Updates

Classroom blocks, laboratories and the assembly hall cannot simply be arranged for a neat elevation. Circulation at the start and end of the day, noise separation between teaching and activity spaces, and a transport bay that keeps buses away from children all have to be settled before the structural drawings are issued.

Medical gas lines, electrical risers, plant rooms and effluent treatment are the most expensive things to retro-fit in a hospital. Designing them in at foundation stage costs nothing extra; cutting them into a finished structure costs months and a great deal of money.

Population and income profile, the schools and hospitals already serving the area, road access from every direction, and what the surrounding land is likely to become in ten years. We have walked away from sites that looked excellent on price and failed on access.

Building plan sanction, fire clearance and sector registration each take their own time. Pursuing them alongside the design rather than after it is frozen is usually the difference between opening on schedule and losing a year.

An asset that opens understaffed rarely recovers its reputation. Teachers, clinicians and facility staff are recruited and trained ahead of commissioning, which means the payroll starts before the revenue does. It is worth it.

Lifts, pumps, generators and water treatment are easier to keep running when the people maintaining them are the people who specified and installed them. Residents get one number to call instead of a chain of contractors who have moved on.

A rate means nothing without the specification behind it. Brands, grades, measurement basis and what sits outside the rate are what decide whether a quotation holds or drifts upward through the project.

Helmets and boots without exception, registered labour, valid insurance and no work at height without a harness. The rules are the same for our own staff and for every vendor on site.

Helmets and boots without exception, registered labour, valid insurance and no work at height without a harness. The rules are the same for our own staff and for every vendor on site, and they are enforced by the site engineer.