Rave reviews for a summer of culture
A number of key projects are opening their doors this summer, marking a small cultural renaissance for 2011 and providing a showcase for the construction industry at its best, writes Jan-Carlos Kucharek.
The summer solstice seems a good day for a usually grey Glasgow to be opening its much-anticipated Transport Museum, Stirling Prize winner Zaha Hadid’s first major UK public commission. Sitting on a dedicated 22,400m2 site on the banks of the Clyde and Kelvin, the new £74m museum, clad in more than 24,000 zinc panels, replaces the former much-loved but cramped city centre museum.
Hadid’s cathedral-like form and 7,800m2 of exhibition space will be displaying more than 3,000 exhibits, including buses, trams and steam locomotives.
For contractor BAM, the main challenge was dealing with a firm that they knew had big ideas. “It didn’t take long before we realised that there was going to be no compromise on the project. Glasgow City Council were 100% behind Hadid’s idea and it’s the most high-profile project the city has seen in years,” recalls Jim Ward, BAM construction manager on the scheme.
“Everything centred around the design of the steel superstructure, and though complex, we managed to deliver it for £10m,” he added. The project was procured under a traditional JCT contract with contractor-designed portion under a two-stage tender process, with nearly half the value of the project being procured this way.
Zaha Hadid’s zinc-clad Glasgow Transport Museum opens its doors to the public on 21 June
Further south, another Stirling Prize winner, David Chipperfield, has been similarly ambitious. The Hepworth Wakefield opened last month and is the largest gallery to open in the UK since the Hayward, on London’s South Bank, opened in 1968. The £35m, 5,000m2 gallery holds more than 40 works by 20th century British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, who was born in Wakefield.
Built from dark-cast monolithic concrete, it sits on a bend in the Calder River that posed a challenge for contractor Laing O’Rourke, not least because of the flood defences it had to build into its lower levels.
The gallery is the centrepiece of the wider £100m regeneration of Wakefield’s warehouse area, funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the HCA and Yorkshire Forward.
Adam Khan’s £10m Brockholes Visitor Centre near Preston for the Lancashire Wildlife Trust also opened to the public last month. A series of connected tiled pavilions built by main contractor Mansell, it involved the construction of a floating concrete pontoon by sub-contractor Balfour Beatty.
Practical completion was due at the end of 2010, but project manager for the civil works, Allan Porter, said: “We were hit by bad weather, which caused us problems at the outset.” He added: “I think the building’s excellent, though and I really think the construction team went all out to achieve the architect’s intent.”
Meanwhile, at Wormsley Park in Buckinghamshire is the picturesque setting of architect Snell Associates’ 600-seat summer pavilion for Garsington Opera, which will host their evening concert season until September, when the structure will be taken down and stored. Its construction was down to Unusual Rigging, a firm more at home with the Glastonbury festival than opera. “Part of our job was to work out how to best take it down, as well as put it up,” said Unusual Rigging director Mark Priestley.
Adam Khan’s Brockholes Visitor Centre floats 250mm above the surface level of its lake
David Chipperfield’s £35m Hepworth Wakefield
Snell Associates’ Garsington Pavilion at Wormsley Park, Buckinghamshire
Month in numbers
3 The number of entrepreneurs working together in a plan to buy the HMS Ark Royal and turn it into a heliport for the City of London. The decommissioned vessel is for sale to the highest bidder on the Ministry of Defence’s version of eBay.
8 February’s Markit/ CIPS Construction PMI report came in at 56.5, with any figure over 50 representing growth — an eight-month high. But all the major contractors remain cautious, saying that 2011 is going to be a tough year.
2,000 The amount, in pounds, that QS Davis Langdon thinks it is going to cost to train up every employee in the use of BIM, much vaunted by government construction adviser Paul Morrell.
200,000 The number of homes every year that must be built to meet future demographic pressures, in a report by the Town and Country Planning Association — more than double the amount currently being constructed.
54m Amount, in pounds, for a contract to design, supply and fit PV panels on 9,000 properties for Torfaen County Borough Council in Wales — a very green deal.
CSCS looks to the future with one-stop smart card
The Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) has unveiled plans to make its skill card a high-tech, one-stop ID for all construction workers that would carry information about an operative’s qualifications and additional training.
It could also act as a security card to control access to individual sites, writes Michael Glackin.
The ambitious plan for the card underlines the determination of the CSCS to shake off industry skepticism after CITB-ConstructionSkills said it was ending its 16-year tie-up with the scheme.
