iCON / International Construction Review

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COMMENDED, SUBSCRIPTION MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 2010 INTERNATIONAL BUILDING PRESS AWARDS 04 QUARTER 2010 / WWW.ICONREVIEW.ORG

INTERNATIONAL CONSTRUCTION REVIEW

WHAT WENT WRONG IN DELHI? How preparations for the games were marred by confusion, neglect and allegations of corruption

PLUS The eco-city that aims to revolutionise construction Guangzhou’s new woman-shaped tower Nanotechnology: Great, but is it safe?

Can expert witnesses be more than hired guns?

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CONTENTS

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IN THIS ISSUE

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06 GLOBAL ROUND-UP

18 FOCUS: ECO-CITIES

26 PROBLEMS IN ST. PETERSBURG

Qatar unveils new solar powered stadium; Shanghai passes ‘one flat per family’ rule; Masdar City completion put back years; Liquidation looms for Oman’s mega Blue City project; Bechtel advises Gabon on national infrastructure; Arup sued for $10 million over Chicago art museum

PlanIT Valley in Portugal sets out to be the world’s first ‘smart’ city, and to revolutionise the construction and property industries in the process, while Tianjin Eco-City has more modest goals, but could set an important precedent within China

Kristina Smith on the RMJM-designed tower that a lot of people don’t want 28 MIRACLE MATERIALS?

Nanoscience promises wonderful things but Trevor Rushton worries that the pace of development is outstripping our understanding of the safety risks

24 CANTON’S SEXY TOWER 14 COMMONWEALTH GAMES

Shrouded in secrecy and tainted by charges of corruption, preparations for Delhi’s Commonwealth Games were disastrous. Mridu Khullar Relph asks why

COVER: GETTY/DANIEL BEREHULAK

Designers say they wanted to avoid the usual ‘male’ characteristics of a tower – angular, simplistic, heavy and repetitive – and go for something that would really impress visitors to the Asian Games

32 EXPERT WITNESSES

Doug Jones reviews recent moves to make expert witnesses in international arbitrations more loyal to the truth than to their clients

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04 QUARTER 2010

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AUSTRALIA l Philip Thomas Sanders FCIOB psanders@bknexus.com

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HONG KONG Kwan Wah Francis Wong FCIOB bskwwong@polyu.edu.hk

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BARBADOS l Ian William Rollitt FCIOB cdconslt@caribsurf.com

INDIA l Velan Murali MCIOB velanmurali@dls.co.in

PERU l Sandra Cabanillas Gamarra scabanillas@yahoo.com

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CANADA/ONTARIO l William George Nichols MCIOB bnichols@georgebrown.ca

LIBYA l Brian Daniel Greenhalgh FCIOB b.d.greenhalgh@gmail.com

PHILIPPINES l Mark Evans MCIOB markevans183@live.co.uk

CANADA/ALBERTA l Roger Vincent Ward FCIOB rward@mcel.ca

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CAYMAN ISLANDS l Garth Alexander Arch MCIOB g.arch@arch-godfrey.com GHANA l Alan Victor Gilham FCIOB alangilham@hotmail.co.uk

Meng Jiao Liu ICIOB liumengjiao@gmail.com

MALAYSIA l Isacc Sunder Rajan Packianathan MCIOB isacc60@yahoo.com

MAURITIUS Chandrasen Somah FCIOB hamosc@intnet.mu

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Richard Ovenden, MCIOB ric.ovenden@btinternet.com

PORTUGAL l Barry Sherman sherman@netcabo.pt

QATAR Sherry Zachariah Abraham FCIOB sherryviny@hotmail.com James Michael Howley FCIOB jimhowley@mail.com

SAUDI ARABIA l Ahmed Hamad MCIOB ahmedidrishamad@yahoo.co.uk SIERRA LEONE l Samuel During FCIOB sam.during@pdccompany.co.uk SOUTH AFRICA l Gerard Paul Koning FCIOB pkoning@telkomsa.net l

Michael Vadas MCIOB mikev@midasearthcote.co.za

SPAIN Peter Thomas Wilkey FCIOB peterwilkey@johnsonwilkey.com

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SRI LANKA l Kasturi Arachchilage Munasinghe FCIOB munasin@sltnet.lk TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO l Ivan Hinkson FCIOB ihinkson@tstt.net.tt UNITED ARAB EMIRATES l Stephen Ernest Lines MCIOB stevelines@hotmail.com USA l Christopher Paul Soffe FCIOB csoffe@aol.com l

Porie Saikia-Eapen, FCIOB, Porie.Saikia-Eapen@ch2m.com

Global presence The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has an Ambassador Programme to ensure that its prominent and respected voice is heard on key industry issues around the world. Ambassadors participate in CIOB policy development and represent the Institute on strategically important forums at regional and national levels. The Ambassador role is a position of leadership, promoting the CIOB principles for the benefit of the public and influencing decision makers at the highest level. To find out more about about the CIOB in your area, please contact your local Ambassador or visit our branch network at www.ciob.org.uk/branches If you’re interested in becoming an Ambassador, visit: www.ciob.org.uk/about/ambassadors or email: ambassadors@ciob.org.uk

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LEADER

LESSONS FROM DELHI When reports first started coming through about mishaps in Delhi in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games my first reaction was, ‘Oh, leave them alone.’ But when the scope of the failure began to emerge – not just the collapse of the footbridge and falling ceiling panels, but the mind-boggling cost escalations, evidence of corruption, injuries, loss of life, and the mistreatment both of workers and of the city’s poorest and most vulnerable people – I realised that here it was, in microcosm: the damage that gets done to society by delivering the built environment ineptly. Whether India should even have bid to host the Games is political and not for me to comment on. But having won the bid and then to mismanage the procurement and construction process so badly in a country that has, according to the World Bank, 456 million people (41.6% of the population) living under the global poverty line of US$1.25 per day, is an inexcusable failure in leadership. As India’s Central Vigilance Commission starts scrutinising more than 22 Games-related construction projects managed by government agencies for corruption, what comes to mind is not just the money wasted or the lives lost but the tearing of the social fabric caused by the betrayal of trust.

Construction is not just about putting up buildings. Embedded in our Royal Charter, granted 30 years ago, is the responsibility to

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promote the science and practice of building for the public benefit. Behind that is the realisation that the built environment is key to the well-being of people and communities.

That used to mean mostly just the finished product, but not anymore. Now there is a growing awareness of the impact the entire construction value stream, from inception through to recycling, has on society. This is why the fiasco of Delhi needs to be examined. The danger is that in the absence of a mid-competition construction disaster and with India coming second in the medal tally the real travesty is forgotten in the afterglow. India, like many other countries, including Nigeria and China, faces enormous challenges in building infrastructure and housing a quickly-urbanising population.

Meeting these challenges will require more than technical know-how. It requires transparency, accountability and genuine stakeholder input. Let’s hope the Commonwealth Games provides the needed warning, at the highest political levels, that earmarking the funds and expressing the will is only the beginning when it comes to delivering a built environment that is fit for purpose, that gets value out of finite resources and that makes real improvements to the lives of citizens.

CHRIS BLYTHE CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CIOB

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GLOBAL ROUND-UP CHINA’S PROPERTY BOOM

SHANGHAI SAYS ‘ONE FLAT PER FAMILY’ TO CURB SPECULATION IN a bid to curb rampant property speculation Shanghai has rushed in a law limiting families to the purchase of just one new apartment.

The Shanghai municipal government issued the new regulation October 7 and it took effect the same day, leaving property buyers at risk of falling foul of the law, official newspaper China Daily reported. Beijing introduced the same measure on April 30.

According to the regulation, every household in Shanghai is permitted to purchase only one more commercial residential property and anyone found in violation of the regulation will not be allowed to register their ownership of the property.

“Speculation is rampant in Shanghai’s housing market,” said Chen Jie, a professor in the school of management at Fudan University who specialises in property research. He told the newspaper: “This new regulation will prove to be a timely and effective means of cooling down the housing market.”

Property prices continue to soar in China. According to the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS),

reported by Xinhua news agency, average home prices in China rose 25.1 percent year on year in 2009, outpacing the annual income growth of urban residents by 15.3 percent.

Coupled with the rise in property values is a vacancy rate of up to 25%, according to some analysts, as property investors sit on empty homes waiting for the right price. China has taken dramatic steps to cool the market, suspending bank loans for third home purchases beginning October 1, stipulating a 30 percent down payment for first-time buyers, and introducing heavier property taxation throughout the country.

The newspaper found a citizen to speak out against the new Shanghai regulation. It quoted Shen Lu, described as a ‘multinational white-collar worker’, who purchased an apartment with her husband two years ago, as saying: “It’s like a game of cry wolf. Every time the housing department announces that it is going to combat housing speculation, the price just soars. If there is solid demand to support the price, no one can solve the problem.” iCON

Workers at one of Shanghai’s many construction sites

LIQUIDATION LOOMS FOR OMAN’S MEGA BLUE CITY PROJECT

OMAN’S US$20 billion Blue City project could be liquidated within 12 months under plans being considered by some of its bondholders.

The beachside megadevelopment (also known as Al Madina A’Zarqa), located one hour from Muscat, was to feature luxury housing, offices, hotels and universities for some 200,000 people. It was to be developed over 20 years, but it ran into trouble from the start with an ownership dispute, design changes and slow sales.

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In late 2005, Blue City issued US$925m of bonds to fund construction, but sales on residential units totalled only $75m as of June this year, the Financial Times reported, as the global financial crisis hit regional real estate projects hard.

Essdar Capital, a Dubai investment company, bought more than 99 per cent of the Class A bonds this year and last year, giving it control of the project. But the UAE newspaper The National reported October 7 that a source involved with the project had said

Essdar was deciding “when, not if, it is going to enforce its rights”.

The National also reported that day that Suketu Sanghvi, a senior managing director of Essdar, had said the company would make an announcement on its plans within a month.

If Essdar enforced its rights as the holder of the Class A bonds, which are secured by more than $250m in cash and 25 square km of land, then the project would be liquidated. A new developer would have the opportunity to buy the land in an auction but it would be unlikely to continue under the name Blue City.

In August the company in charge of the Foster + Partnersdesigned first phase of the project, Blue City Company 1 (BCC1), put forward a restructuring proposal but it was rejected by bond holders. In its presentation, available to view at www.bluecityoman.net, BCC1 described the “difficult times” the project was facing, citing an “excessive and expensive debt burden” and “onerous debt covenants” together with an “inflexible construction contract”

and “general negative publicity surrounding the project”. It also blamed “Master plan changes design changes and delayed sales releases”.

