Watch this space Technical Refurbishment


Julian Lebray, Midlands regional managing director of Overbury, on how the rapid advance of business technology will have a major impact on the workplace of the future.


THE DESIGN OF AN office as a workplace is constantly evolving, but the process of evolution currently feels more like a revolution as advances in technology drive change at a startling pace. We’re constantly looking at what this means for our clients in existing spaces across the office, retail, leisure, education, and technology sectors and how we can help them to meet the challenges of the 21st century workplace. Much of the last 30 years has been


accompanied by growing complexity in office design and construction to accommodate an ever-growing array of networked technology. Complex cooling and fire suppression systems, power and data networks along with voids and risers have influenced building design and created “fat”, expensive space. But we are witnessing a step change as new technology and the drive towards sustainability reshapes office properties into leaner, fitter and more agile workspaces that can accommodate 21st century organisations. We are already seeing how the


accelerating uptake of mobile devices and outsourcing to the “cloud” by businesses globally will have a profound effect on IT infrastructure and storage. Full cloud adoption will reduce space requirements for servers and other IT equipment and


much of the associated “fat” space. In the short term, this means being able to fit out or refurbish a building to increase the number of people using the existing space, or to reduce the space used. In the longer term, it would enable designers to develop “thin” buildings that don’t require large amounts of space given over to IT infrastructure. The design process could therefore become much more flexible, allowing different shapes and structures to be developed, enabling buildings to be more sustainable in their use of materials and energy. Thin buildings could be physically thin as well as metaphorically thin — increasing natural light penetration and creating a more effective working environment. This concept also applies to existing


office stock, which today is frequently shunned in favour of new buildings purpose-designed to accommodate current technology requirements. As the uptake of Cloud, 4G and mobile devices increases and the need for “fat” space reduces, the refurbishment of existing office space, often within prime city-centre locations, could be seen as a more viable option for firms looking to relocate or set up regional offices. This would certainly benefit Birmingham where, according to the Birmingham Office Market Forum, vacant


How we fixed it: Lockbridge Mill Flats


James Plaskitt, area manager at structural repair specialist Helifix, describes the solution to a partial wall collapse in a historic building in Huddersfield.


What sort of building is this? Lockbridge Mill Flats is a converted former factory dating from the early 1900s, owned by Places For People. It was built using traditional local stone and features 600mm-thick rubble-filled walls.


So what exactly happened? A contractor carrying out cleaning and re-pointing works noticed a severe bulge in the wall at around the fourth stairwell, and soon afterwards part of this section came down in a pile of rubble. You very rarely see a failure of this degree and


because it was a block of flats and some height up it was quite a challenge. The entire tower needed temporary propping and tenants inside the flats had to vacate until the repairs were completed.


What was your approach? After the tower was propped, several pairs of long, lightweight stainless steel helical bars, known as HeliBars, were bonded into the mortar joints at five different levels around the corners of the tower to provide lateral support to the wall. Then, 700 injection grouted ties,


called CemTies, were installed in a 450mm x 450mm staggered grid across the tower’s four elevations to pull the two leaves of stonework together and consolidate the rubble fill.


Did you consider any other options? The only viable alternative would have been to take down the tower and rebuild it, which would have obviously been very expensive. Our solution lent itself perfectly to this type of failure and aesthetically the repair work is invisible now completed.


CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | SEPTEMBER 2012 | 41


supply currently amounts to approximately 4.1 million sq ft.


As well as shaping the nature of


As the uptake of Cloud, 4G and mobile devices increases, the refurbishment of existing office space could be seen as a more viable option for firms looking to relocate.


buildings another revolutionary outcome of full cloud adoption will be the idea of Workplace-as-a-Service. With new technologies enabling workforces to be more flexible and mobile, companies could provide office space in a variety of regional locations which employees will use as and when they need to.


An alternative to the provision of


regional company owned offices would be the use of co-working spaces – drop-in business clubs and serviced offices available on an hourly or daily basis. The trend is already growing with global provision of shared workspaces increasing by 88% since 2011. There are already 61 such co-working offices in the UK with a number already established in and around Birmingham, such as that in Moseley Village. Regardless of which route an


organisation chooses to follow, the enablement of employees to live and work outside of the capital could not only boost productivity by cutting out wasted commuting time but might also benefit regional economies. Julian Lebray is Midlands regional managing director of Overbury


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