow, and that there will be a greater need for cities to provide housing and amenities for those people. London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced in his 2020 Vision that the capital will need to add 400,000 new homes in the next decade, a million by the mid-2030s. As the think-tank New London Architecture has discovered, there are more than 200 towers approved or in planning for the UK capital. The answer to the increased urban population, according to most peo-ple who would preserve green-belt land, is density. But density alone is not a solution and vertical living is not the only way to achieve density. Even if we did all agree to be housed in tower blocks, what should they look like? This isn’t a polemic about the proliferation of high-rise buildings in London, but an argument for re-thinking space. As the author of several books on small buildings, I feel it’s more important now than ever to appreciate the kind of inno-vation and ingenuity that goes on at the small scale, in order to help us address issues such as housing. In London most of us do not suffer housing “obesity”, as in the United States, where the average house size continues to rise, and I am not advo-cating small size for its own sake, but to focus on better design. In my local area, a particular land-lord has been in the news for build-ing flats under the pavement and one consisting of “a bed in a kitch-en”. These are all very compact and they are also degrading to live in. CARBUNCLE Down the road from me, a student accommodation scheme earned the uncoveted Carbuncle Award for the worst new building in the country. Its designers didn’t think that stu-dents would need much natural light and so included windows that looked on to a blank wall. These are just a few examples of small, suffocating rooms that most people think of when they hear words like “density”, and which point up the difference between building small and designing well. But here I want to say that I have seen, quite literally, the light. In numerous award-winning schemes for individual small houses and new social housing projects, architects are finding ways to create small-er- size living environments that are enhanced by natural light and hu-mane proportions. In the Netherlands, a mixed-use development in Borneo Sporenburg was one of the first to integrate sub-sidised and market-value properties – “mixed tenure”, as they’re called – with houses of a modest size, but quality several notches above mini-mum requirements. Natural light and good propor-tions are key, as they are in a new block of flats, commissioned by the Peabody Trust and designed by ar-chitects Pitman Tozer, which faces on to a railway line in Bethnal Green. It’s certainly not the most salubrious site and a real challenge to develop successfully. But even the 54 square metres of a one-bedroom flat feel much more expansive and liveable than in any other local-authority de-velopments I have ever visited. In other projects too numerous to name, I have seen architects use light and materials to make entire houses of 75sq m feel like glamorous retreats. Anyone who is sceptical of this claim need only have a look at the entries for Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 or last year’s event in the US, which was won by the team from Austria who created a house that would put most developer-built models of twice the size to shame. Building small is also more ener-gy- efficient. Like its competitors, Team Austria’s LISI (Living Inspired by Sustainable Innovation) generates more energy than it uses. SPECIFICATION Of course, some of the success of the small housing I’m citing is down to a high-design specification, but in a lot of cases it’s just down to high-quality design, thoughtful use of limited resources, including phys-ical space. As the Belgian architect Edith Wouters once put it, it’s about build-ing houses that “are healthy to live in and full of delight”. I’ve seen a house made of shipping containers that has been so cleverly cut through with windows and ventilation that it looks and feels like a luxury hotel suite, rather than a £30,000 self-build in Costa Rica. You only have to look at some of the great projects being devel-oped for emergency shelters, such as Shigeru Ban’s famous card-board- tube structures – his first church lasted beyond its ten-year prediction and is still in use, several years later after having been moved to a new site – to see that using mod-ern technology and some spatial and material creativity, we can do a lot with a little. Many architects, such as Richard Horden, who created the 2.65-m cube, super-flexible energy-efficient Micro-Compact Home, have drawn on marine and aeronautic design to derive inspiration for ways to achieve comfort in small spaces. I don’t think anyone would call his home “a bed in a kitchen”, though its design in-cludes those elements and a whole lot more besides. So when people ask me, as they often do, whether I agree with the concept that “less is more”, I say it’s not building less that gives us more, but building better. This is what the best designers working with small spaces tend to do. Even if we are driven by numbers, having to work with a little less space is no excuse for poor design.