In February Moody’s downgraded the bonds to Caa3 amid rising concerns for the solvency of Al Suwaidi Investments and Tourism, the project’s developer.

In June 2009 it was reported that Bovis Lend Lease, hired to provide project management and other services on the 5,841-home first phase of Blue City, was suing the developer for up to US$1.5m for damages and unpaid fees.

If Essdar enforced its rights a new developer would have the opportunity to buy the land in an auction but it would be unlikely to continue under the name Blue City.

The report in The National says the Oman government could step in and cancel a concession granted to the Blue City project. It agreed to sell the land on condition that it was developed.

Without a concession, the land’s value is difficult to calculate.

Officials from the Oman government declined to comment yesterday. iCON

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HYUNDAI TO START $1.36-BN JOB AS KOREA, LIBYA MAKE UP

Lee Sang-deuk (left), Muammar Gaddafi

ECO-CITIES

Masdar City completion put back years FINAL completion of Masdar City, the carbon neutral development in Abu Dhabi, has been put back by up to nine years and some of its eco-ambitions scaled back.

The whole city was due to be finished by 2016 but that date has been pushed back to between 2020 and 2025 following a 10-month review of the project sparked by the property slump, technology development and construction lessons learned over the past three years by the government-owned company behind the scheme, Masdar.

Masdar also scaled back some of its green ambitions. Instead of producing all of its own clean energy on site, the company says it will now buy renewable energy from other regions, as the city’s power demand is expected to outstrip clean energy development. Also, the original vision was car-free, with a system of electric individual pods on tracks for transportation, but the developers have distanced

Masdar City

04 QUARTER 2010

themselves from this promise and say electric vehicles will be allowed.

However the vision as a whole remains intact, Masdar chief executive Sultan al Jaber told the UAE newspaper The National. “No scale-back, no scaledown,” he is reported to have said October 10.

He added that the falling price of building materials and renewable technologies had cut the estimated US$22 billion price-tag of the project by 10 to 15 per cent.

Masdar now hopes to finish the first phase of the project by 2015. This includes a graduate school focusing on green and renewable technology, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and Masdar’s company’s headquarters. Six buildings of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, powered by solar panels, opened to students in September. iCON

SOUTH Korean building firm Hyundai Engineering and Construction has finally inked a US$1.36-bn power plant deal in Libya after a three-month diplomatic row came to an end.

Libya reopened its diplomatic mission in Seoul on October 8, more than three months after Libya expelled a South Korean intelligence officer in June, accusing him of trying to gather information on leader Muammar Gaddafi and the country’s weapons systems.

The row was settled in early October at a meeting between Gaddafi and Lee Sang-Deuk, a South Korean official who is also the brother of South Korean president Lee Myung-Bak. As a result of the row Libya had shut its bureau in Seoul and brought home its diplomats. It had also imprisoned a South Korean Christian minister, whom it accused of proselytising, and a South Korean businessman. These civilians have now been released.

Hyundai won the order to build four steam-turbine power plants, with a total output of 1,400 megawatts, just as the tensions erupted, but Libya had withheld the letter of credit necessary to start construction. That letter has now been issued.

The relations between South Korea and his country were ‘as good as before’, Masaoud Al Ghali, head of Libya’s economic cooperation bureau in Seoul, was quoted as saying by The Korean Herald newspaper. iCON

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GLOBAL ROUND-UP

AEDAS LEFT OVER PERFORMANCE CRITERIA, DOHALAND CLAIMS Qatari developer Dohaland has said architecture firm Aedas left its Heart of Doha project over ‘performance criteria’, not for commercial reasons.

Aedas, appointed July 2009 as executive architect of phase 1b of the project, said it pulled out of the US$5.5 billion mixed-use scheme on September 15, citing ‘commercial considerations’.

Aedas CEO David Roberts (pictured) said in a statement: “It is with considerable regret that we have felt obliged for commercial reasons to cease our involvement in this project.” But Dohaland issued a statement in response disputing this by saying the contract was ended over ‘agreed performance criteria’.

Dohaland’s statement, carried by various Gulf news websites, said: “Dohaland is currently working with some of the world’s most renowned partners. We are very proud of the long-term relationship we have built with them and value their commitment and contribution to the success of our projects. In our strive for excellence and commitment to deliver to our customers, we continuously monitor performance to ensure that these commitments are met.

It is with great regret that we have reached an end to the contractual relationship with the specific consultant which relates to agreed performance criteria rather than any commercial considerations.”

Funded by petrochemical revenues, the Heart of Doha scheme aims to redevelop the centre of the capital and provide housing for the country’s growing population. It will include hotels, retail, residential, mosques, cultural, education and government buildings. iCON

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DISPUTES

ARUP SUED FOR $10M OVER CHICAG

The Art Institute of Chicago

ARUP faces a lawsuit claiming US$10 million over alleged faulty engineering at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Renzo Piano-designed extension.

Filed Sept. 21, the suit claims Arup’s services on the 264,000-sq-ft Modern Wing were “woefully inadequate”, according to ENR.com. The AIC is asking the court to order the London-based firm to pay $10 million in damages to cover the cost of repairs to air-handling systems, concrete subfloors and other parts of the wing’s mechanical and structural systems.

The new wing, costing US$294 million, opened in May 2009.

“We were incredulous that the AIC cancelled

an Oct. 4 mediation and filed this suit,” Trina Foster, director of marketing and communications in Arup’s New York City office, told ENR. “We have had some meetings with them and had established a mediation process.”

But the AIC claims the talks were going nowhere. “We have tried for some time to amicably resolve these issues and we increasingly found our discussions with Arup to be unproductive,” Erin Hogan, AIC’s director of public affairs, told ENR. The lawsuit alleges errors in heating and cooling systems, concrete floors, the building envelope, a portion of the roof referred to as the

Abu Dhabi investment vehicle targets Malaysia with $15 billion injection for major industrial and real estate developments MUBADALA Development, the Abu Dhabi government’s investment vehicle, says it plans investing billions of dollars in property and energy projects in Malaysia.

The company signed two “collaboration agreements” with 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a company owned by the Malaysian government.

Mubadala Industry, a division of Mubadala Development, was assessing an investment of up to US$7 billion in an aluminium project in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy in eastern Malaysia.

Mubadala Real Estate and Hospitality was also looking at

jointly developing projects in the Kuala Lumpur International Financial District. Construction on a 34-hectare site is expected to begin by the middle of next year, after the completion of a master plan. The district aims to draw in top financial institutions and investment companies.

Najib Razak, the Malaysian prime minister, said the project would cost about $8.4bn.

Khaldoon al Mubarak, the chief executive of Mubadala, said the “investment is a longterm endorsement of that view, and the Abu Dhabi Government shares our confidence in 1Malaysia Development Berhad as an ideal partner for our

Khaldoon al Mubarak projects in Malaysia”.

Mubadala has signed agreements in the past to invest in a Malaysian city project called Nusajaya. That development is 45 minutes from Singapore’s Central Business District. The new city will spread over 642 hectares and include nine zones dedicated to such uses as trade and commerce, leisure, health care, luxury living, shopping and education. iCON

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09

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT

ICAGO MUSEUM

‘flying carpet’, a pedestrian bridge, as well as “incorrect structural engineering”. It also alleges Arup provided an insufficient number of experienced engineers to handle construction administration, which contributed to “costly delays and required revisions to work already completed”.

The claim says AIC spent or will have to spend some $10 million as a result of Arup’s poor performance.

Arup’s scope of work included structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, acoustic, lighting and fire protection engineering. Arup says its scope did not include the building envelope or any renovations to the existing museum. iCON

Bechtel advises Gabon on national infrastructure plan THE president of Gabon has met with Bechtel executives in the US to discuss the west African country’s national infrastructure master plan.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba travelled to Bechtel’s offices in Frederick, Maryland to meet on September 17 with Bechtel Chairman and CEO Riley Bechtel and Mike Adams, president of Bechtel’s civil infrastructure unit, the company announced.

Bechtel is providing management and technical support to the Gabonese government as it develops a national infrastructure master plan. A Bechtel press release said the plan will prioritise investment and development needs, while balancing Gabon’s commitment to sustainable development, over the next 10-15 years.

Bechtel is also helping the government form a National Agency for Major Projects, which will have the responsibility to implement

the approved master plan.

“We are excited to be able to contribute to the implementation of the Government’s vision for the future economic development of the country,” said Mike Adams.

“Bechtel has extensive experience in master planning, project delivery, and sustainability services around the world, and we

look forward to using these skills for the benefit of Gabon.”

This is Bechtel’s second major project in Gabon. The company played a role supporting Gabon’s economic development planning in the 1980s, when it performed a series of infrastructure and planning studies for the Gabonese government. iCON

Libreville, Gabon

INFRASTRUCTURE

Turkey’s $11-billion highway scheme is its biggest-ever BOT FIVE Turkish firms and one Italian firm have won Turkey’s largest-ever road project to halve the journey time from Istanbul to the city of Izmir.

The US$11-billion project announced 27 September sees the consortium build, operate and then transfer the new highway network, plus what will be the world’s second-longest suspension bridge, at 3,000 metres in length over the Gulf of Izmit, after 22 years and 4 months, including construction time.

The highway will reduce travel time between Istanbul and Izmir from 6 hours 30 minutes to about 3 hours.

The government plans to break ground for the

Istanbul

Bursa Balikesir

Manisa

Izmir

project in two months. It will create at least 10,000 jobs and be completed in seven years, Turkey’s Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim said at the signing ceremony in Ankara.

The consortium consists of Turkish construction firms Nurol, Ozaltin, Makyol, Yuksel, Gokcay and Italy-based Astaldi.

“The project is the largest to be carried out at one time under build-operate-transfer model in Turkey’s history,” Yildirim said.

“According to our calculations, the project will lead to a time and fuel savings of $870 million a year, which is a presumptive return on investment in 10 or 11 years,” Yildirim added. iCON

‘A VERY DARK STAGE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS CITY’ RRSHIVANI CHAUDHRY ON DELHI’S HANDLING OF THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES, P14 04 QUARTER 2010

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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

AMBITIOUS CANADIAN ARCHITECT SNAPS UP UK’S ARCHIAL CANADIAN architecture firm Ingenium has bought UK firm Archial just days after it went into administration.

The privately held Ingenium Group announced September 28 that it had purchased the majority of the UK business and assets from the administrators of Archial Group PLC, Archial Holdings Ltd, Archial Architects Ltd, Archial Resources Ltd and Alsop Sparch Ltd. It was a fast purchase. Shares in Archial Group Plc were suspended from the Alternative Investment Market on September 17 and the company and a number of its subsidiaries went into administration on September 21.