CSCS cards are currently used as proof of competence by most major clients and contractors. The move also comes at the same time as a report for the Health and Safety Executive by Pye Tait Consulting called for the establishment of a single authority to monitor and be responsible for the industry’s card schemes that would also maintain a database of cardholders’ skill levels and safety qualifications.
But CSCS chief executive Brian Adams said: “We want the CSCS card to be the single card for all the industry’s needs. Instead of site workers carrying around a dozen different cards, one for getting through site security, another for showing their skill level etc, a single CSCS card could carry all the information employers need, and employees require on site.”
He added: “The CSCS card became a smart card with a microchip in 2010. That means the card can now hold a permanent record of an operative’s qualifications, including any additional qualifications people choose to gain by ‘upskilling’ in new areas applicable to the industry.”
The CSCS smart card has been piloted at Tottenham Court Road station
The one-stop card is being piloted on London Underground’s refurbishment of Tottenham Court Road station by joint venture contractors Vinci Construction and BAM Nuttall. A spokesperson for BAM said: “It’s proved very useful having all training information as well as a site security pass on a single card.”
Adams believes the card would also enable and encourage craft workers, who often work for a range of employers, to undertake CPD, something that hitherto has remained the preserve of technicians and managerial operatives.
He added: “We’re talking to contractors about adopting this on a wider scale. Right now we’re rolling out around 25,000 of the smart cards each month, but we only made the switch in January 2010, so there are still a number of old cards with three and a half years left on them, but it’s where the CSCS scheme is heading.”
Commenting on the break with ConstructionSkills, Adams said he was “disappointed” by the training board’s decision, but insisted it would not affect the future of the CSCS.
Maude’s procurement overhaul in the offing
The government was set to unveil a radical overhaul of public sector procurement as Construction Manager went to press.
The shake up is being driven by cabinet office minister and paymaster general Francis Maude and is intended to help find 20% on the cost of public construction projects. It is expected to open up public sector contracts to new entrants and SMEs and rethink frameworks deals.
Leaked reports suggest that one likely move is to draw up benchmark figures for projects within frameworks. If no contractor on the framework can beat that benchmark then the project will go to tender and framework contractors will be banned from bidding.
(c) Adam Mørk
Great dane
An overarching wooden roof with 83 prism-like skylights encloses the Middelfart Savings Bank in Denmark.
The radical design, which provides dramatic views of the sea from anywhere inside the building, earned local architect 3XN a 2011 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) European Award.
Photograph: Adam Mørk
University of Salford sets up skills centre in Iraq
The University of Salford is helping to set up a construction skills centre in the war-torn city of Basra in Iraq to meet the desperate need for skilled graduates to co-ordinate the city’s rebuild effort, writes Stephen Cousins.
The Centre of Excellence for Built Environment is a joint project with Basra University and is expected to train more than 5,000 students from September. The centre is being based in a refurbished building at a cost of £40,000.
Salford will train academic staff at the University of Basra to develop MScs in areas such as project management, construction management and related discipline. The centre is expected to seek CIOB accreditation for its courses.
“We have been contacted by several international companies, including Shell, BP and China National Petroleum Corporation, that are looking to rebuild and are desperate to recruit local people, but there’s no one available,” said Professor Mustafa Alshawi, director of the Research Institute for the Built & Human Environment at Salford University, who heads up the project. “They are looking for project managers with IT expertise, and people with chemistry and environmental expertise,” he added.
Salford will also help the university create research expertise tailored to the needs of the Iraqi construction sector, with a focus on multidisciplinary work with engineers, computer scientists and management researchers working together to tackle the rebuilding process.
Workshops are under way in the UK to demonstrate to project stakeholders from Basra how Salford collaborates with industry and carries out its consultancy, research and educational programmes. The workshops will continue over the summer, before the stakeholders head home to assess local business requirements and align them with the training to be carried out at the centre.
Basra Province has allocated roughly $1.5bn (£0.9bn) for rebuilding work in 2011-2012, while the Iraq Parliament has brought forward £330m of funding for smaller projects. More finance for construction work is expected in advance of the 2013 Gulf Cup of Nations football competition, said Alshawi.
n Salford University said it was planning to expand the number of construction-related courses it teaches at Colombo School of Construction Technology in Sri Lanka. In April, it launched a quantity surveying course at the school, Sri Lanka’s first foreign-run degree programme.
Cherwell council ‘twins’ eco town expertise with Chongqing
A council in Oxfordshire where the development of a eco town is under way has agreed to share ideas with an eco-development in China.
