The recipients of the Sir Ian Dixon and the Faculty of Architecture and Surveying Scholarships presented their research findings at an event at St Bartholomew’s Hospital last night.
Ryan Close, a consultant at project manager and technical consultancy WYG and Felipe Manzatucci, a client relationship manager from Skanska, both received a one-year research fund of £3,000 from the CIOB, supported by the Worshipful Company of Constructors, to produce “a piece of research that benefits the industry, themselves and their company”.
Manzatucci, the Sir Ian Dixon scholar, presented his paper entitled: “Industrialised building: a market differentiator for the principal contractor?”, which aimed to identify ways principal contractors could adopt industrialised building concepts to differentiate themselves from competition in the market.
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His research found that fragmentation was the main reason for the poor performance of the construction sector and that industrialised building could significantly reduce the effects of fragmentation. This led him to the conclusion that “principal contractors should embrace industrialised processes and adopt them in their overall strategy”.
Close, the Faculty of Architecture and Surveying scholar, focused on providing guidance for homeowners who want to install renewable technologies.
The study compared the cost effectiveness and return on investment of retrofitting houses with ground source heat pumps (GSHP) and biomass boilers with oil, often an alternative solution for households that are off-mains gas. He concluded that GSHP has a greater return on investment, although building fabric upgrades, which are not as important with biomass, are recommended.
Bob Heathfield, past president of the CIOB and chair of the Scholarship Panel said: “Both scholars proved themselves to be very diligent and committed throughout the programme. To combine the scholarships with full-time employment is certainly not easy and requires the full support of their sponsoring companies, Skanska and WYG.
“Their chosen topics have been thoroughly researched with outcomes that will not only be of value to the scholars, and sponsoring companies, but also to the wider public. I have no doubt that the experience gained throughout the programme will serve them in good stead as they progress their individual careers within our industry.”
Four candidates – Adam Golden from Costain, Martin Harris from Kier Construction Southern, Andrew Millis from Walter Lilly & Co, and Bertie Green from Prime Property & Construction – were selected last December for the 2014/15 scholarships. They will present their research plans to the scholarship panel in February.