The decline of Archial came as a shock. As reported by the Architects’ Journal, between 2004 and 2006, the company, then operating as SMC Group, bought out 14 firms. In March this year, Archial announced it intended to acquire new firms despite revenue falling from £42.5 million to £33.9 million in 2009, with underlying pre-tax profits down to £1.49 million from £1.53 million.

The company revealed it had debts of £13.5 million at the end of 2009 and in August this year it issued a surprise profit warning, which sent its share price down 61

per cent. Earlier this month it failed to reach a deal over money owed to UK tax authorities, HMRC, which initiated winding up proceedings.

Archial had a diverse international portfolio and employed around 500 staff.

Slightly larger and employing around 600 staff, the Ingenium Group of companies provides architectural, engineering, land use and development planning, interior design, project management, construction, design-build services through 14 offices in Canada, USA, the Middle East and Asia.

“The purchase of Archial is in line with our corporate strategy of focused and measured expansion around the globe,” Victor Smith, President and CEO of the Ingenium Group, said in a press release. “We have been seeking a UK company to form the regional base for our international work and are delighted that Archial will serve to realise that goal for our company.”

The newly acquired organisation has been registered as Ingenium Archial Ltd. and will operate under the name of Archial and Alsop Sparch. Christopher Littlemore will continue as CEO and Victor Smith will take on the role of Executive Chairman. iCON

Al Shamal solar stadium

SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY

Qatar unveils solar stadiu key to its bid for the 202 QATAR’S World Cup 2022 bidders have unveiled a small model stadium that uses solar energy to cool spectators and the playing field.

Built in four months by Arup and unveiled September 14 in Abu Hamour, the 500-seater prototype achieved temperatures of 22.2 degrees Celsius on a day forecast to be over 40 degrees, according to the Gulf Times newspaper.

The Gulf nation has made low-carbon cooling technology key to its bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and has been actively building and renovating its sports infrastructure since before hosting the 2006 Asian Games and in preparation for hosting the 2011 Asian Cup football tournament.

The Al Shamal solar stadium converts solar energy to electricity to channel cool air to spectators through ducts under the seats, said Arup’s director and head of sustainability and engineering, Michael Beaven. The cool air then flows down to collect at ground level to keep players cool.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Massive shopping spree for US giant Aecom gives it complete project AFTER buying US contractor Tishman for US$245 million in July, US engineering and design consultant Aecom went on a massive shopping spree. Subsequent purchases include: l 5 August – Leading UK cost and project consultant Davis Langdon, for US$324 million; l 27 August – McNeil Technologies, Inc., based in Springfield, Virginia, which provides intelligence, information technology and cyber security services to government, for US$355 million; l 24 September – RSW Inc., an engineering company based in Montreal, Canada, for an undisclosed sum. RSW has a turnover of $45 million. It employs 550 staff and its international markets include hydro power

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transmission and distribution.

Ranked as America’s biggest design firm by ENR before its run of Summer acquisitions, Aecom recorded revenue of US$6.3 billion during the 12-month period ended June 30, 2010.

Buying Tishman and Davis Langdon attracted particular attention because with it Aecom claimed to have a complete project skillset, from design and cost consultancy through to building.

“Davis Langdon’s strong cost and project management capabilities bolster our growing portfolio of construction management services,” said John M. Dionisio, Aecom president and chief executive officer. “Combined with our recent acquisition of Tishman Construction, we have significantly enhanced Aecom’s ability to

Engineer, builder, QS: clockwise, John Dionisio (above), Dan Tishman and DL’s Rob Smith meet the growing customer demand for turnkey, integrated services, and we have done so by adding two recognized global leaders in the industry to the Aecom enterprise.”

With 2,800 staff, Davis Langdon provides cost

04 QUARTER 2010

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GLOBAL ROUND-UP

AS&P - ALBERT SPEER & PARTNER GMBH / VISUALIZATION: HHVISION, COLOGNE

CYRIL SWEETT’S CHINESE ACQUISITION MADE CAPITA SYMONDS LOOK ELSEWHERE

stadium prototype, e 2022 FIFA World Cup Officials said the temperatures exceed guidelines of the FIFA medical committee to prevent heat stress among players and match comfort standards for spectators.

Two solar technologies have been used. Arup installed 800 square metres of photovoltaic cells outside the stadium to convert solar energy to electricity. It also installed solar heat collectors next to the photovoltaic cells. The heat collectors use motorised mirrors to track the sun and reflect it onto tubes containing water, which is heated to 200 degrees Celsius and then converted to coolness by absorption chillers. The coolness is stored in eutectic tanks underground and circulated into the air-handling units when required.

Alongside Qatar, six other nations are bidding to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups: Australia, England, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, with Belgium and the Netherlands also bidding jointly. iCON

project skill set, CEO claims and project management services around the world. Its counterpart in Asia, Davis Langdon & Seah, will stay independent, but will continue to work with Aecom’s Davis Langdon operations under an existing collaboration agreement.

Davis Langdon’s generated gross revenue of approximately US$430 million in 2009.

Meanwhile, Aecom is reported to be looking for a major architect to buy as it continues its drive to become a global “one-stop shop” consultancy. The UK’s Building magazine reported that sources said it is on the hunt for practices in the global top five, which would include HOK, Aedas, Gensler and RMJM. One source said HOK was being tipped by some in the market. iCON

04 QUARTER 2010

CAPITA Symonds pulled out of takeover talks with UK QS Cyril Sweett because the latter’s acquisition of a Chinese firm made it unfeasible, a report says.

Capita Symonds, one of the UK’s largest multidisciplinary consultancies in the built environment, reportedly lost interest after Cyril Sweet bought Chinese QS Widnell for £5.4m, according to a report in Building magazine.

“Suddenly having 400 people in China required a whole lot more due diligence,” a source told Building.

It is understood that Capita

and Cyril Sweett had begun preliminary negotiations for a deal as part of Capita’s plans to boost its project management and QS capability.

The UK consultancy sector is going through a period of consolidation after Aecom’s £204m takeover of Davis Langdon and the £223m acquisition of Scott Wilson by URS in July. A source close to Capita told Building that Capita was looking for “a project manager that is making money”, adding: “It would have had a good look at Davis Langdon had it got in early enough before Aecom.” iCON

Government data shows depth of Dubai slump

Residential construction continues in Dubai

THE value of property sales in Dubai last year were down 72% from 2008, according to government data.

And the number of transactions in 2009 dropped to 2,327 from 5,916 a year earlier, the government said in a bond prospectus published on the London Stock Exchange 27 September, as reported by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Dubai real-estate transactions in the first six months of this year (valued at around $2.62 billion) are about half the amount for all of 2009, the document said. Dubai’s Land Department recorded 1,188 sales

in the first half compared with a 2009 total of 2,327. The document didn’t provide figures for the first half of 2009.

The deepest global financial crisis since the 1930s led Dubai property prices to slump as frozen credit markets force the country’s largest mortgage providers, Tamweel PJSC and Amlak Finance PJSC, to stop lending.

And property prices in the emirate may drop another 20% as 41,000 new homes are put on the market by the end of this year, Ahmed Badr, a Dubai-based analyst for Credit Suisse Group AG, told Bloomberg. iCON

‘IT’S SIMPLY A BARBARIC FANTASY’ RRRUSSIAN ARCHITECT VLADIMIR POPOV ON THE OKHTA TOWER, P26 www.iconreview.org

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GLOBAL ROUND-UP HEALTH & SAFETY

GULF DISASTER PROMPTS BP’S POWERFUL NEW SAFETY UNIT BP will set up a new safety division with sweeping powers worldwide in a bid to manage risk better and regain the public’s trust.

The Safety & Operational Risk function will have authority to intervene in all aspects of BP’s technical activities, and its head will report directly to the chief executive, the company announced.

In a press release BP said the new unit will have its own “expert staff embedded in BP’s operating units, including exploration projects and refineries. It will be responsible for ensuring that all operations are carried out to common standards, and for auditing compliance with those standards.”

The powerful new organisation is designed to strengthen safety and risk management across the BP group. It will be headed by Mark Bly and report directly to incoming chief executive Bob Dudley.

The move follows the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico and BP’s. It is one of a number of major changes announced by Dudley as he prepared to take over his new role on October 1.

Dudley said: “Our response to the incident needs to go beyond deepwater drilling. There are lessons for us relating to the way we operate, the way we organise our company and the way we manage risk.”

“These are the first and most urgent steps in a programme I am putting in place to rebuild trust in BP – the trust of our customers, of governments, of our employees and of the world at large. That trust is vital to the restoration of shareholder value which has been so adversely affected by recent events.

New CEO Bob Dudley says the Deepwater explosion sparked the safety review

“The changes are in areas where I believe we most clearly need to act, with safety and risk management our most urgent priority.”

The company said the planned review of its performance and reward strategy would focus on how to deliver better safety and risk management, allied with strong leadership and the creation of enduring value for shareholders.

In his message to staff Dudley said: “As I take up my new role I am aware of two things. First, there is a pressing need to rebuild trust in BP around the world. Second, BP’s people have both the commitment and the capability to rebuild that trust.” iCON

ELECTION COMING SOON FOR CIOB BOARD OF TRUSTEES THE CIOB will soon be holding elections to fill vacancies on its board of trustees.

As part of the CIOB’s Governance structure, the Nominations Committee will accept applications for trusteeship from the end of November 2010. In June 2011, five trustees will be stepping down. Three of these vacancies will be filled through a ballot of corporate members (MCIOB/FCIOB). The remaining two will be selected by the Board.

CIOB corporate members are entitled to apply for a trustee position. Application forms will be available from the main CIOB website, or can be requested in hard copy.

For an application pack email Samantha Teague, Deputy Institute Secretary: steague@ciob.org.uk.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Serious fire at Bechtel’s New Doha Airport job inju THREE firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation after fighting a fire at the project site of the New Doha International Airport in Qatar 12th September.

Reports from constructionweekonline.com say the fire damaged 30 portable cabins and 10 vehicles.

