A Platform to Build On

A Platform to Build On

This article first appeared as a guest blog on Kier's website 29/07/2020

HLM Architects is working with Kier to deliver multiple assets at the £253m new build prison at Wellingborough. Throughout the project we were able to draw on our custodial experience from previous schemes at Addiewell, Peterborough, Forest Bank and Bronzefield, among others, to make improvements to the operational function of the design, as well as efficiencies in construction methodology.

Our deep sector expertise enabled us to reduce the number of buildings at Wellingborough by combining support service functions, such as education, healthcare and worship, to make operations safer and more efficient. We also rationalized the entrance building to make access and control of visitors safer and more welcoming. In terms of construction efficiency, we were able to reduce external wall area significantly and centralise plantroom to make the distribution of services more efficient. Re-engineering the design in this way was key to moving the project forward.

Coordinating design and construction strategy across building types to maximise repeatability has been fundamental to successfully delivering offsite production of building components and has been vital to achieving programme and cost savings. Having reduced the number of buildings, we worked with Kier and the supply chain to rationalize the structural grids to ensure that windows and wall panel sizes were consistent.

Key to realizing these benefits was a collaborative attitude that pervaded the whole design and delivery team including the MoJ, Kier and its supply chain. With significant programme and cost pressures, this integrated team approach brought a willingness to make smart, timely, collective decisions that secured the viability of the project for everyone’s benefit. The primary lesson of this experience is to have the right team in place from the outset, who understand the strategic and logistical challenges and can bring creativity and pragmatism in equal measure to resolve them.

Unusually for architects, HLM entirely embraces offsite manufacture, believing this to be a safer, faster, greener, leaner, and better-quality way to make buildings. Our experience at Wellingborough is informing our own ‘Offsite First’ initiative. This is our commitment to consider how each project could be delivered using offsite manufacture as our primary delivery approach on every project. We are now developing digital tools which make us more efficient in the way we produce information for offsite manufacture for construction.

Consequently, we are moving towards a common platform approach to design. This means creating libraries of building components, some of which are assemblies of multiple components, to make standard building elements such as stairs, liftshafts, rooms, walls and door sets etc. Collaboration with contractors and their supply chains, as we did at Wellingborough, enables the creation of a ‘kit of parts’ that reflects preferred approaches to construction that are affordable and reliable. Assembling buildings using this ‘kit’ will always produce the most efficient and robust approach to design and construction. Working in a collaborative digital environment where models and components are shared is essential to realise these benefits. This is the position we need to get to.

Our initiative clearly chimes with Kier’s, ‘The Choice Factory’ approach to offsite construction and we are hugely optimistic about the benefits this will bring for designers, manufacturers and contractors alike in delivering high quality buildings on time and within budget. Realising these benefits will require deep and open collaboration between main contractors like Kier with their supply chains and design partners. HLM Architects is open to that challenge and ready to deploy lessons learned from Wellingborough.

This article first appeared as a guest blog on Kier's website and more information can be found at:

https://www.kier.co.uk/media/blog-posts/to-truly-realise-the-benefits-of-modern-methods-of-construction-designers-manufacturers-and-contractors-need-to-embrace-digital-collaboration/

For more information on HLM Architect’s approach to modern methods of construction please follow this link: https://hlmarchitects.com/we-need-to-talk-about-modular/

Neil Abbott

Preconstruction Director at GSS Piling Ltd (part of the Morrisroe Group)

4 年

This is refreshing to read Philip Watson. It would be great to understand more, but it seems that the right mix was present from the outset here: a forward thinking, open minded client, engaged design team and the right contracting supply chain to realise the benefits of the off-site first approach. I am assuming the procurement model was not a standard one, to engage early with the right suppliers to enable this to be such a successful project? I look forward to a full case study on completion, or even a webinar to communicate the learning. Alison Nicholl FRSA

Lynda Rawsthorne BSc MA FRICS FAPM FCIOB ChPP

Experienced property and project management professional, Head of the Government Property Profession, elected member of RICS Governing Council and Industry Board for New Bucks University.

4 年

Repeatability, innovation, partnership and expertise are at the heart of this programme, great to reflect on the steps that got us here

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Philip Watson的更多文章

  • A Happy Place

    A Happy Place

    At the 9th Innovative Learning Spaces Summit, held in Berlin in September 2024, I facilitated a workshop titled “The…

    2 条评论
  • Social Value of Design - A Guide

    Social Value of Design - A Guide

    There are many barriers to truly integrating social value into the design of projects, but a new guide aims to show how…

    1 条评论
  • A Chance to do Better

    A Chance to do Better

    Over the last year, the pandemic has impacted the built environment abruptly and in profound ways. Here, Philip Watson,…

    8 条评论
  • Embracing Self-doubt

    Embracing Self-doubt

    I’ve recently been elected a Fellow of the RIBA. And by all the professional measures I can think of, I’d guess that…

    36 条评论
  • Everything is connected

    Everything is connected

    A crisis makes us reassess our relationship with the world - and that should trigger a radical approach to the climate…

    3 条评论
  • Good Design Adds Value - Economically, Socially, and Environmentally

    Good Design Adds Value - Economically, Socially, and Environmentally

    Philip Watson, Director HLM Architects There is increasing consideration being given to the “social value” of…

  • Design That Helps Make People Happy

    Design That Helps Make People Happy

    Preface With news that the first of Leeds' three new SEMH schools is winning plaudits I thought I'd dust down this…

    2 条评论
  • Modular: Enough Debate, We're Just Doing It...

    Modular: Enough Debate, We're Just Doing It...

    Every major review of the construction industry has in some way recommended a move towards offsite construction – from…

    14 条评论
  • Trending in Higher Education Design

    Trending in Higher Education Design

    With our impending exit of the EU looming, and the impact of that on students and staff from the region not yet fully…

    1 条评论
  • We Need To Talk About Modular

    We Need To Talk About Modular

    Anyone with an interest in the education sector couldn’t have missed Scape’s recent report warning that we need 2,122…

    5 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了