Reach for the Sky

The race to dominate the skyline continues apace as the tallest structure in the world, the Burj Khalifa (Khalifa Tower) in Dubai is set to be eclipsed during the first half of 2013 by the 220 storey Sky City.  Built in Changsha, in the Hunan Province of China, it will top out at 838 metres, beating the Burj Khalifa by a mere 10 metres.  Peanuts!

However, the more interesting aspect of Sky City’s development is it’s method of construction.  Constructed by Broad Sustainable Building, 95% of Sky City’s fabric features prefabricated construction techniques which will allow the construction to progress at 5 storeys a day.  Developments in off site manufacturing techniques and materials development have meant that Sky City is able to boast impressive statistics for environmental, sustainability and health and safety measures.  The financial and programme savings achievable by construction the majority of a building of this size and height at ground level cannot be underestimated.  BSB are expecting to finish this building within 90 days, an astonishing achievement, which, if previous projects are any measure of potential, will be achieved.  The video link at the bottom shows the completion of a 30 storey hotel in 15 days.

The current mantra for development and construction is that the price and unavailability of land is pushing developers upwards, rather than outwards.  To meet this increasing trend, technical construction techniques require to develop ever faster to meet the demands and technical requirements.  The Chinese appear to be spearheading these developments at present, in July, Zhang Yue, Chief Executive Officer, Broad Sustainable Building, told a Reuters magazine that he plans build at a two-kilometre high, 636-floor tower.

This will be bad news for the Kingdom Holding Company, whose Chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said in June 2012 that the 1,000-metre high tall Kingdom Tower in Jeddah will be completed by mid-2017.  That is not all, Avesta Group an Azerbaijan company, has advanced plans to build what at the time would be the tallest tower in the world, standing at 1,050 metres, surrounded by number of artificial islands and a Formula One racetrack. This project is likely to be completed between 2020 and 2025, but will it be eclipsed before it’s even built?.

View the BSB hotel development here:

http://bit.ly/Umanuu

James Alexander Consultants eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.

Hinkley gets the Go Ahead……

Finally some good news on the horizon for the UK’s civil nuclear power generation programme.  Following the disappointments after the withdrawal of German interest in the new build agenda, step forward the rural county of Somerset to put things right.

After more than three years of negotiation, a major obstacle to the construction of a new nuclear reactor on the site at Hinkley Point in Somerset was overcome after the local authorities involved dropped their opposition to the scheme.  French utility company EDF Energy has promised to contribute over £64 million to the local economy, to improve educational facilities in Somerset, community centres as well as allowing the construction of housing.  Spending plans will be presented by the company before the end of the year.

The real estate and commercial property implications are significant, with construction costs on the reactor facility alone expected to be in the region of £7 billion.  Additionally, there will be significant knock on effects in the locality, with related and other support services.

This is not, however, the signal for the first spade to be put in the ground.  Despite the fact that the generating capacity of the UK remains in perilous state, with the much discussed date of December 2017 looming there are plenty of considerations yet to be defined.

As well as convincing the nuclear regulator to grant a nuclear site license, EDF will require to obtain the necessary environmental permit together with approval for the design of the intended reactor, and there’s the small matter of the planning inspectorate.  The Energy Secretary will have to approve their overall finance plan and, to cap it all there will have to be approval of the intended charging structure for the energy produced.

There are a profusion of alternate, energy producing schemes in process in the UK, all of which have a place in the energy generating mix.  This important step in the development of the power generating agenda moves the UK a step closer to keeping the lights on.

Gulf expansion into overdrive

Not a usual topic for a posting today, but the numbers involved are quite impressive and reflect another side to the current world economic concerns.  With news today of a very slight improvement in the UK construction industry, after two quarters of decline interesting news and figures emerge from the Gulf with MoveHut (www.movehut.co.uk) reporting on the prospects for the construction industry in the UAE.

Led by the hotel and commercial sectors, the value of projects completing this year is expected to increase over 70% to £51.3 billion.  The Gulf Cooperation Council, the political and economic union of states surrounding the Persian Gulf and Arabian peninsular, awarded construction contacts worth over £37 billion in 2011 across the commercial, retail, hospitality, and residential sectors which, with the 2012 contracts, will see building activity progress into 2013.

A significant aspect of these figures is down to the increased demand for hotel space in the GCC.  Room revenues are predicted to reach $22 billion (£14 billion) this year and are predicted to reach $27 billion (£17 billion) by 2015, according to Global Retail Development Index.  This increase in demand is due to the positive growth estimates for the GCC, based on the region’s strong economic growth and political stability. Forecasts for GCC’s economic growth have projected to 4.3%, up from 3.4%.

In comparison, the value of the Uk’s construction, across all sectors, including housebuilding (apparently there are some) is £90 billion, but the important difference is the our industry is at best flatlining, at worst continuing to decline.

A modular hotel for Western Avenue

Capita Symonds announces that planning permission has been granted for a new hotel on Western Avenue.  The 6 storey 4 star hotel building will have 160 rooms and a bar, restaurant, gym and conference facilities.  Also included in the scheme is an HQ office building and a data centre.

So far so good, but the twist is that the building will be built using off-site modular construction technology.  Designed by architects ESA, part of the Capita Symonds Group, the designers have invested 5 years into the project.  Working closely with a modular construction company the company have developed a flexible solution that allows for the production process to be standardised not the design. 

