Photograph: Philip Handforth
Mersey magic
Rising like the tip of an iceberg out of the waters of the Mersey River, Danish architect 3XN’s £65m Museum of Liverpool opens in July. The 12,000m2 building tells Liverpool’s global story through its geography and history and was backed by £11.4m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The steel-framed building, engineered by Buro Happold, is clad in nearly 6,000m2 of Jura limestone, with a total of 1,500m2 of glazing, mainly at the ends, offering stunning views of Pier Head and the Mersey. Main contractor was Pihl Galliford Try, project management by Mott MacDonald and Mace.
Children to learn about BIM at school
A scheme to put construction on the school curriculum will be launched this month after a series of pilots.
Class of Your Own is designed to raise awareness among school children of the diverse choice of careers in construction by constructing their own project in the classroom or though online programs.
It also aims to encourage school children to think about sustainability.
Students will be assessed on their ability to plan, manage, complete and review their project and will learn about roles in the construction process including lawyers and landscape architects.
As part of the course children will get the opportunity to work with building information modelling (BIM), the system recently adopted by government for all public sector construction projects.
Many construction firms are not yet fully trained in BIM and recent estimates put the cost of rolling the system out across government at more than £4m.
The course, which will form part of the curriculum for 11-14 year olds, is run by Edexcel, the UK’s largest academic and vocational qualifications and testing service for schools and colleges.
The introduction of the course to the National Curriculum follows research that revealed the majority of 11- to 14-year-olds relate industry careers to “builder/bricklayer” type jobs rather than professional services.
The course, which is exam-free, can be completed in 60 guided learning hours over one or two years. Students can continue the course to a Level 3 Extended Project (one GCSE).
Alison Watson, director and co founder of Class of Your Own, said: “The idea is to show children that construction offers a wide range of career choices and disciplines. If we can interest children in the industry now, it will help them make the right decisions when choosing courses. There are lots of professional jobs in construction and the vast majority of children are not aware of them.”
She added: “Sustainability is a key feature of the course. Young people can make positive contributions to their local, national and even global society simply by making educated choices.”
The scheme has been given support from several organisations in the industry, including Hochtief and Balfour Beatty, said Watson. “We are supported by Autodesk and Leica Geosystems and a myriad of small built environment companies across the northwest. More recently, we had a meeting with [chief construction adviser] Paul Morrell and await his foreword to the curriculum’s full release in September.”
Month in numbers
8 The number of new UK sites for nuclear power station sites confirmed by energy minister Charles Hendry
13 The number of academy projects to be tendered in north of England over the next 18 months as part of Partnership for Schools’ £800 frameworks list
40 The percentage some contractors are bidding below break-even levels in an attempt to win work, said a survey of nearly 400 QSs by the RICS.
24,000 The number of jobs lost from construction in the first three months of the year, taking the total workforce to 2.1m, the lowest figure since 2003.
£4m The amount the government will have to spend on plans to roll out building information modelling on public contracts, said the BIM Industry Working Group.
£15m The value of work near Stonehenge – English Heritage has put out a call for contractors for jobs including roads, pathways and parking.
Shine on: Coventry’s cathedral is a UK first
Photovoltaics to light up Coventry Cathedral
A Warwickshire photovoltaics supplier and installer has gained permission to install a 50kW solar array on the roof of Coventry Cathedral, making it the first cathedral in the UK to use the technology.
Local firm EOS Energy will work with the cathedral chapter and the Renewable Energy Technology Alliance to install the technology on architect Sir Basil Spence’s masterpiece, consecrated in May 1962. The grade I-listed cathedral replaced the one destroyed after the German Luftwaffe’s bombing of the city in 1940.
“The orientation’s completely different to a normal cathedral; this is north/south. Spence kept the ruins of the old cathedral to plan out the new one, so really there’s no south nave roof,” said RIBA Journal editor Hugh Pearman. “But in principle it’s a great idea. Done sensitively, maybe more cathedrals should do it.”
Gay group calls for diversity
Gay rights group Stonewall is to step up efforts to encourage construction firms to sign up to its Diversity Champions programme, promoting lesbian, gay and bisexual equality in the workplace.
The move follows the publication of Stonewall’s Workplace Index of the top 100 gay-friendly employers, which again revealed a stark absence of construction companies, architectural practices or consultants.
Chris Edwards, workplace associate with Stonewall, said he planned to meet a number of consultants and construction companies in the coming weeks.
“Construction as a whole is a few years behind other sectors, although some progress has been made in recent years on issues such as gender and race in the industry.
“Whether there is an appetite in the industry to tackle sexual orientation is difficult to say because no one is doing it at the moment. We’re looking for a few organisations to take that first step.”
Edwards, a former CABE employee, conceded the industry was dealing with other issues at the moment, not least falling work orders as the recession continues to bite, but insisted there was a “strong economic case” for signing up to the diversity programme.
He said: “We want to highlight the importance of taking sexual orientation in the workplace seriously. It will make your staff happier, more productive and more loyal but it also gives you stronger economic benefits as well.
