‘THE FUTURE IS HERE’
Innovate or die – that was the message to the UK construction sector from outgoing chief construction adviser, Paul Morrell, who warned of growing competition from China at the CIBSE Conference and Exhibition. Alex Smith, Carina Bailey and Mike Sewell report
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One of the biggest threats facing Britain is the ‘class’ system, which is endemic in the sector, with architects at the top and tradesmen at the bottom
K industry has to fundamentally change and introduce radical thinking if it is to compete against the industrial powerhouse of the east,
warned outgoing chief construction adviser Paul Morrell. ‘Change really is coming – and it has to. The
future is already here,’ Morrell told delegates at this year’s CIBSE Conference and Exhibition. Speaking at the London Olympia event last
month, he said that the revolution required in the UK construction sector still hadn’t occurred, with a number of ‘old’ problems continuing to persist, including: the fact that industry either over-exaggerates or under- appreciates technological change; that change is not happening as fast as one would think; that change is not popular; and the industry’s ‘fashion for retro’ disguises progress to make it feel a bit more comfortable. ‘There’s not enough cash and there’s
too much carbon – these ought to be very powerful drivers for change if there were no others. But now we face new competition – China,’ exclaimed Morrell. Sounding a word of warning, he said: ‘They
want everything in the single market. It’s modern progress that’s massively productive and we can’t compete with it.’ Speaking of the extraordinary competitive
power of Asia, Morrell said: ‘ Were I 30 years younger, I would be heading east.’ He added: ‘We have to have something that China wants to buy. How do we apply our skills to it? ‘We are not an industry that exports, and we
have to. We have to make our living beyond our shores.’ As well as a skills shortage, one of the
biggest challenges facing Britain is the ‘class’ 16 CIBSE Journal November 2012
system, which is endemic in the sector. The consequence is a hierarchical system
that sees architects placed at the top of the construction tree, followed by consultants and then contractors, with the tradesmen who actually install the systems and products at the bottom. These factions row, ultimately leading to a ‘hard landing’ for the client, who is invariably left with buildings that don’t work and are impossible or expensive to maintain, explained Morrell. He described the tradesmen as ‘the innovators’ and part of the solution: ‘These people are pleading to get their ideas at the table.’ In terms of IT, Morrell said industry needs
to ‘stop being scared’ of it, and utilising software simulation, such as building information modelling (BIM), will introduce new ways of thinking, such as prefabrication, which Morrell said he expected to ‘challenge a lot of things’. ‘If you design the perfect layout, why keep redesigning it?’ One example of where this
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