- 10. P18 FUTURE OFCONSTRUCTION FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION RACONTEUR.NET 25/06/14 25/06/14 P19 EDITION #0265 EDITION #0265 /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t RACONTEUR.NET /COMPANY/RACONTEUR-MEDIA /RACONTEUR.NET @RACONTEUR 1 i f t Property Development NEW WAVE WATERLOO WHERE IT’S HOT TO BUILD IN THE CAPITAL Fortunately for London’s rebounding economy, the capital has no shortage of what the property industry calls “oven-ready” sites. Here’s a selection of future hotspots BUILDING LONDON’S James Roberts, head of commercial research at property consultants Knight Frank, overviews central London’s next generation of development Central London’s com-mercial property market is being shaped by two realities. The capital’s economy is rebounding, but recent years have seen the volume of new develop-ment fail to keep pace with demand for office space. While on the face of it the London skyline is littered with cranes, more than 40 per cent of office space cur-rently being built is already let to ten-ants ahead of completion. If we look at buildings completing this year the figure is close to 50 per cent let. Presently there is 4.5 million square feet of office space under construction on a speculative basis, without a tenant yet secured. How-ever, the last year has seen firms in central London take 5.5 million sq ft of new-build office space, partly by raiding the pipeline and acquiring space under construction, so clearly there is a mismatch between supply and demand. The situation is of particular con-cern given that demand for offices is growing. A new wave of technology and creative firms has been expand-ing in the capital, forming the largest source of demand for the last three years. Tech giants Google and Ama-zon have both acquired new London headquarters and then decided they needed to acquire additional space on top. Also, after years in the doldrums, the financial sector is again taking office space, with major deals in the City by fund managers Schrod- ers and M&G, and Dutch bank ING. With financial demand re-emerging, other City industries drawing work from the finance industry, such as law and accounting, have been more active in the office market. Consequently, London is faced by a new wave of demand from the technology sector, just as its tradi-tional financial and business services industries are starting to re-enter the office market. Supply is consequent-ly under pressure. Vacant office space currently equates to 7 per cent of built stock, down from 11 per cent five years ago. Given these supply and demand pressures, property developers are readying the next wave of projects. Former industrial districts can provide developers with a blank canvas on which to build in scale. Another option is redeveloping older office buildings which are approach-ing technical obsolescence. There was a building spike in the late-1980s and early-1990s, and many of the buildings from this era are ripe for redevelopment. Demand up to now has been strongest in trendy districts, such as Shoreditch and Fitzrovia, which are popular with technology and media firms. However, increasing financial demand will encourage developers to look again at the traditional core districts, such as the area around the Bank of England and Mayfair, which is popular with hedge funds and pri-vate equity firms. Recently approved by the Secretary of State, the 1950s Shell Centre is set to be redeveloped as One and Two Southbank Place, with 550,000 sq ft of office space, 764 homes and 80,000 sq ft of retail space. A rede-velopment of the nearby Elizabeth House site will deliver 740,000 sq ft of office space and 142 homes adjacent to Waterloo mainline rail-way station. NINE ELMS AND BATTERSEA The Battersea Power Station site is to see the development of 3,500 new homes, 1.6m sq ft of offices, plus re-tail and leisure, on the 42-acre site. Work on the extension of the North-ern Line to Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station is expected to begin next year. Also the United States and Netherlands embassies are plan-ning to relocate to new buildings in Nine Elms. VICTORIA Demolition and redevelopment of older stock on and around Victoria Street is resulting in a transforma-tion of this area. Next year will see the completion of the Zig Zag Build-ing on Victoria Street, delivering 188,000 sq ft of offices and 37,000 sq ft of retail. Near the railway station, the first phase of the Nova scheme, comprising 480,000 sq ft of offices, 80,000 sq ft of retail and 170 luxury apartments, is under construction, with another 125,000 sq ft of offices and retail to follow. NORTHERN CITY The White Collar Factory on City Road is to be an urban campus in London’s Tech City, consisting of five buildings set around a courtyard. The project comprises 215,000 sq ft of offices and 11,000 sq ft of retail. The urban campus concept is to be explored further with the proposed regeneration of the historic Smith-field Market. The master plan for the Smithfield Quarter is for 340,000 sq ft of offices in three buildings above retail and leisure. Vacant since a fire in 1964, The Goodsyard site off Shoreditch High Street could accom-modate up to 2,000 homes, between 300-600,000 sq ft of offices, as well as shops and leisure facilities, and 1.8 hectares of public areas. CITY CORE 100 Bishopsgate is a scheme com-prising a five-storey podium suited to trading floors and a 40-storey signature tower. It is set among the City’s skyscraper cluster, between 30 St Mary Axe (aka The Gherkin) and the Salesforce Tower, joining other iconic towers such as 20 Fenchurch Street and 122 Leadenhall Street. In the next few years, several of the 1980s phase-one buildings in the Broadgate estate will see lease expi-ries, freeing them up for redevelop-ment. This will provide an exciting new phase for the world-famous City estate. MIDTOWN Formerly known as the Internation-al Press Centre, 1 New Street Square will consist of 243,000 sq ft of offices over 16 floors and 5,000 sq ft of re-tail. Midtown’s future mega-project will be the development of the new Goldman Sachs headquarters. This will be a one million sq ft building at Plumtree Court and Fleet Build-ings, and is expected to complete around 2017. MAYFAIR AND ST JAMES’S Individual sites tend to be relatively small in this district, but as build-ings here command the highest rents in the Western world, the de-velopments are very exclusive. Up-and- coming schemes include 1 New Burlington Place with 80,000 sq ft of offices, 8 St James’s Square at 65,500 sq ft, and 1 and 2 St James’s Market at 214,000 sq ft. Just to the north of Mayfair is the new Marble Arch Tower scheme which will con-sist of 57 luxury homes and 84,000 sq ft of offices. BLACKFRIARS ROAD Near the Tate Modern gallery, a pro-posed new scheme at Ludgate and Sampson houses, to be called The Bankside Quarter, will include 1.5 million sq ft of offices, 489 homes and retail space. The nearby 20 Blackfriars Road site has a proposed 42-storey residential skyscraper scheme and a neighbouring 23-floor office building. PADDINGTON There are plans to further expand the Paddington Central estate with 4 and 5 Kingdom Street, which will to-tal 350,000 sq ft of office space. The 55 North Wharf Road office scheme will add another 260,000 sq ft of of-fice to stock. The final phase of the Merchant Square scheme will deliv-er a further 167,000 sq ft of office space, while as a result of Crossrail, the Triangle site on Bishop’s Bridge Road could see 200,000 sq ft of of-fices developed. WOOD WHARF To the east of the established Ca-nary Wharf estate, Wood Wharf will consist of 2.6 million sq ft of office space, 340,000 sq ft of shops and more than 3,000 homes set around a water park. The Zig Zag Building, Victoria Battersea Power Station site Goodsyard, Shoreditch 10 Bishopsgate 1 New Street Square Nova, Victoria Bankside Quarter 1 and 2 Southbank Place, Waterloo Merchant Square DBOX for the Carlyle Group and PLP Architecture