A memorandum of understanding has been drawn up which links NW Bicester with Chongqing, a conurbation with a population of more than 30 million. The first phase of the NW Bicester eco development will be a 393-home mixed-use zero carbon community, known as the Exemplar.
The association arose after North Oxfordshire MP, Tony Baldry, introduced the team at Cherwell District Council working on the project to Professor Li Shirong, deputy director general of the Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission (COFTEC) and a past president of the CIOB.
Councillor Michael Gibbard, Cherwell’s lead member for planning, said: “China is one of the world’s great economic powers, but faces challenges of housing a growing population and accommodating businesses in an environmentally friendly way, just as we do. Although our communities are a long way apart, this partnership will enable us to learn lessons from each other.”
Professor Li Shirong said: “COFTEC is delighted to have signed the eco-town agreement with Cherwell District Council.
“We will be meeting during my forthcoming visit to the UK to develop the co-operation action plan and to discuss the promotion of bilateral trade and investment.”
Terry Farrell & Partners is the masterplanner and lead architect for NW Bicester. Sir Terry Farrell, who is also the mayor of London’s design adviser and design champion for the Thames Gateway, said: “Although Chongqing and Cherwell are very different they share a powerful vision for shaping the future.
“Both places form part of internationally-significant regional economies. They are located in exceptional landscapes and both share a rich and varied history.”
50 ways to leave your carbon
A website offering advice on low-carbon construction has been set up by the CIOB to help the industry meet future UK emissions targets and make sense of the conflicting facts and figures.
More than 8,000 people have already signed up to the site, which is set to be officially launched on 14 June and which will identify 50 simple actions users can take to cut carbon, spread across seven different topics.
CarbonAction2050.com is the brainchild of the Institute’s Low Carbon Working Group, chaired by CIOB vice president Alan Crane. “We looked at what others were doing and there was no major programme for addressing carbon issues,” said Crane. “As the only institute in the built environment with a broad professional membership, including architects, contractors engineers, planners and surveyors, we felt a responsibility to develop the site.”
The website will bring together disparate knowledge on carbon reduction for the first time, added Crane: “There are numerous resources available from government, specialist bodies etc, and many different carbon measurement methods and definitions. CA2050 will give our members a clearer means of understanding the issues and identifying ways to take practical action.”
Users can gain information on specific actions relevant to their role by accessing one of the seven different areas: Buildings In Design; Buildings In Construction; Buildings In Operation and Maintenance; Buildings Under Retrofit & Refurbishment; Education & Skills; Leadership; and CIOB Actions (what the CIOB is doing to cut carbon).
For example, the Buildings In Construction section is aimed at contractors, architects and quantity surveyors and a typical action is to “reduce the embodied carbon of materials”. The site then suggests ways to do that, such as through use of cement alternatives in concrete. A matrix section on the site also lists actions specific to job titles or areas of work. Users can also post case studies for publication on the site.
The CIOB is hoping to attract 15,000 unique visitors to CarbonAction2050.com within the first year, after which the site will be updated with new content, a discussion board, forums and perhaps online CPD and events pages.
“We want it to be an interactive resource that people will come back to, make contact with other practitioners and share knowledge,” concluded Sarah Naxton, website manager at the CIOB.
Call for talent to enter young achievers awards
Companies from across the industry are being urged to put forward their most talented young people for prestigious new awards in the Built Environment.
The Duke of Gloucester Young Achievers Scheme has been set up by the Construction Youth Trust with the support of the Trust’s Patron, HRH The Duke of Gloucester. The scheme also has the support of the large professional institutions including the CIOB as well as RIBA, ICE and RICS.
There are four categories: architecture, surveying, engineering, and construction and project management. An overall winner will be
chosen from the winners of the four categories. Each of the categories is open to anyone under of 30. Candidates have until 8 September to enter.
The winners will be announced at a dinner at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, on 24 November 2011. Law firm Trowers & Hamlins is the main sponsor, with support coming from Aecom, Byrne Group, Arup, and John Rowan & Partners.
Christine Townley, director of the Construction Youth Trust said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to recognise the achievements of young professionals who have excelled in the built environment. By highlighting successes, particularly where barriers have been overcome to succeed, we aim to promote the professions to under-represented groups
and to encourage young people from a diverse range of backgrounds to consider the wide variety of opportunities available in the sector”.
For more details and entry forms go to www.constructionyouth.org.uk/
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