CASE STUDY LORD ASHCROFT BUILDING
FACTFILE: IMTECH AQUA
Cambridgeshire-based Imtech Aqua is part of Royal Imtech NV, which employs 27,400 employees worldwide and has an annual turnover of €5.1bn. It celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2010 and last year was granted the right to use the ‘royal’ designation by the Queen of Holland.
Formerly called the Aqua Group, Imtech Aqua is a multi-disciplinary building services provider. It consists of a building services contracting arm; a controls company that delivers BEMS and structured cabling solutions; and a maintenance division.
Primarily passive The building is primarily passively cooled and ventilated, although close-control air conditioning is used in the IT suites, and involves widespread use of chilled beams. There is a CHP engine in the ground floor plant room and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels provide 10% of the building’s electricity load. Initially, Imtech Aqua was engaged as
the design and build contractor working to main contractor VolkerFitzpatrick. Part of the tender selection process was to provide innovative value engineering options without compromising the final built environment or quality expected by the university – Imtech Aqua made a saving of £400,000-worth of costs without compromising the programme. However, things got even more interesting
when it was mooted that the design consultant Cunnington Clark, who had been novated to the main contractor, should instead work directly to Imtech Aqua because of the innovative nature of the M&E package. It was an unusual arrangement. ‘I’m sure there was plenty of early apprehension on the part of Cunnington Clark,’ says Wardley. ‘However, it was this alliance between designer and contractor that
The extra dimension
became pivotal to the success of the whole project.’
Cunnington Clark was persuaded to
switch to Imtech from Stage D of the design right through to Stage F, despite the initial misgivings of director Andrew Cunnington about the impact on his practice’s concept design. ‘It would be fair to say we approached this relationship with a degree of trepidation,’ he says. ‘We had developed an ambitious concept for the building services and our concern was that many of the key components would not survive the value engineering phase and we would have little authority to protect them. We have historically found design and build procurement to be a largely confrontational process.’ In the end, he found the opposite to be true
on this project. He saw that the relationship, not only protected the energy efficiency elements of the design, but ensured they were ‘progressed jointly into more rounded solutions’. Cunnington added that he would recommend this ‘co-operative, collaborative’ approach as a welcome procurement model ‘for any project in the future’.
3D cooperation Personal relationships were key, but there was also a technological element. Planning was completely collaborative and the Imtech team, led by contracts director Paul Carless, shared its programme aspirations with the designers, who were involved via a 3D co-ordination model that flagged up detailed technical issues from the outset. They also used a ‘traffic light’ system to inform the value engineering. ‘Red’ designated elements of the design that Cunnington Clark would fight to hold onto – ‘green’ could be changed and ‘amber’ was up for discussion. One example was the chilled beam system,
The 3D model identified potential ‘pinch points’ in the co-ordination of the builders’ works and this proved critical, due to the fact that penetrations into the concrete structure had to be carefully planned with exposed surfaces an important element of the passive cooling design. ‘The model also flagged up some issues with the floor voids and the difficulty of siting certain equipment,’ says project manager Dan Wardley- Smith.
‘So, because we had very detailed 3D images to show the remainder of the construction team, we could approach achieving a solution in a very positive way. Often consultants will try to cling onto their original concepts, but in this case we got
40 CIBSE Journal February 2013
to the point where we were regularly exchanging ideas and solutions that were both technically and aesthetically in keeping with the client’s expectations and budget.’
This was demonstrated during the construction of the 400-seater lecture theatre where ventilation and service points for each small cluster of seats required three air handling units to be manoeuvred into the confined space beneath the theatre floor. This turned out to be a considerable challenge that was only overcome by very careful planning and sequencing of the works, which was achieved by virtue of having 3D drawings identifying the co-ordination required, so it could be planned before the works started.
which was part of the initial specification. Switching to a different supplier would have produced a major cost saving, but Cunnington Clark felt the originally selected manufacturer would give better performance and held firm. However, some compromises were reached on the lighting specifications, without reducing the lux targets required for teaching and learning purposes. Imtech Aqua took another unusual decision
to base themselves in the same site offices as the Volker Fitzpatrick team three months before the project started on site. This turned out to be both a sensible logistical decision, as well as key to establishing the positive working relationship. It increased face-to-face contact and speeded up decision making – so any differences in opinion were rare and problems
www.cibsejournal.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76