Shard site on Open Door event list

London Bridge Quarter, home to Renzo Piano’s Shard building among others, will be one of the high-profile schemes expected to open to the public on construction’s inaugural Open Door weekend.

The event, which will allow the public to visit working building sites, will also include Manchester’s 1 St Peter’s Square, part of the £200m transformation of the historic quarter. Around 50 construction sites, from Cornwall to Aberdeen, will be open to the public on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 November.

A provisional list of sites participating in the weekend in England, Scotland and Wales was due to be finalised earlier this month. But contractors already signed up include Balfour Beatty, BAM, Bouygues UK, Carillion, Clugston, Costain, Galliford Try, Interserve, Keepmoat, Kier, Leadbitter, Lend Lease, Mace, Miller, Morgan Sindall, Osborne, Seddon Group, Shepherd Construction, Skanska, Vinci, Wates, and Willmott Dixon.

The Open Door weekend, first revealed by CM in February (page 5) is being organised by the CIOB, UK Contractors Group (UKCG), the Industry Training Board and Sector Skills Council, CITB-ConstructionSkills, and the Considerate Constructors Scheme.

Projects that will welcome the public include Shepherd Construction’s £50m upgrade of Liverpool Central Library and Bouygues’ Bow School for Tower Hamlets

The collaboration is the first of its kind for the sector and aims to raise the profile of the industry, challenge stereotypes and encourage greater engagement with the public and local communities to attract talent into the industry.

Steve Geary, director of skills strategy at CITB-ConstructionSkills, said: “Open Doors is a unique opportunity for the industry to display the complexity and scope of modern construction projects and give people a taste of what it’s really like to work in the industry — it’s certain to challenge their preconceptions.”

Edward Hardy, chief executive of the Considerate Constructors Scheme, said: “This initiative is an excellent opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the industry and the wider community, and will allow sites to show their efforts towards improving the image of construction.”

Other sites open to the public include Robert Gordon University’s £90m Garthdee Campus in Aberdeen and Bangor University’s £40m Pontio arts centre, both being built by Miller Construction.

The site visits will include a number of interactive events and visitors will be greeted by “construction ambassadors” from the different disciplines within the industry, from craft workers to engineers and surveyors, who will act as guides and explain their role in the building process.

Open Door is based on the annual Open House event, which gives people the opportunity to view, free of charge, an array of buildings of architectural interest which are not normally open to the public.