The scheme which is situated on a site opposite Park Royal tube station will provide an interesting contrast to existing modular built hotels in the London region.  ESA promotes that the hotel will have a unique façade and other high quality design features and we certainly hope the new hotel will help promote the cause of off site modular construction.

It is understood that work will begin on site later in the year.

Picture of the proposed hotel design from Capita Symonds website www.capitasymonds.co.uk

K is for...

Key Performance Indicators:

In today’s business and commercial world the monitoring and measuring of activity becomes ever more relevant in establishing agreed levels and quality of service delivery, related costs and value for money, and the continuing relevance of the delivery, specification and quality.

A long established manner of enabling this is to establish key performance indicators (KPIs).  KPIs are primarily used by organisations to evaluate their success or the success of a specific activity in which it is engaged.  Choosing the right KPI, by understanding what is important to the organisation and determining what therefore will enable relevant assessment to be made is fundamental to the process.  Assessment and analysis of the results can lead to the development of improvements to process and procedure, potentially to cost saving and initiatives to develop other performance improvements.

KPIs in the property and construction industries have been developed for many applications.  In the construction industry annual assessment of a wide range of standard KPIs has taken place for over 10 years.  These indicators are published in the annual UK Industry Performance Report.  The indicators are wide ranging through subjects as diverse as economic, safety and environmental impact and are designed to enable the improvement of performance, as well as the ability of companies to benchmark their individual company performance against industry standards.

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) has a number of programmes in the application of excellence in construction, refurbishment and improvement of the built environment, each designed to monitor, manage and improve performance in the application.  These programmes are effectively a form of KPI, enabling the standard of development and build quality to be measured against required guidelines.  Their programme BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) provides a comprehensive set of parameters against which the built estate can be measured for the development’s potential impact against environmental and sustainable criteria with differing levels of award able to be achieved.

Combined with benchmarking exercises, KPIs  allow for organisations to assess their own internal performance criteria and also rate that against competitors and the market, the results, hopefully being for continuous performance improvement and achieving better value for money.

James Alexander Consultants can help you identify areas of performance improvement in your asset management and portfolio.  We develop, plan and implement the strategy, leaving you to focus on core activity and opportunity.

eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.

E is for...

Environmental:

This A to Z Challenge is not an easy task, still…..!

Fittingly, as a hose pipe ban is imposed across many areas in the south of the country today and dire warning for the summer (?!) of impending drought like conditions, it is reasonable that our thoughts might turn to the environmental aspects of the built estate.

There are now numerous regulatory instruments requiring high standards in building design and construction, affecting the environmental and sustainable credentials of a building’s performance.  From the insulting capabilities of external walls and cladding to the type of heating ventilation and air conditioning system performance, the operational aspects of running a building are at the very top of the agenda when designing a new building.

Much of the built commercial estate in the UK dates from times before concerns over the impact on the environment of buildings were uppermost in any architects’ minds.  Design and aesthetics were the watchwords, although I think these may have become forgotten during parts of the 1960’s and through much if the last century this was the way in which buildings were conceived and constructed, with little thought to their impact on the environment.

The green agenda is well and truly to the fore and the Government is keen to maintain its planet saving credential by pushing more and more stringent measures onto the commercial and domestic markets for development and also some aspects of refurbishment.  Of course, all of these measures come at a cost which is borne, ultimately by the consumer.  The drive to become “green” has seen a worldwide movement to monitor, measure and assess commercial building performance and standards in design and construction.  The UK has the Building Research Establishment’s BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) system in place and a rating system is applied by an inspection and monitoring process for new building design.

James Alexander Consultants are expert in assessing your portfolio and, with you, determining a strategy to develop the correct balance of assets, their relevance and performance for you.  We develop, plan and implement the strategy, leaving you to focus on core activity and opportunity.

eMail us on innovation@jaltd.co.uk or see our contact page for our numbers.  We look forward to speaking with you.

Secondary PFI Market

The BBC Business website ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/ ) reports that there are significant concerns that HM Treasury is failing to monitor PFI projects adequately and that excessive profits have been made by organisations involved in the PFI market.  HM Treasury records do not reflect the billions of ponds of profit made by companies by selling on their equity shares in PFI projects on the secondary PFI market.  These concerns regarding the transactions and those surrounding the lack of information at HM Treasury come as two parliamentary committees are convened to take an in-depth look at the PFI.

The Treasury Committee is hearing evidence in connection with its enquiries into the future of PFI, the objective to determine whether PFI has represented value for money for the taxpayer. Shortly after the Public Accounts Committee will investigate what can be taken from the experience of the roll-out of PFI and what improvement could be made for any future projects that may be undertaken.

Opinions run high on both sides of the discussion, with a number of members of Parliament declaring that the PFI process must be clear and transparent with levels of profit reflecting genuine return on investment and, of course, demonstrating good value for money for the public purse.  The  Public Private Partnership Forum, an industry body for the PFI industry, has said the profits made were a fair reflection of the risks taken on by the financiers and builders of the projects.

More than 700 hospitals, schools, prisons and other public sector projects have been built under the PFI scheme.

Green Construction

There are numerous initiatives to improve the "green" credentials of the construction industry. James Alexander Consultants have specialist experience and expertise in the application of off-site construction methods, especially in steel frame modular applications. Sister company SystemBuild provides consulting advice on the most appropriate and effective off site manufacturing solution.



Click on this link below from the BBC's News service to see what is being developed in concrete technology. See the blackboard (yes, blackboard, not interactive whiteboard!) behind Prof Franz-Josef, he has been busy!



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13016593