REFURBISHMENT PROJECTS The COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting
emergency conditions in its aftermath had a substantial impact on the project’s construction and operational phases. The original construction phasing had to be adjusted to maintain the continuity of clinical services. Notwithstanding the calculation of potential risks, this project demonstrated how unpredictable uncertainty can still be managed.
A proactive strategy and on-site project management Having a proactive strategy, and efficient monitoring in place throughout the works’ entire duration, in tandem with an emergency response strategy, and expert on-site project management, were all key to the successful delivery of such a complex project – on an operational hospital site, during a time of emergency, during which all the stakeholders, site workers, and hospital staff, needed to be kept continuously informed on any small variation that could potentially impact their activities. This paper highlights six real-world
strategies to mitigate uncertainty and risk in project design and construction: 1. Knowing and understanding the external environment and context within which the project is to be delivered (i.e. the local context, and the potential elements of disruption);
2. Being fully cognisant of the internal working environment (i.e. as regards all the project stakeholders and the various on-site personnel);
3. Phasing the works with an element of slippage built in to allow for unexpected events;
4. Identifying critical times at which specific activities are to be carried out;
5. Anticipating the need for additional resources (i.e. workforce, construction materials, and technological changes), and
6. Timely monitoring of the works and the staff involved at specific times (i.e. performing reviews at identified critical times).
While this article does not aim to be
exhaustive and definitive – given that the project described is strictly linked to the physical context and conditions in which the designer and co-designers had to operate, but it does highlight how it is possible to mitigate uncertainty and risk in project design and construction throughout a project – from identifying stakeholder needs, to delivery of the completed facility.
References 1 Amatucci F, Cusumano N, Furnari A, Vecchi, V. (2021) Strategie di gestione e valorizzazione del patrimonio immobiliare delle Aziende del SSN, Report OASI Cergas-Bocconi, Capitolo 19: 743-769.
https://tinyurl.com/2z3jd7sm
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2 Pantzartzis E, Deka L, Price ADF, Tann C, Mills G, Rich-Mahadkar S. (2016) Sustainable management of NHS assets backlog maintenance. Built Environment Project and Asset Management (BEPAM) 2016; 6 (5): 535-552.
3 Pantzartzis E, Edum-Fotwe FT, Price ADF. (2017) Sustainable healthcare facilities: reconciling bed capacities and local
needs, International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment (IJSBE) 2017; 6 (1): 54- 68.
4 Ochieng E, Price ADF, Moore D. (2013) Management of global construction projects. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
5 ISO 31000:2018 - Risk Management: guidelines, and ISO Guide 73:2009 – Risk Management: vocabulary.
Efthimia Pantzartzis
Efthimia Pantzartzis, MArch, MSc, PhD, is a healthcare architect and consultant. She has worked for over 15 years in the public sector on healthcare refurbishment projects in Italy, and on EPSRC and DH England-funded projects on hospital productivity and efficiency, healthcare infrastructure value, critical infrastructure risk, dementia-friendly health and social care environments, and A&E departments. She has been senior expert at ASSET Puglia, and Assessment manager at AReSS Puglia. She is currently a consultant for the EIB on Health Facilities Investments Guidelines, and for the Conformity Assessment Body of ASSET Puglia on healthcare facility projects. She has served as Adjunct lecturer on Product Design and Elements of BIM at the Politecnico di Bari (Italy), and as a Visiting Academic at Loughborough University since 2018. She holds an MSc in Planning Buildings for Health, and a PhD on Resilience and Sustainability of Health and Social Care Infrastructures. She has authored HBN 08-02: Dementia-friendly health and social care environments, 10 double blind peer-reviewed journal papers, 11 project reports, one book chapter, and over 20 national and international conference papers. She is a registered member of the National Board of Architects of Bari, and of the Italian Society of Architecture and Engineering for Healthcare (SIAIS).
Nikolaos Pantzartzis
Nikolaos Pantzartzis, MEng, is a mechanical engineer born in Corfù, with over 36 years’ experience in public complex schemes, who has worked in both the public and private sectors – on residential, commercial, hospitality, and exhibition projects, including the IBM Travelling Exhibition (1982-1984) with Renzo Piano of Ove Arup & Partners. His expertise includes project design, construction, and maintenance of technological systems of healthcare facilities; energy management, design, energy certification and consumption optimisation; refurbishment and restructuring of buildings and services; project and construction management, and fire protection system design.
He has previously worked in Greece, but since 1993 has mainly worked in Puglia in the public healthcare public sector, on several acute hospital project designs and refurbishments. Between 1997 and 2002, he provided consultancy services to AUSL BA/4 as senior expert.
Schemes he has worked on include: the restructuring of the hospital building, and refurbishment of the operating block, delivery block, haemodynamic unit, and intensive care unit, at San Paolo Hospital in Bari; the design of a dialysis and nephrology unit at a new provincial Hub, and the design of a reproductive medicine department at the Di Venere Hospital in Bari.
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