Category: Sectors

The Olympics is arguably the most well-known sporting event in the world. The anticipation and excitement in the host country is unexplainable, and the boost to economy second-to-none. But, constructing an entire village for athletes from all over the world to live in, compete and relax is not easy, even for the most experienced professionals.

During the 2016 Rio Games, Olympic officials for Tokyo announced ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that they cannot afford to construct the centre piece stadium. Not the best news to hear with 4 years to go.

Now it’s less than 1000 days until we head to Tokyo for the sporting event of the year, let’s have a look back through the years to divulge ourselves in all things Olympic construction…

London 2012

London 2012 was a historic event for the country, which fortuned a proud and united front from all who participated, helped and watched. Most of us may have seen these structures being built through the years, and many of us will have visited at least one site since 2012.

Astoundingly 6,449 people worked on the Olympic Park at the peak of its construction during December 2010. This gave over 2,000 unemployed workers the chance to work from April 2008 up until the games took place. This saw the Olympic park being one of the largest urban parks to be built in Europe for 150 years.

The estimated cost of constructing everything required for the London games was originally £280m, but these projections soon grew to around the £701m mark and beyond.

Rio 2016

In 2016, Brazil welcomed the torch and became home to the Olympic Games. There were many challenges being faced during the construction of these games, starting with cost. In Rio’s bid, they promised 14 new structures to hold various sporting events. However, due to the recession this was not implemented.

Just 12 months before the games were set to begin, only one of the original fourteen promised buildings had been completed, so the negative press was coming in thick and fast. Eventually, they completed 9 new buildings, falling short of their bid promise.

Rio took inspiration from our London 2012 Games, however, building their Future Arena with a Nomadic feel, similar to the Copperbox in London.

Tokyo 2020

The construction for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is expected to cost £1.1 billion – one of the largest budgets the Olympic games has ever seen. Currently, there are 40 different buildings expected to be constructed for the games, including 5 different stadiums just to host the football.

In addition, there will be the Olympic village and a building hosting the ‘Tokyo International Exhibition Centre’.

“It is an opportunity to design the whole area surrounding the station,” said architect Kengo Kuma, who is designing the new national stadium for the Tokyo Games. “It would be a great project because it will connect the sea and the hill of Tokyo, which will make a new face to the city.”

With less than 1000 days to go until the start of the opening ceremony, it will be interesting to see the outcome of this mega construction project, and whether they will be able to keep up with the demand of their original bid. Especially considering they’ve already announced they can’t afford to construct the centre piece stadium…

What has been your favourite piece of construction so far from all the Olympic games? Were you involved in the construction of the London 2012 buildings? Tweet as at @HighfieldREC to let us know.

The role of a Quantity Surveyor is developing to keep up with the changing market. There is no denying the critical role a Quantity Surveyor plays in the construction industry, and this therefore highlights the importance in keeping this profession relevant.

The traditional role of quantity surveying, seen as measurement and bill of quantities, has been declining due to the dynamic nature of the industry and growing demands of the client. Quantity Surveying dates to the 18^th century in the United Kingdom, when construction projects were measured and valued after they were designed and built. By the early 19^th century a new system was put in place which resulted in price completion before construction would begin.

With the uncertainty of today’s ever-changing market conditions, the movement towards new technology and ‘green’ building, has meant the role of the Quantity Surveyor has evolved to keep up with this new demand.

The world is evolving day by day, therefore so are the requests and demands on the professionals and their expertise. With the changing environment, the Quantity Surveyor has evolved to satisfy the marketplace by filling the gaps across diverse industries.

The Quantity Surveyor in the construction industry seems to have gone through some significant changes. The traditional technical and professional services of Quantity Surveyors still relate to measurement and documentations, price, value and cost of construction, pre- and post- tender management and final account. However, the role now includes work with the development of new services, including risk and value management, construction project management, project financing, contract administration, sustainability, legal and environmental services.

The term ‘modern quantity surveying’ signifies the increasing demand for professionals to change with the market. This has added a great optimism and value to the profession.

So, how has the role of the Quantity Surveyor changed over the years?

Utilise increasing knowledge:

Gone are the days that the QS would only be involved at the end of the project. The client now contacts the Quantity Surveyor before any construction has taken place, in order to utilise their expertise. The QS will therefore play a vital role in the design and planning stage to ensure everyone’s needs are met, as well as through the construction and completion phases.

Technology:

Clearly, IT has a huge impact on the way our world has changed. We continue to witness the way technology progresses and changes the ways in which work is produced and maintained. Technologies such as BIM have decreased the pain staking hours QS’ used to spend hand drawing, which frees up their time to be involved in other aspects of the project, such as advising on different procurement measures, or suggesting alternative building materials.

Expectations and competition:

Michael Manikas FAIQS, chief executive officer of Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS), said;

“A lot of firms are becoming more of a business advisor than a traditional quantity surveyor. Some are positioning themselves as the kingpins of the construction industry, especially in relation to government projects and large infrastructure projects. The traditional role of a QS where they used to sit down for hours on end and measure bills of quantities has definitely changed.”

With technology changing day by day, this profession is going to continue to evolve, bringing more challenges and more competition than ever before.