Personnel from the Civil Defence and Lakhwaya managed to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading. Bechtel is providing engineering, project management, and construction management

services for the US$11bn project. Work began in 2004 and the new, 2,200-hectare airport will be one of the world’s largest when it is complete in 2015, bigger than New York’s JFK, London’s Heathrow and Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok. It is designed to handle 50 million passengers, 2 million tonnes of cargo, and 320,000 aircraft landings and takeoffs each year. Over 60 million m3 of fill will be reclaimed from the sea and used to

New Doha airport

Oil giant Kuwait mulls the nuclear option in the form of four new 1,000-megawatt reactors THE fifth biggest oil producer among OPEC members, Kuwait plans to build four nuclear power reactors by 2022, joining a drive for atomic energy among Gulf countries seeking alternative sources of electricity, ArabianBusiness.com reports.

www.iconreview.org

Kuwait’s National Nuclear Energy Committee is considering options and will release a so called roadmap for developing atomic power as early as January, Ahmad Bishara, secretary general of the body, said in an interview.

The country may build four

1,000 megawatt reactors, he said.

Kuwait is in discussions with international bodies on “how nuclear energy fits in the energy mix of Kuwait for the next 20 years,” Bishara said in Tokyo 9th September. iCON

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CONSERVATION CONFERENCE EXAMINES EVERYTHING FROM THE PYRAMIDS TO THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING THE CIOB has announced details of the 2011 International Building Conservation Conference, taking place in York, England on 19-20 May 2011.

Developed in partnership with English Heritage, the National Trust and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation, the conference features international experts addressing innovation in structural repair, international best

practice and the ramifications of climate change, among other topics.

The conference includes study tours of world renowned historic buildings such as York’s Gothic cathedral, York Minster. “It’s not just about sitting in the conference hall,” said John Edwards, Chair of the CIOB Conservation, Maintenance and Refurbishment Group. “There will be plenty of opportunity to

explore the real thing.”

Speakers include Mike Parrett, a building pathology expert with experience in Europe, North America and Hong Kong, and Peter James who has repaired structures ranging from the Egyptian Pyramids to the Empire State Building in New York.

To register interest, email: vdunn@ciob.org.uk

COMPANIES

b injures firefighters create the site, while over 6.2 million m3 of improperly disposed household waste has been removed from the site and disposed of in an engineered landfill.

The runways, taxiways and aprons of the new airport require 3.7 million tonnes of high quality polymer asphalt and an additional 115,000 m3 of concrete, while 800,000 m3 of concrete will be needed for facility structures. iCON

‘YOU COULD CUT 50 TO 60 PERCENT OF THE COST OF BUILDING WITHOUT EVEN TRYING’ RRSTEVE LEWIS, P18

04 QUARTER 2010

UK contracting giant Laing O’Rourke cuts staff and shrinks in Middle East LAING O’Rourke has closed its dedicated Middle East business and cut its global workforce by almost half, to 18,222.

Staff levels at Laing O’Rourke, the UK’s thirdlargest contractor, have fallen from a high of 35,753 on 31 March 2009 to 18,222 at the end of March this year, the UK’s Building magazine reported.

Laing O’Rourke is unusual among UK contractors in that it uses less subcontracted trade and craft workers, preferring instead to employ them directly.

Many of the redundancies

were in the Middle East, where it is understood Laing O’Rourke employed more than 20,000 at the height of the boom, Building said. It now employs 6,834.

According to its latest set of financial results, the Middle East arm has now been subsumed into the Europe and ‘Rest of the World’ hub while the remaining Australia and South-East Asia arm is unaffected.

Chairman and chief executive Ray O’Rourke said: “The year proved our most challenging ever with a significant number of people leaving the group as we took decisive action to align

business costs with current and anticipated workload.

The majority of this decline was directly attributable to the removal of work associated with the Aldar joint venture in Abu Dhabi and the steep decline in the Dubai market, where many projects were operationally paused.”

Turnover at the company in the year to 31 March 2010 was down 14% from £4.1bn to £3.5bn while pre-tax profit fell from £85m to £50m. The company ended the year with a cash balance of £716m, up from £614.3m in 2009 but its order book was down from £10bn to £8.2bn. iCON

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19/09/2010 SHOOTING IN DELHI’S OLD QUARTERS

21/09/2010 FOOTBRIDGE COLLAPSES

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NEWS FEATURE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

DELHI’S DISAPPOINTMENT Shrouded in secrecy and tainted by allegations of corruption, with costs spiraling out of control, dozens of fatalities and serious structural failures, preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi has been a disaster.

Mridu Khullar Relph asks why

REUTERS/B MATHUR; GETTY IMAGES; BARCROFT MEDIA

I

n November 2003, it seemed as if India’s moment had arrived. The Commonwealth Games Federation awarded the 2010 Games to the city of Delhi, making it the first time that the Games would be hosted in India, and only the second time in Asia. It was seen as fitting recognition for a country flushed with pride at its growing wealth and stature on the world stage.

But in the months before the opening ceremony, there were ominous reports of deadlines slipping, security and building standards being subpar, and corruption having taken root in every aspect of the event. After months of putting up with dust-caked streets, upturned roads and perpetual traffic jams, Delhi’s residents began worrying that they would be rewarded not with a “world-class city” but a world-class mess.

As the deadline loomed comparisons were being drawn with Athens’ handling of the 2004 Olympiad, when IOC officials issued tense warnings to unperturbed Greek delivery agencies to get their act together on venue construction.

Surely it wouldn’t be like that in Delhi, Games officials hoped.

But it was worse.

In the fortnight before the opening ceremony, a new pedestrian footbridge to the centrepiece Jawaharlal Nehru stadium collapsed, injuring 27 workers, and part of a false ceiling at a weightlifting sports venue fell down.

Then, with only 10 days to go, the BBC published photographs taken by Scottish Games officials showing athletes’ apartments in a state of filthy unreadiness. Top athletes, including English triple-jumper Philips Idowu, pulled out of the competition while Scotland, Canada and New Zealand all put off traveling to Delhi until they got assurances that the athletes’ village was safe and secure.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally intervened, ordering a host of emergency measures and setting up a military-style command centre with his stamp of authority.

“India stands humiliated,” lamented the Times of India newspaper.

It wasn’t only India’s honour that suffered. Its public purse took a terrible drubbing, too. The budget for the Games ballooned quickly from an initial estimate of US$450 million in 2003 to what India’s Business Today magazine now estimates at $15.47 billion, making it the most expensive Commonwealth Games in history.

Before probing why preparations went so badly, it’s worth briefly running through the scale of the construction challenge.

For their money, the people of Delhi were promised 26 new training venues and the upgrading of 16 pre-existing ones.

The cost of construction and renovation of five of these stadiums, however – Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, Indira Gandhi stadium, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee swimming pool complex, Major Dhyanchand National stadium and Dr. Karni Singh shooting range – is reported to have eventually cost more than 250 per cent of the original estimate.

Other new facilities included the headquarters of the CWG-

04 QUARTER 2010

07/10/2010 GIANT SCOREBOARD COLLAPSES AT RUGBY STADIUM

FIRST THEY WANTED US POOR PEOPLE IN THE CITY TO DO ALL THE DIRTY WORK. NOW THEY WANT US OUT. RAM LAL, 46, WORKER

2010 Organizing Committee (OC), which is spread over nine floors and a Main Media Centre and an International Broadcasting Centre with 24-hour power backup.

The Commonwealth Games Village itself, sprawled over 118 acres of land, was created through a public-private partnership model between the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Emaar MGF, which won the rights to develop the space through a competitive bidding process. The arrangement required that the DDA would get ownership of one-third of the apartments built and Emaar MGF would retain ownership of the rest, selling them in the open market.

However, a report released in May 2010 by the Housing and Land Rights Network, an NGO, points out that the 2009 financial crisis and realty slump meant the company couldn’t find buyers and raise money. It asked DDA for a bailout and got one.

In addition to sports infrastructure, the Delhi government also budgeted for transport infrastructure and tourism. Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport got a major facelift as did its Metro transit system. A fleet of 1,100 new low-floor, high capacity air-conditioned buses, too, became part of the city’s modern sleek look, and so were bus shelters and multi-level parking lots.

In order to meet the demands for hotel beds in the city during the Games (in 2009, the entire country had about 130,000 rooms in branded hotels, 10,000 less than in Las Vegas, according to HVS, a global hospitality consultancy group), India Tourism Development Corporation Limited (ITDC) spent upwards of Rs 100 crore (US $22.5 million) to renovate three state-run hotels. In addition, India’s tourism ministry began allowing homeowners to register their homes as bed-and-breakfasts.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN? The root of the problem lies in the fact that despite winning the bid 2003, it was not until in 2008 that construction finally started in earnest.

Once the deadlines started looming into view it became clear that Delhi wouldn’t be able to meet them all, so officials began a frantic catch-up exercise which left little room for quality or safety. Described by some as band-aids for a quick solution instead of lasting ameliorations, flyovers were built, roads were paved and stadiums were thrown up.

“It came to a point where the only thing they were thinking of was the prestige of the country, so everything else had taken a backseat, even workers’ rights and health and safety standards,” said Rajeev Sharma, Delhi director for Builders and Workers International (BWI), which groups together around 328 trade unions representing 12 million members in 130 countries.

Another problem, says Shivani Chaudhry, the Associate Director of the Housing and Land Rights Network, is that up to 21 agencies were involved in the whole process, from the national bodies such as the Sports Authority of India and the RR www.iconreview.org

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NEWS FEATURE COMMONWEALTH GAMES RR Home Ministry to local bodies such as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). “So when it came to labour and construction workers rights, nobody had taken on the responsibility of monitoring and because of that there was a complete lack of accountability,” she says.

In addition to the lack of proper planning, there was also a complete lack of transparency. Journalists faced tremendous problems trying to determine facts, including how the contracts were let and what progress has been on projects.

NGO’s such as Chaudhry’s have filed dozens of RTI (Right to Information) applications and says that has led them to very “disturbing findings”.

“The entire process has been cloaked in secrecy,” she says.

“Every step of information has been closed off to the public, for instance, the process of contracts, tenders, who’s involved and which government agencies are putting in how much money. Nobody has an [official] estimate of the total cost.”

Every department comes up with a different answer as to how the contracts have been awarded, and while the tenders were invited online, little information is available about the post-tender process.

“If you look at it from a purely aesthetic planning perspective, all the planning norms have been violated,” Chaudhry adds.

“The Delhi Urban Earth Commission, which is supposed to approve all projects, have not even been approached.”

Similarly, the Archaeological Survey of India warned against certain projects but were ignored. The quality of the infrastructure, experts say, is substandard. “There’s going to be an even greater cost,” says Chaudhry, “because everything will have to be redone in a few years.”

Here’s one example. The Games village has been built on the floodplains of the Yamuna river. This piece of land was once home to large slums but was cleared after a Delhi High Court ruled it environmentally unfit. The Supreme Court of the country, however, overruled these objections and permitted construction of the village.

