Industry News
Class Act by Hickton at Newcastle-under-Lyme College
Hickton has provided Clerk of Works services on another major new educational project. Newcastle-under-Lyme College in Staffordshire is the latest to benefit from Hickton’s ‘right first time’ approach and now provides world class learning facilities on its £60m campus. Newcastle-under- Lyme College is situated to the North-West of the town and features an auditorium with seating capacity for 200 people and a £15m sports village with beauty salon and spa. The college is the latest in a series of educational developments that have commissioned Clerk of Works services from Hickton, including Walsall College, The University of Liverpool Department of Engineering and Redcar & Cleveland College. More recently Hickton has provided its services to Sutton Bonington Campus at the University of Nottingham along with Monkseaton Community School. Hickton is an award winning ISO9001 Clerk of Works practice that provides highly qualified and experienced professionals to ensure that construction projects are completed as the client and design team intended. Its goal is to offer clients ‘confidence in construction’, which means ensuring the project meets exacting design and legislative requirements. Hickton worked closely with the consultant team to ensure Newcastle-under-Lyme College met the highest quality standard set by the client. To do this Hickton had two Clerks of Works based on site to monitor activities against the agreed specification, which covered ground works, foundations, steel frame and cladding through to fit- out and completion. The design of the main college building posed several challenges, for example, large floor to roof glass facades had to be installed to exacting tolerances to achieve the overall BREEAM rating for the completed building. Poorly installed glass walls often lead to wasteful loss of heat, resulting in low levels of energy efficiency and a building with an unnecessarily large carbon footprint. A spokesperson from
Complying with Building Energy Efficiency Standards
Recent official figures indicate that at least 10 per cent of new builds in
the UK are failing to meet new energy efficiency regulations, with a much larger percentage only achieving the minimum standards required. With recent government announcements that in future all new homes
will have to be 25 per cent more energy efficient, coupled with soaring energy costs and already having the technology to insulate and 'tight seal' houses cost effectively; Craig Paton-Ash, Construction Director of Ultra Green, explores why is this still happening? The problem is largely caught up in the conservatism of the construction industry. The majority of builders like to work with what they know and are unwilling to change. They know how to calculate traditional building costs, such as materials and labour, so it is easier to manage the process in this way. As this problem is so endemic in the industry, clean technologies that
offer energy savings will have a slow and limited uptake unless this mind set changes. One way to tackle this head on is education. We need to set up programs at tertiary institutions, providing training in alternative construction techniques which remove this reluctance to change. These programmes could be supported by commercial enterprises and
the benefits of such a scheme are manifold: • it would provide industry with access to information on eco-friendly building techniques
• purveyors of new 'green' technologies would have a platform to showcase products • end users would have service providers offering a wider choice of energy saving solutions
• the environment would see less strain on its resources Another factor to consider is architects are often more concerned with design than energy efficiency and fail to research new building systems that could work in their client's favour. The educational approach mentioned above could also be extended to specifiers in the form of modules in Continual Professional Development (CPD) programmes. These could explore the requirements as well as the design of green building techniques. The final issue to overcome is many consumers are still under the
impression building a green home is cost prohibitive and there is a lack of information available to tell them otherwise. Once again this information gap can be filled by education, with television having the greatest consumer reach. There is opportunity to develop TV programmes concentrating on new green technologies, helping to remove price myths and challenge homeowners' perceptions of traditional building methods.
8
Enquire via:
Our online database at
www.cpbsonline.eu
Davis Langdon, explains: “We appreciated the expertise provided by the Hickton Clerk of Works. The benefits of having an independent pair of eyes and ears on site were invaluable in helping us avoid many of the issues found on these types of project. That meant both the client and ourselves avoiding costly and time consuming remedial works. Ultimately it meant that the college was completed exactly as planned” Newcastle-under-Lyme College opened at the end of 2009 and now
provides world-class teaching facilities to over 12,000 students. Hickton has professionals based throughout the UK who provide Building and M&E Clerk of Works services along with CDMC construction Health and Safety risk management.
Enquiry No
108
The European Hotel Design Awards 2010 are Launched
The European Hotel Design Awards return on Tuesday 23rd November
2010, celebrating the wealth of exceptional hotel design across Europe. The evening, set to honour the work of architects, designers and developers, will take place at The Lancaster, London and will award the very best of the industry through 13 dedicated awards. The Award categories include the best architecture of a hotel, both
conversion and new build. Interior design categories for various spaces including guestrooms, bar, restaurant and lobby areas. Other awards celebrate innovation, sustainability and the two final awards recognise outstanding contribution to the industry and the European Hotel Design of the Year. Cathy Oates, Event Director commented, “The European Hotel Awards
was a truly successful evening in 2009 and gave the industry a renewed confidence. These awards are so important to the industry, I look forward to seeing the results of this year’s entries and to celebrate and reward the best in their class at the ceremony in November.” “The awards kick-starts a busy week for the industry as The Sleep
Event exhibition and high-level conference starts the following day at the Business Design Centre, Islington. With new companies signed up and brand new features alongside an inspirational conference programme, this is the only industry event to be at this year.”
Enquiry No
Post using Enquiry Card
109
See inside back cover and Fax to 01435 863897
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