“The Public Sector Equality Duty now legally requires public bodies to demonstrate that any procured contracts are awarded to organisations that are seriously tackling the equality strands, including sexual orientation. Working with us would give organisations an advantage in securing public sector contracts.”
Lend Lease, Kier and Construction Skills have already signed up to the programme. Edwards said he was keen to meet subcontractors and craft level workers to gauge their interest.
“Construction Skills is interested in bringing this into some training programmes, primarily management training, and the idea is it will start to trickle down from there,” said Edwards.
Mum’s the word in Bilfinger site safety campaign
German firm Bilfinger Berger has hit on a novel way to reduce site accidents – hanging pictures of employees’ mothers in the workplace.
Rather than pepper the workplace with bland health and safety posters, the company is using life-size pictures of mothers to hammer home the message. As a spokesperson told Construction Manager: “People usually listen to their mothers.”
Bilfinger claims the Love Mum campaign, launched by its Norwegian services subsidiary BIS Industrier, has helped cut accidents and accident-related absences and may be expanded to its other operations.
The photographs, placed in gilded frames around the workplace, carry messages such as “Think about everything that could happen, love Mum”.
Kirsti Gerhardsen, safety manager with BIS Industrier, who developed the campaign, said: “We want our employees to train themselves to think in terms of risk. We are passing on a mother’s heartfelt concern. These are our employees’ mothers – that really hits home.”
Karen Pine, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, said the scheme was likely to succeed because it was personal to staff.
She said: “We always advocate tackling people’s inertia. We can see how this approach would raise people’s awareness and, through emotional engagement, break them out of their habitual ways of behaving. A picture of one’s own mother is emotionally loaded and when individuals are engaged emotionally they are affected at a far deeper level than when confronted with general information.”
Much depends on the relationship between the employee and their mother, she added. “A person who is fond of their mother might be compelled to behave in ways that would make her happy. But if the relationship was difficult, they might feel motivated to do the opposite.”
A spokesperson for Bilfinger Berger confirmed the number of accidents reported had fallen. He said: “We haven’t got the precise figures yet but the number of accidents really went down.”
In brief
Biodiversity plans launched
England’s natural environment is to be better protected under new plans from Defra. White paper The Natural Choice is based on a recent report that stated the UK’s landscape is responding badly to climate change.
It recommends a Natural Capital Committee safeguarding natural assets; rural green areas and urban green spaces; and biodiversity offsetting, by which developers compensate for losing flora and fauna on sites by establishing new habitats.
Mansell renewables push
Mansell’s sustainability business has launched a one-stop shop for solar panels on domestic and commercial properties. Mansell Renewables will provide the service free to landlords and tenants in exchange for a Feed-In-Tariff from the government, which guarantees minimum payments for electricity generated via renewable sources. Mansell claims a 2.7kWp domestic photovoltaic could cut an annual electricity bill by 40%.
Lack of action on bribery act
The industry is ill-prepared for the Bribery Act, which comes into force in July, according to law firm Russell Jones and Walker. Firms are still unsure about issues such as corporate hospitality and what would be considered an offence in law. Firms are likely to deal internally with misconduct by having a quiet word with employees, but would immediately voice their concerns formally in the case of a competitor.
DECC microgeneration strategy
Measures to protect consumers from shoddy workmanship formed part of the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s microgeneration strategy, launched in June. Minister Greg Barker said it aimed to simplify the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) to align it with international models. However, Liz Male, chair of industry watchdog TrustMark, said there were still too many different standards on sustainability.
Alnis Stakle’s portrayal of office workers smoking outside an office in Paris
Alan Kempster snapped an old man and his dog taking a rest on an old gazebo
Last call for photography votes
There are just a few days left to vote for the winner of the CIOB’s Art of Building digital photography competition, which closes on July 18.
CIOB members and members of the public are invited to select their favourite from a shortlist of 12 images that can be viewed at www.artofbuilding.org. The overall winner will be crowned Art of Building Photographer of the Year on August 1, and receive a £1,500 cash prize.
This year’s competition has attracted more than 2,000 entries submitted by amateur and professional photographers from both the UK and abroad. The 12 finalists, selected by a panel of judges including the architect and broadcaster Maxwell Hutchinson; photography critic and editor Sue Steward; and award-winning photographer Matt Wain, have already been displayed on the BBC news website and in London’s Metro newspaper, among others.
Photos include the dramatic A Moment of Intensity by American Adam Goldsmith, which depicts an anguished man resting his head against the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Rooftop Walk by the UK’s David Poultney depicts a lonely contractor wandering across the vast roof of the International Broadcast Centre at the Olympic Park in Stratford. In a quirky nod to the past, Scottish photographer Alan Kempster’s Old Gazebo shows an old man and his dog taking a break at a Century-old gazebo, while the dramatically-lit image Work by Latvia’s Alnis Stakle shows French office workers chatting and enjoying a cigarette outside office buildings in Paris.
The CIOB is making plans to exhibit the 12 photos in a top London gallery, and is also asking for contractors to suggest suitable sites in the UK where images can be displayed on the side of hoardings. Get in contact via the website if you are interested.