A.K. Gosain, Head of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, told iCON this was a big mistake. “The choice of using the present location for the Games Village was very wrong,” says. “The flood plains are seen as vast tracts of land freely available and what nobody realises is that this is an encroachment of the drainage path meant for the river when it is in spate.” As late as 10 September, less than a month before the Games, thousands of people were evacuated as the Yamuna burst its banks elsewhere in Delhi.

Prof. Gosain says that other sites such as Delhi’s former main airport in Safdarjang were suggested but the organisers had already made up their minds. In response to criticism over the site Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told the media, “Show me another city in the world which has not developed its riverbanks. Development has to take place.”

MORE CONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS In July 2010, India’s local newspapers reported that the newly constructed Commonwealth Games venues were suffering from a wide variety of problems: flooding, leaking ceilings, bursting water pipes, and seepage everywhere. The Kadarpur shooting range built on CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) land and inaugurated not two months ago, had “collapsed.”

On July 8, CRPF DIG and Manager MC Panwar wrote in a letter to the Sports Ministry: “Due to incessant rains on the night of July 4 and 7, the various embankments on the range have collapsed and extensive damages (sic) have been caused…. the all-weather road near culvert No. 2 is about to collapse as all the underlying sand fillings have been washed away. There are visible landslides on either side of the remaining box culverts.”

When the Dr SP Mukherjee Swimming Complex was being inaugurated, it was not complete. In fact, reports mention a water pipe malfunction spraying water all around. Similarly, crucial aspects such as the lap timers and wall plaster were missing or dilapidated. The Talkatora Boxing Stadium had seepage problems, and it seemed that no one had taken into account that Delhi suffers from heavy monsoons during the months of July and August. At the Yamuna Sports Complex, a false ceiling collapsed and the wooden flooring had to be replaced because of waterlogging.

These problems were scarcely taken care of, when on September 21, mere weeks before the Games were to begin, a footbridge outside the main venue, the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, collapsed, injuring 27 workers and throwing Delhi into the world media spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Sharma, from Builders and Workers International (BWI), who helped in the relief effort, said an accident of this kind was to be expected. When projects are delayed as they have been for the Games, he said, there are bound to be quality and safety issues.

22/09/2010 PART OF STADIUM CEILING COLLAPSES

CORRUPTION Most difficult and disappointing for the public have been the corruption charges. A report by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), India’s government watchdog agency, found that construction quality certificates scrutinised in 16 Games-related projects were “fake or suspect”.

“It is a disturbing discovery, fake certificates were routinely issued to pass substandard work and materials,” an unnamed CVC official told the Times of India newspaper at the time.

“We have not yet been able to gauge the financial implication but it is certain to have led to very big gains for vendors and contractors.”

Immediately after the report was made public, CVC Chief Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha summoned a meeting with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and asked that a case be registered and an immediate probe be launched.

The CVC found other troubling irregularities, such as the granting of work to the highest bidders, poor quality of construction, and the awarding of work to agencies that were ineligible for the projects.

The picture painted by the CVC is depressingly familiar: administrators awarded projects to the companies that paid bribes, the bills presented to the government were inflated, and the companies, having squeezed their way in through greasing palms, saved money with shoddy workmanship and low-quality materials.

Shocking, too, is the fact that the CVC report locates the sleaze squarely in the fabric of government – the same government so eager to portray India as a modern, progressive country. The public bodies who delivered the venues and infrastructure improvements named in the report as being most corrupt included: the Public Works Department, the Municipal

THE LEVELS OF CORRUPTION SHOCK EVEN THE MOST LAID BACK PERSON IN THE COUNTRY SHIVANI CHAUDHRY, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE HOUSING AND LAND RIGHTS NETWORK www.iconreview.org

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REUTERS/REINHARD KRAUSE

Corporation of Delhi, the Central Public Works Department, Delhi Development Authority, New Delhi Municipal Council and RITES, a Government of India Enterprise.

THE HUMAN COST The multi-billion-dollar building and beautification boom was carried out by more than 400,000 day-contract workers who migrated to the city from villages in other parts of India.

Many have come with their families, including young children, who play at the construction sites and are exposed to numerous hazards.

By some estimates, the Commonwealth Games have brought an additional 10,000 children into the city who are not getting proper education, healthcare, or even nutrition.

They live with their parents in the inadequate housing provided by the construction companies.

Ram Lal, 46, has been an unregistered worker on CWG sites since arriving from his village in Uttar Pradesh in 2009.

Now that his work here is finished it’s time for him to go, but he has nothing to go back to.

“First they wanted us poor people in the city to do all the dirty work,” he says. “Now they want us out. Where am I to take them?” he says pointing to his two children, a five-yearold boy and a three-year-old girl, both playing by the rubble, next to where his wife is picking up bricks.

The 1996 “Building and Other Construction Workers Act” requires that one percent of the cost of construction projects be set aside by builders for a workers’ welfare fund. It is estimated that US$70 million of this money was accumulated, but only $30,000 of it reached workers.

“So much pressure was exerted on our workers,” says Sharma. “No one was working on a normal shift, they were always working extra hours, and there were so many accidents.”

By the government own figures, which many think are conservative, there have been 42 deaths on the Games sites.

Further, companies paid their labourers less than minimum wage, didn’t arrange for their housing or the education of the children of the migrant workers, and have been accused of employing forced and child labour.

“There have been many minimum wage violations,” says Sharma. “They’ve accepted that there was a lack of overall hygiene, lack of proper sanitation and cleanliness, and that workers were charged for their health and safety equipment.

There were six workers living to one shed.”

04 QUARTER 2010

A POOR MAN WILL REMAIN A POOR MAN EVEN IF HE IS WORKING FOR THE RICH MAN’S GAMES. BUILDING CONTRACTOR

Despite our attempts, not surprisingly, builders did not want to be interviewed. One spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying that in a market such as India where the labour supply far exceeds the demand, it was inevitable that workers would be exploited. “One goes, there are ten more to take his place,” he said. “A poor man will remain a poor man even if he is working for the rich man’s Games.”

After petitions were filed in the High Court of Delhi regarding the violation of labour laws the Court ordered for the registration of construction workers, calling for an increase in their wages, for overtime payment and safety equipment. But most social workers in the city say the ruling had little effect.

“There are just levels of corruption that shock even the most laid back person in the country because we’re dealing with astronomical figures,” says Chaudhry. “Thousand of crores siphoned off but we can’t pay people their minimum wage of Rs 230 [US $5] a day?”

More than 30 construction unions have petitioned the Commonwealth Games Federation to include core labour standards as a condition for awarding the Games to any country in the future. It’s the only way in which the standards will be kept, says Sharma.

A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by the Housing and Land Rights Network uncovered other disturbing information. Funds reserved for helping the poor under the Scheduled Castes Sub Plan 2009-2010 were diverted to cover Games expenditures, their report says.

According to the NGO, over 100,000 families were evicted to make space for CWG projects. Roadside tea vendors, fruit and vegetable sellers and street-food stall owners – who form a large part of India’s informal economy – were shut down for security purposes and to make the city look modern and world-class. “As soon as the projects were completed the construction workers, too, were forced to leave,” says Chaudhry. “Many of them were even put on to trains and told, just leave the city now, we don’t want you here. Some of them have been put into detention centres, but a large number have just been dropped to railway stations with their hands stamped. They’re told that if you get on the train and are stamped, you won’t have to pay for ticket. You can come back after fifteen days once the Games are over.”

This act, she said, is not only perverse but unconstitutional.

“We’re dealing with a very dark stage in the history of this city.”

There have been reports, too, of child labour, but Sharma doubts the practice is widespread. He says it’s mostly kids playing around when their parents are working. While facilities should be made for children’s care and education he hesitates to call it child labour.

In its legacy plan the government decided to let private companies operate the sports complexes. They will be allowed to use them commercially for sporting and nonsporting events, which clashes with the Committee’s assurances that the Games would help India’s youth embrace sport. “It’s completely false,” says Chaudhry. “There is no plan to make these stadiums accessible. What’s ironic is that a lot of open spaces where children did play have been taken over to build these stadiums and parking lots for the Games.”

There were sighs of relief when the Games actually happened with only a few structural failures, the worst being the collapse of a scoreboard at the rugby sevens venue on October 7, thankfully while no spectators were around. But even as Prime Minister Singh was congratulating India’s athletes his office was ordering a corruption probe. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has already started investigating 22 Games projects carried out by government agencies. To sum up the experience, the Times of India quoted former Indian sports minister and outspoken opponent of the Games, Mani Shankar Aiyar: “70,000 crores to get ourselves a bad name.” iCON

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CITY OF THE FUTURE, STARTING NEXT YEAR A brand new city planned in Portugal sets out to revolutionise not just buildings, but cities. And the entire construction process. Oh, and the whole property development business as well. Rod Sweet reports

S

teve Lewis has his work cut out. The former Microsoft executive is leading a cluster of brainy, hightech companies in a bold project to build a brand new city in Portugal that will, they claim: Make buildings and whole cities ‘smart’ by using in-built sensors and massive computing power; Make the construction process as automated and efficient as car making; and Change the entire property-development business model.

A tall order indeed. We’ll take it slow, starting with the ‘What?’ – the city.

Scheduled to be finished as early as 2015, “PlanIT Valley” is a 1,700-hectare site in the Municipality of Paredes in northern Portugal. The vision of Lewis’ company, Living PlanIT, is that it will be home to as many as 220,000 people, a population made up of researchers and other staff employed by Living PlanIT’s high-tech partner companies and their families. On the built-up area, about 850 hectares, will be offices, homes, schools, shops, medical and leisure facilities, not to mention all the necessary transport and other infrastructure.

“This isn’t a science park, it’s a real city,” Lewis told iCON in an interview.

PlanIT Valley will be an R&D centre and test-bed for Living PlanIT’s vision of a “smart” city, one with a “brain”. In this vision built-in sensors measure occupancy, temperature, humidity and energy production and use. This data is channelled by a central “nervous system” and the buildings adjust their performance to maximise efficiency and comfort for the inhabitants.

Lewis describes it as “a kind of urban metabolism”, powered by the company’s trademarked “Urban Operating System” (UOS™). The idea is that any number of “applications” can be run on it to make the built environment more responsive. The city could be able to track down a missing child, for instance, or adjust traffic controls to cope with congestion.