How do you feel about the changing role of the Quantity Surveyor, and what has changed since you first started your QS career? Leave a comment, or tweet us @HighfieldREC to let us know.

London’s population is at an all-time high and is continuing to grow at a fast pace. This growth brings challenges of rising pressures on construction, housing, workspace, infrastructure and heritage. This also comes with the positives that it is bringing opportunities to support London’s position as one of the world’s leading greatest cities. The population of London grew at twice the rate of the UK between 2011 and 2015 and could reach almost 10 million by the middle of next decade.

‘Good Growth by Design’ is an exciting project aiming to engage everyone involved in the city’s thriving architectural, design and built environment professions to create a more built environment for all Londoners. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the following about his new project, “London is facing unprecedented population growth and with that comes challenging work, but also amazing opportunities to deliver a city that is socially integrated, sustainable, healthier, safer and with a world class public realm. We must embrace London’s rapid growth with both hands and take this chance to use good architecture, construction and planning to make a real difference to the lives of Londoners.”

The aim of the project is to build a more inclusive city that will become a more appealing place to live, work and visit. After the devastating impact Grenfell Tower had on the surrounding communities, the Mayor of London decided it was time for a change to be made.

According to ‘Growth by Designs’ outline behind their project, they have stated that London needs to build more than 50,000 homes a year just to keep up demand and provide space for 46,000 new jobs as well as build the social infrastructure for both. This will continue to grow job opportunities in construction and leave a heritage of world class structures for Londoners of the future.

50 Design advocates have been appointed by the Mayor of London to help bridge the gap and create an exciting environment for all that visit, live or work in the City. Sadie Morgan is one of many women who have been appointed as a design advocate for this new project. She is also design chair for HS2 and a board member on the National Infrastructure commission UK. She says that “The programme doesn’t just look at buildings on their own. We want a London that is resilient to change, working on the synergy between both the public and private sector too.”

The advocates will include a huge range of talented individuals, undertaking demanding design reviews and investigate the challenges facing London’s built environment. The under representation of women and people from minority groups in design and construction will be a focus when employing the right candidates for the roles.

For the next decade we will be sure to see an increase in the population of London and this will continue to provide jobs in construction and design.

Do you think this project will create an increase in job opportunities for the construction industry for the next decade?

Google is well-known for being at the forefront of business and technology innovation, so it comes as no surprise that they’ve just announced they are set to be run on entirely renewable energy by the end of 2017.

After 10 years as a carbon-neutral corporation, Google have confirmed that their offices and data centres will be powered purely by solar and wind energy. As part of their ‘promise’ to make green energy more widely accepted and used in global corporations, the giant have invested $2.5 billion in renewable energy projects since 2010.

Announced in Google’s 2017 environmental report, Google says it has created “new energy purchasing models that others can follow” and that “we’ve helped drive wide-scale global adoption of clean energy.”

The company announced in July it would buy its first wind farm from Norway; “We’ll purchase power as soon as the wind farm becomes fully operational, which we expect will take place in early September 2017,” a Google spokesman told Reuters.

In addition to their goal of being run by renewable energy, Google is also working on achieving zero waste to landfill, with nearly half of their 14 data centres already achieving this goal.

It’s clear to see that Google are determined to start the trend with renewable energy and maintaining the environment, but will we realistically see this in major businesses in the UK over the next 30 years? Will businesses really buy into using renewable energy, or will the cost and effort override the clear advantages for the environment?

What are your thoughts – can you see your current company achieving a ‘zero emission’ status at any point in the future? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Hinkley Point C has been at the forefront of the nuclear news for many months now, and not for the most positive reasons. However, it seems there is now an alternative to nuclear power for the first time – offshore wind.

Seen as a milestone in the advance of renewable energy, the fact that the cost of offshore wind has halved in less than five years has prompted offers from two firms to build offshore windfarms for a subsidy of £57.50 per megawatt per hour. Compare this to the £92.50 per megawatt per hour subsidy of new nuclear plants and it’s easy to see why this is such an attractive option.

Emma Pinchbeck from the wind energy trade body Renewable UK said; “These figures are truly astonishing. We still think nuclear can be part of the mix – but our industry has shown how to drive costs down, and now they need to do the same.”

However, the nuclear industry have argued that as wind power is very intermittent, there will still be a need for nuclear energy in the UK.

Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said: “It doesn’t matter how low the price of offshore wind is. On last year’s figures it only produced electricity for 36% of the time.”

EDF, builders on Hinkley Point C, added that the UK would still need a diverse and well balanced mix of low carbon energy, and that the cost of dealing with excess electricity when there is too much wind or sun is something not to overlook.

They expanded to say that nuclear energy would become more affordable and a lot cheaper as the market matures, similar to what has happened with offshore wind.

Overtaking Hornsea Project One, Hornsea Project Two is set to become the world’s biggest wind farm and is expected to be operational from 2022.

Matthew Wright, Managing Director for DONG Energy UK, said: “This is a breakthrough moment for offshore wind in the UK and a massive step forward for the industry. Not only will Hornsea Project Two provide low cost, clean energy to the UK, it will also deliver high quality jobs and another huge boost to the UK supply chain.”

What are your opinions on offshore wind? Will it ever overtake nuclear energy and overshadow the likes of Hinkley Point C for renewable energy? We’d love to hear your thoughts.