Some of Living PlanIT’s ideas sound ‘blue sky’, but Lewis insists the city is going ahead. In 2008 the municipal government granted Living PlanIT exclusive rights to purchase the land, which is undeveloped and overrun with non-native eucalyptus trees, at pre-rezoning values. It has since been buying up 10-hectare plots with a 50-million-euro loan arranged with Matrix Property Fund Management, a London “boutique” investment bank. Portugal’s national government has given the scheme official status as a project of “Potential National Importance”, which offers tax breaks and greases its way through some of the hurdles other developments might face. “PIN” status also allows the state to force reluctant landowners to sell up.

Lewis said the first phase of building, for a projected first influx of around 7,000 residents, would start in early 2011 and be finished by October 2011.

Yes, you read that correctly. Under a year. Which brings us to the second of Lewis’ tall orders – “dragging construction,” as he puts it, “into the 21st Century.”

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Lewis was formerly general manager of market development at Microsoft. “We’re a tech firm, not a property developer,” he says. But in 2004 he got involved with a Microsoft client who was developing a retail and science park for companies working on green building technologies in Syracuse, New York, and there he encountered developers’ frustration with the construction process. He left Microsoft in 2005, forming his own company to help this developer full time. He invited Malcolm Hutchinson, founder of a company providing e-security and identity verification, to join him. They researched the automotive, shipbuilding and aviation industries to see how waste, time and cost could be designed out of the construction process, and also how to incorporate sensors into a building’s fabric. Their idea was to sell the concept to property developers.

Called Xtreme Construction™, the method relies on what he calls “deep” design, where every aspect of the building is comprehensively modeled by software from a catalogue of standardised components (‘objects’), and that model is made accessible to a tightly-integrated supply chain of parts manufacturers. Delivery and assembly is managed on a ‘justin-time’ basis.

Being able to go straight from design to cutting machine makes certain traditional disciplines obsolete, such as construction management and quantity surveying, he says.

When you have an accurate, polymetric model of a building linked to an electronic market of standardised components, the issue of cost uncertainty disappears.

“You could cut 50 to 60 percent of the cost of building without even trying,” he said. Time and waste could be driven out relentlessly as well, which is why Lewis is so bullish about being able to build the first phase of PlanIT Valley in a matter of months.

YOU COULD CUT 50 TO 60 PERCENT OF THE COST OF BUILDING WITHOUT EVEN TRYING STEVE LEWIS, CEO, LIVING PLANIT

WHO ARE THESE GUYS, ANYWAY? Industrialisation has long been held up as the way to eliminate waste and error in construction but apart from some isolated examples around the world – like house-building in Japan – the technique has failed to take root, probably because no one part of the highly fragmented supply chain has the incentive or resources to do it.

That’s why Lewis’ bold claims are notable. The swarm of companies getting involved in PlanIT Valley potentially make up a complete supply chain, from client and designer through to technology suppliers and manufacturers. Lewis says that’s how things are done high-tech world: “When the tech industry goes to market it creates an ecosystem of partners to drive the fulfillment and demand cycles.”

He says there are 400 companies involved now as “partners” and the number is growing. Partners are key to Living PlanIT’s vision, because each brings technology and know-how to the table. They’re also key to the business model because, to be involved, they pay an annual fee of up to €100,000 per year, depending how big they are, plus royalties 04 QUARTER 2010

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ECO-CITIES PLANIT VALLEY

COURTESY OF BALONAS AND MENANO, A LIVING PLANIT PARTNER

Top, the masterplan for PlanIT Valley. Above, an artist’s rendition of the city at night

on revenue made thanks to Living PlanIT intellectual property.

Global networking giant Cisco Systems is a partner. PlanIT Valley will integrate tens of millions of sensors with Cisco’s network and computing platforms. Formula One supplier McLaren Electronic Systems is a partner. Managing director Peter van Manen said McLaren would bring its “expertise in real-time data, telemetry, control and simulation systems into the heart of a vibrant urban environment”.

UK-based engineer Buro Happold is a partner as well. Buro Happold Principal Steve Brown sits on the Living PlanIT board as a non-executive director. When the Paredes site was announced, Andrew Comer, Buro Happold’s director of environment and infrastructure, enthused that PlanIT Valley offered the chance “to develop a new design, construction, operation and maintenance model which will set new standards in terms of integration, interrogation and the future delivery of development projects.”

Other notable partners include Accenture, the global management consultant, and Aconex, which provides online project collaboration tools for construction projects. Eventually, Lewis says, Living PlanIT hopes to have 2,000 big-company partners. How many other actual construction-type companies are involved? “Five or six,” Lewis says, though he’s reluctant to name names. He said they are in manufacturing, consulting and architecture. Some are Portugese firms, such as architect Balonas and Menano. He did say he expected to announce more construction-specific partnerships in the next six weeks.

CHANGING THE PROPERTY BUSINESS Another plank in the Living PlanIT strategy is to offer commercial developers an alternate financial model based on the ramped-up functionality of ‘smart’ buildings. At the moment property developers rely on rent or sales, but if buildings offer state-of-the-art communications, security or even customer transaction capabilities, Lewis says developers could charge more, or even take a cut of revenue generated 04 QUARTER 2010

by third-party service providers through their buildings.

“Developers now don’t have access to higher revenue streams,” Lewis says. “We’re looking at broadening the types of returns you can get from real estate.”

What more could buildings do? Lewis says an office building could ‘listen’ to meetings and analyze what’s getting talked about so it can flag up similar content being discussed in other meetings at the same time. If buildings have sensors, displays and who knows what else built into the surfaces, plus ‘operating systems’, the potential is unlimited. A building would be like an iPhone, where you go to the ‘app store’ and download whatever app you want. Some are free and some are not. It looks simple but there are commercial relationships behind it. ‘Smart’ buildings would let developers tap into similar sorts of commercial relationships.

Aside from making construction like car making, this is the most futuristic sounding part of the Living PlanIT offering. Lewis acknowledges that developers might not ‘get it’ right away.

“Obviously we’re going after the more visionary guys,” he says.

PlanIT Valley in Paredes will be the place for Living PlanIT and its partners to try all this out. They admit mistakes will be made, but the prize is big. What they develop in “the Valley” they want to roll out to meet not only the projected huge demand for new, sustainable urban environments in developing countries, but also the massive challenge of carbon retrofitting existing buildings in developed countries.

Co-founder Malcolm Hutchinson wasn’t exaggerating when he called it “an enormous global emerging business opportunity”.

Robert G. Eccles, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, called it “one of the most ambitious and potentially most viable business models for addressing the challenge and huge commercial opportunity created by the need for sustainable urbanisation”.

Eccles was so impressed he joined the Living PlanIT board of directors. iCON

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CHINA’S ECO-CITY THAT WILL DO, FOR NOW With the failure of Dongtan and the scaling back of Masdar prompting claims of ‘greenwash’ from sceptics, Kristina Smith explores an eco-city in China that has more modest ambitions, but that actually seems to be happening

EVERYBODY’S DOING THEM nearing completion and students now on site. Its opening date of September 2009 had been pushed back a year.

The term ‘eco-city’ encompasses a wide range of ideas and aspirations. Below is a selection of some would-be ecodevelopments from around the world.

MASDAR CITY, ABU DHABI In 2007, Fosters + Partners revealed their plan for Masdar City, a 6-sq-km city costed at $22 billion to develop. Funded by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, the Abu Dhabi government’s investment arm, the city aims to lead the world in the development of renewable energy technologies.

In 2008 the developer set a completion date of 2016, but in October this year that was put back to at least 2020 following a 10-month review. It also scaled back some of its green ambitions. Instead of producing all of its own clean energy on site, Masdar says it may now buy renewable energy from other regions, as the city’s power demand is expected to outstrip clean energy development. Also, the original vision was car-free, with a system of electric www.iconreview.org

ZIRA ISLAND, AZERBAIJAN With its seven buildings in the shape of the seven peaks of Azerbaijan, Zira Island in the bay of Baku, is certainly striking to the eye. It has impressive aims too: to go ‘beyond zero carbon’ to self-sufficiency, with no energy or water imported and no waste exported. Most of the electrical energy will come from wind power but the development will also be making use of solar and PV panels and

individual pods on tracks for transportation, but the developers have distanced themselves from this promise and say electric vehicles will be allowed.

The core of the city, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is on site with the building 04 QUARTER 2010

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ECO-CITIES TIANJIN ECO-CITY

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f you were asked to imagine an eco-city, what would it be? A Utopian place where people lived in harmony, with work, shops and leisure facilities a pleasant walk or cycle ride away, the air clean, self sufficient in water, food and energy, powered by wind, sun and biomass?

This was Arup’s vision of Dongtan, an eco-city planned for the Island of Chongming in the Yangtze River Delta. But Dongtan never made it to site. In 2006 Chen Liangyu, Communist party chief of Shanghai and principal political sponsor of Dongtan, was arrested and later sentenced to prison for corruption. It was the highest-profile corruption scandal the city had seen for years. Afterwards nobody dared to pick up the project and the site is still a tranquil island frequented by migratory birds.

Sceptics have suggested there was never the intention to build Dongtan, that it was merely a smokescreen designed to create the impression of a country concerned with environmental issues. The very concept of ‘eco-cities’ has elicited claims of ‘greenwash’, a cynicism not helped by the recent announcement of delays and scaled-back green ambitions of Masdar City in Abu Dhabi (see box).

But now there is indisputable evidence that China is getting to grips with sustainable development.

Near the city of Tianjin, an altogether more pragmatic version of an eco-city is actually under construction. Its ambitions are more modest compared to Dongtan’s. Rather than being a zero carbon model for sustainable development around the world, Tianjin Eco-City’s aim is to be a badlyneeded model for sustainable development inside China.

The ‘eco-city’ is a serious concept for China because unlike already-developed places like Europe, the China of tomorrow isn’t built yet. The proportion of its urban population is projected to increase by 50% from 600 million today to 900 million by the year 2050. China tackles this challenge by throwing up new cities at an astonishing rate. In his book The Concrete Dragon, Thomas J. Campanella notes that the number of cities grew from under 200 in the late 1970s to nearly 700 today. Nor is the pace slowing. According to the

heating/cooling pumps connected to the Caspian sea.

The 1m sq m island will be split 50/50 between residents and holiday makers. This is a luxurious development, as anyone watching the movie flythrough on the website www.ziraisland.com will see.

Just how you reconcile a zero carbon development with the carbon generated by visiting holidaymakers is another matter.

Developer Avrositi Holdings is currently looking at construction costs. Early estimates put them at $4bn to $4.5bn. Avrositi plan to announce when construction will start later this year.

ECOBAY, ESTONIA Though situated in a very windy location, this new town will not rely on wind for its main source of power: the huge turbines necessary would have played havoc with the local bird sanctuary. Smaller wind turbines will power street lighting though.

Pragmatic rather than show-stopping, this 481,000m2 eco-town planned for 6,000 people aims to reduce energy consumption of homes by up to 04 QUARTER 2010

Industrialization Report issued by the Ministry of Construction’s Promotion Center for Housing, by the end of this year, China will have built 80 billion square meters of new housing. By 2020, estimates are 205 billion square meters. As Michael Brown noted in Building Modern China, “It’s no understatement to call this the planet’s first urban development Big Bang.”

TIANJIN IS NOT A DREAMY IDEA BUT AS A BLUEPRINT FOR OTHER CITIES PAUL LENGTHORN, MOTT MACDONALD And China has a lot to learn if it is to build cities in a future marked by the increasing cost of fossil fuels and scarcity of clean air and water. As well as energy efficient design, it needs to understand the complexities of planning, how to organise and motivate the people to live sustainably in new cities.

When complete, by 2020 if all goes to plan, Tianjin EcoCity will cover an area of 30 sq km and be home to 350,000 people, about the same population as Cardiff in Wales. About 40% of the area will be set aside for residential use, 10% each for industrial and commercial use, and the remaining 40% for roads, green spaces and community facilities. To make it economically viable planners hope to attract clean technology companies and industries in sectors such as clean energy, green building, green transport, clean water, waste management and environmental management.

“What’s different about Tianjin is they’ve set it up not as a sort of dreamy idea but as a blueprint for other cities in China,” Paul Lengthorn, director of the buildings division of Mott MacDonald in China, told iCON. Mott MacDonald has been involved in planning aspects of the city. “Is it really special compared with the rest of the world? Probably not. But compared to China, it’s really different.”

Part of the new eco-city’s role will be to educate Chinese consultants in how to design energy efficient buildings. One of Mott MacDonald’s tasks, working for the World Bank’s RR

The Tianjin Eco-City masterplan, and artist impression (far left)

town in the next 10 to 15 years.

70% compared to traditional houses, through orientation and materials. The source of power for the homes, schools and offices is likely to be a combination of CHP and energy from a waste treatment plant.

Architect Schmidt Hammer Lassen has developed the masterplan working with landscape architect Moller & Gronborg and engineer Buro Happold.

One of the challenges for the design team was including enough homes to get the pricing right, while not impacting on residents’ quality of life. MM Group, which owns the land on the Palijassaare peninsula near Tallin has said it plans to develop the

SHANGHAI BEACH, SHANGHAI A green community with offices, housing, theme parks, visitor attractions and hotels sited on reclaimed tidal flats. In May 2009 TR Hamzah and Yeang, the Malaysian sister company of Llewelyn Davies Yeang, were announced as the lead designer for the Shanghai Beach masterplan for an unnamed Malaysian client.

PLANIT VALLEY, PORTUGAL Developer Living PlanIT claims this 1,700-hectare site in northern Portugal will be finished as early as 2015, and will use data collected from sensors embedded in the fabric of buildings to regulate energy and water use (see page 18). Cisco Systems and UK-based engineer Buro Happold are two of the many partners in the project. Developers say PlanIT Valley will have 220,000 residents, comprising staff working in R&D for Living PlanIT’s partners and their families. Construction starts early 2011. www.iconreview.org

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ECO-CITIES TIANJIN ECO-CITY

RR Global Investment Facility (GEF) fund, was to produce prototype designs for schools and residential buildings.

Another was to develop a green building standard, a sort of BREEAM or LEED for China.

“It needs to be sensible and it needs to be something people here can follow on and do, rather than having to use international consultants,” Lengthorn says. “They cannot depend on international companies because the money is not there to do it. We are much more expensive than local design companies. And it’s only right that they get the chance for the work.”

BUSINESS SAVVY It also needs to work in a free market context, which is why China has joined forces with Singapore on this development.

Both national governments support the scheme and funding is split 50-50 between a Singapore private consortium led by Keppel Group and a Tianjin consortium led by Tianjin TEDA Investment Holding Co. The Singapore side brings commercial know-how to the table: tax breaks, land deals and incentives for international businesses to set up headquarters there. The challenge is to get the developers actually developing, and quickly, as investors currently tend to buy land in China and then sit on it to ride the soaring property values.

Another balancing act will be to bring in enough businesses to provide jobs, and attracting enough people to do them.

The two countries have done it before, however, at Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), which began in 1994. SIP had a tough start, competing against neighbouring industrial parks offering lower rent, and did not make a profit until majority ownership moved from the Singaporean side to the Suzhou side in 1999. Now it’s considered a success.

Tianjin municipality already has experience of creating a new city: ‘Teda’ (short for Tianjin Economic Development Authority), is a huge industrial development incorporating a new town. “This means that local government are very skilled already at taking forward these big developments,” says Lengthorn. “They have realised that they can really get ahead of everybody else.”

As with any large development, the land is being split into many parts and developed in a number of ways. Some plots such as schools and residential buildings are reserved and treated as semi-government projects where the local council sets up and operates a development company. Most plots are sold off in huge bundles to large developers who may in turn sell them on.

To date a number of overseas companies and developers have signed up. These include the Philippine’s largest property company Ayala Land, Japanese firm Mitsui Fudosan Group and Malaysian company Sunway Real Estate Investment Trust. Singaporean firms Pan Asia Water Solutions and PV World, Hitachi, Philips and ST Engineering will also base businesses in Tianjin Eco-City.

LOW-VALUE LAND Located 40km from Tianjin and 150km from Bejing, the site is on low-value land, polluted marshes and old saltpans, no good for agriculture nor even, until recent technological developments, construction. The theory was that if developers can pay less for the plot they can spend more on energy efficient buildings.

The masterplan – developed jointly by the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, the Tianjin Institute of Urban Planning and Design, and the Singapore planning team led by the Urban Redevelopment Authority – provides a green www.iconreview.org

spine through the city, coined the ‘Eco-Valley’, which the planners hope will improve quality of life and encourage social interaction.

Much thought has been put into how this city might be a desirable place to live. Part of that is making housing affordable to people with lower incomes. One of the KPIs is that at least 20% of homes will be affordable – although still for purchase, rather than rent. What happens here could bring lessons for the rest of China, which has yet to find a balance between the old-style state provision of housing and the rampant juggernaut of the free property market. Singapore has 50 years experience mixing social with commercial housing and the project backers hope it will provide a test-bed for innovative public housing policies in China.

The eco-city dwellers shouldn’t have to commute too far either if all goes to plan. The city will be made up of 400m by 400m ‘Eco-Cells’ containing schools, offices, recreational areas and homes to reduce travel. Added together, the EcoCells will form neighbourhoods and then districts.

Part of Mott MacDonald’s brief for the World Bank was to help devise a green transport plan, looking at how to encourage bike riding and whether a rapid bus service or tram would be better in terms of carbon emissions. The company has also advised on how to contract out green bus services and what sort of pricing system might discourage people from using cars. “These are all things that don’t exist in China, although they do in other parts of the world,” says Lengthorn.

“They are all being considered, although some of them are seen as too much; the idea of a bus fare costing more because it’s green is not acceptable, for instance.”

The first phase covers around one-seventh of the overall site and is now under construction. The roads and main infrastructure, generally funded by the Chinese and Singapore governments, are well-advanced. Any remaining infrastructure work will be finished by the end of this year.

Late 2009 saw ground-breaking ceremonies for a number of developments in the start-up area, such a 35-hectare commercial and residential site for Keppel Land, which will provide 680,000 sq m of space, and the Shimao Ecology City, a 1.8-million sq m site high-end residential and hotel development. Some residential developers have already started marketing their homes and the first residents could be moving in late next year.

The National Animation Park, a government project funded by the Ministry of Culture, is also on site, with the first batch of companies expected to move in by the end of this year. The Park will be home to research and production facilities and an animation college as well as media and animation businesses.

A spokesman from Singapore’s Ministry of National Development confirmed that the start-up area is on track to complete by its programmed date of 2013.

The National Animation Park (above) is already built, with the first batch of companies expected to move in by the end of this year. Sceptics say the visions of eco-cities such as Dongtan (right) are doomed to remain just visions, but the concept is proliferating

IS IT REALLY SPECIAL COMPARED WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD? PROBABLY NOT. BUT COMPARED TO CHINA, IT’S REALLY DIFFERENT

1.5 TIMES AS GOOD AS LONDON Despite its name, Tianjin Eco-City will not be breaking any world records when it comes to carbon reduction. Part of Mott MacDonald’s work was to compare the new city with others around the world, and they found that it is likely to be around twice as good as Tianjin itself and 1.5 times as good as London.

But comparing it to other cities is tough because of how it has chosen to measure carbon output. While the World Bank 04 QUARTER 2010

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uses carbon emissions per person, Tianjin’s KPI is 150 tonnes of carbon per US$1m of GDP. This creates problems, Lengthorn says, because calculating the GDP of a city is not an exact science – for instance, which transaction can be attributed to the city and which to somewhere else?

What Tianjin Eco-City intends to do is leave a legacy of designers and developers who know how to build low energy buildings, of which there are very few successful examples in China. The green building standard developed by Mott MacDonald will provide guidelines on elements such as insulation, wall construction and window specification. “The way design works in China is that companies use the cheapest option so all the designers are working very fast, with very low fee margins, so they tend to reproduce something they have done before,” says Lengthorn.

So although there is an existing green building evaluation standard produced by central government, people won’t be inclined to use it. The new standard sets higher goals and adds in more rules on water and waste management. And a key element of Mott’s work on the standard is to come up with ways of educating designers about the guidelines, running seminars and training days, rather than just handing them a document.

“It’s a similar situation to what we had in the UK 15 years ago,” says Lengthorn. “I was working in London when Part L of the building regulations were revised to include energy targets.

The whole consultancy business was not ready for it. We ran breakfast briefings and they were the best attended ever. What happens is that very quickly everybody catches up.”

Now that phase one of the eco-city is on site the project is in what Lengthorn calls “a kind of pause time”, normal practice in China where people take stock and evaluate before making decisions and moving on. Decisions also need to be taken by central government on whether a new rail line from Beijing to the Eco-City will be built, which will impact heavily on its success.

It is possible that Tianjin Eco-City will take 20 rather than 10 years to develop. But unlike Dongtan we can be sure it is definitely happening.

“The exciting thing about this is that there is such a commitment to build it,” says Lengthorn. “We all work on many things that don’t get built. It is exciting to be involved in something where you know that what you have done will influence the way the scheme will be delivered.” iCON

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A MODEL FOR THE WORLD? Tianjin Eco-City has 26 key performance indicators (KPIs) to keep it on track with its sustainability goals. Created by local universities, consultants and a panel of experts, the KPIs comprise 22 quantitative measure and 4 qualitative measures. The start-up area and the entire Eco-city development are targeted for completion by 2013 and 2020 respectively, and so reference is made to these years in the KPIs. QUANTITATIVE Good Natural Environment l Air quality should meet at least China’s National Ambient Air Quality Grade II Standard for at least 310 days. The SO2 and NOX content in the ambient air should not exceed the limits stipulated for China’s National Ambient Air Quality Grade 1 standard for at least 155 days. l Water bodies to meet Grade IV of China’s latest national standards by 2020. l Water from all taps should be potable. l Noise levels to comply with national standards for noise in urban areas. l Carbon emission should not exceed 150 tonnes per US$1 million GDP. l Zero net loss of natural wetlands.

Man-made Environment l All buildings in the Eco-city should meet green building standards. l At least 70% of the plant varieties in the Eco-city should be native. l Public green space at least 12 square metres per person by 2013.

Lifestyle l Daily water consumption per person not to exceed 120 litres by 2013 l Domestic waste generated per person per day not to exceed 0.8 kg by 2013 l 90% of trips within the eco-city are cycling, walking or public transport by 2020. l 60% of total waste should be recycled

by 2013.

Residents to have access to free recreational amenities within 500m by 2013. l All hazardous and domestic waste should be rendered non-toxic through treatment. l 100% barrier-free access for disabled. l Access to key infrastructure services, such as recycled water, gas, broadband, electricity and heating by 2013. l 20% of housing will be subsidised public housing by 2013. l

Economy l 20% of energy supply to be from renewable sources by 2020. l 50% of water supply from nontraditional sources such as desalination and recycling by 2020. l 50 R&D scientists and engineers per 10,000 workforce by 2020. l 50% of employable residents in the Eco-city to be employed in the Eco-city by 2013.

QUALITATIVE l A safe and healthy ecology. l Regional collaboration to improve the environment of the surrounding regions. l Preserving local history and cultural heritage. l Promoting orderly and sustainable economic development.

Source: www.tianjinecocity.gov.sg

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PROJECT CANTON TV TOWER

Designers Information Based Architecture say they wanted to avoid the usual ‘male’ characteristics of a tower: angular, simplistic, heavy and repetitive

‘SEXY’ WASP-WAISTED TOWER IS CHINA’S HIGHEST

D

esigned by Information Based Architecture (IBA), with structural design by Arup, the 610m tower (also known as Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower) is only 27m wide at its narrowest, created by the top and bottom of the structure twisting 45° relative to each other.

Architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit of IBA set out to make a woman of the structure, rather than the usual ‘male’ skyscraper: “Where most historical skyscrapers were bearing male characteristics, being angular, simplistic, heavy and based on repetition,” they write on their website, “we defined our tower to have the identity of a female: smooth, curved, slender, gracious and incorporating diversity of spaces and floor-plan sizes – in short a sexy tower.”

The concrete core is wrapped in a triangular lattice comprising structural steel, concrete-filled columns, rings and diagonal tubes. Arup says it used parametric associative software to create geometric and structural models, and linked this data to analytical and drafting software.

Five miniature buildings are suspended throughout the building and large open-air spaces offer 360° views from the inside. Visitors can experience the height of the tower by climbing the open-air ‘SkyWalk’ staircase wrapped around the concrete core.

A key challenge for Arup was designing a super-tall tower that allows wind to blow thought it – in Guangzhou’s typhoonprone climate.

The Canton Tower is to be the focus of festivities surrounding the Asian Games taking place in Guangzhou 12 to 27 November. To entertain the hoped-for 10,000 visitors per day, it has a 4D cinema, the ‘SkyWalk’ and various exhibition spaces. There are glass, cantilevered observation boxes protruding from the 82nd and 83rd floors, computer games rooms, revolving restaurants and, at the top, the world’s highest Ferris Wheel.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION The structure consist of an open lattice-structure twisted over its axis, creating a tightening waist halfway up the building.

The rings are placed on the far inside of the columns so that they miss each other spatially and are connected off-centre.

This makes the inside view dominated by the rings while the view from the outside is dominated by the sloping columns. www.iconreview.org

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DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION TEAM

WWW.IBA-BV.COM / WWW.CANTONTOWER.INFO

Client: Construction Commission of Guangzhou Municipality Architect: Mark Hemel + Barbara Kuit Information Based Architecture Structure: Arup Local Design Institute: Guangzhou Design Institute Main Contractors: GMC Guangzhou, SCG Shanghai Facade Specialist: Jin Yue Facade Glazing: Shanghai Yaohua Pilkington Laminated Glazing: DuPont Lifts: Otis Research support: EERTC lab, Guangzhou University, Tongji University Shanghai, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

WE DEFINED OUR TOWER TO HAVE THE IDENTITY OF A FEMALE: SMOOTH, CURVED, SLENDER, GRACIOUS – IN SHORT A SEXY TOWER A key challenge for Arup was designing a super-tall tower that allows wind to blow thought it – in Guangzhou’s typhoonprone climate. The concrete core is wrapped in a triangular lattice comprising structural steel, concrete-filled columns, rings and diagonal tubes.

04 QUARTER 2010

The core of the tower consists of a concrete elliptical shaft with a short and long diameter of 15.6m and 18.6m respectively. It was built using sliding formwork.

Columns, rings and diagonal members form a web that varies over the length of the tower. The columns are straight but lean in a uniform direction, giving the twist effect. They taper from bottom to top, further amplifying the perspective. At the bottom of the tower the columns are 2m in diameter, constructed of 50-mm-thick plated steel bent and welded together. At the top of the tower the column diameter is reduced to 1100mm with a plate thickness of 30mm.

The diagonals are more or less the same at 800mm. They consist of straight tubes that run between columns giving stiffness to the web of nodes. The rings are placed on the inside and their diameter is fixed at 800mm.

The nodes and tubes of the steel web were prefabricated and trucked to the site from the factory in Shanghai. The elements are first connected by bolts. When the tubes were welded together, the bolt connections were burned off. When the first six rings and all the matching columns and tubes were constructed, the columns were lined out and filled with concrete for stability and fire-proofing. iCON

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PROJECT OKHTA TOWER

DIFFICULTIES RISING A controversial tower – so controversial that three of the signature international architects on the judging panel resigned in protest before the winner was even chosen – is now going ahead. Kristina Smith reports

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n November 2005 Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom announced that it was to build a 400m-high skyscraper in the historic – and flat – city of St Petersburg. All hell broke loose. It has taken until now, October 2010, for the authorities to grant final approval for the scheme.

In that five years Gazprom and its architect, Scottish firm RMJM, have been fighting the people of St Petersburg, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, pop stars, actors and even Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. There have been protests in the street, violent clashes and a flood of bile spewing from the internet. The scheme’s opponents argue that in a city where only church spires punctuate the skyline a huge tower just 5km from the centre of a UNESCOdesignated World Heritage Site is an abomination.

“It’s simply a barbaric fantasy,” Vladimir Popov, director of the Architects’ Union of St Petersburg, told Radio Free Europe. Protestors put it in more colourful terms. “Miller, put your phallus away!” they wrote on a banner aimed at Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller.

The counter point is that such a bold architectural statement is just what St Petersburg needs to drive a much-

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needed regeneration. The development will create a new business district on a brownfield site, in the style of London’s Canary Wharf.

SPECIAL TREATMENT In defence of the scheme, RMJM’s group design director Tony Kettle, writing in Architects’ Journal said that the Gazprom tower – renamed the Okhta tower in March 2007 after one of the rivers that run by it – is a ‘special building’ which should be allowed to break the mould. “The Okhta Tower must symbolise rebirth for Russia and the city of St Petersburg, while demonstrating that an innovative, lowenergy building is possible in the extremes of the Russian climate,” said Kettle, who is also lead designer on the scheme.

For the UAE’s biggest contractor Arabtec, who won the US$2.7 billion contract to build the tower and five related buildings in April 2008, this project will be a lesson in how different things are in Russia. It encountered no such political wrangling building the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and is now looking beyond its home ground with projects in Pakistan, Syria and Jordan and designs on Algeria, Egypt and possibly 04 QUARTER 2010

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Libya and Morocco.

There were problems with this tower – namely its height – before RMJM even won the architectural competition in December 2006. Three of the four signature international architects who made up the competition jury, Sir Norman Foster, Rafael Vinoly and Kisho Kurokawa, resigned before the winner was even announced because they thought all the entries were too tall.

UNESCO World Heritage Commission has repeatedly criticised the scheme, which is jointly funded by Gazprom and St Petersburg local government, and has threatened to withdraw St Petersburg’s World Heritage Site status. In a decision text released in July 2009, the commission said that it “Expresses again its grave concern that the proposed ‘Ohkta Centre Tower’ could affect the Outstanding Universal Value of the property, and requests the State Party to suspend work on this project and submit modified designs, in accordance with federal legislation and accompanied by an independent environmental impact assessment”.

The historic city centre – sometimes known as ‘The Venice of the North’ – was designed largely by Italian architects.

Local planning rules forbid any buildings over 100m tall. This dates back to Peter the Great who founded the city. He said that no building should be taller than the Peter and Paul

OF ST PETERSBURG

ARCHEOLOGICAL FINDS The tower has archeologists angry, too. They’ve found remains of a 14th Century Swedish fortress and an 18th Century Russian one with five sides – which inspired the pentagonshaped footprint of the tower. Archeologists would have liked to preserve their finds in situ. Speaking to French current affairs TV channel France 24 in September 2009, Anatoly Kirpichnikov, head of the Slavic-Finnish archaeology department at the History of Material Culture Sciences Institute, said of the finds: “It’s a unique site containing

Fortress, which he established in 1703. The spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is actually the highest point at 123m.

However the St Peterburg city authorities agreed to waive the planning rules to make way for the Okhta tower.

The Ohkta tower is seen by some as just one of a number of crimes committed against the ancient city of St Petersburg, which has had over 100 historic buildings destroyed in the past six years according to the Moscow Architectural Preservation Society. Opponents fear that the Okhta tower will pave the way for more tall buildings and ensure that St Petersburg, like Dresden before it, loses its World Heritage Site tag.

Several individuals have brought law suits claiming that the tower violates international regulations on World Heritage Sites but the Russia Courts have thrown each one out. The latest case, decided in June this year, is recorded in the Okhta project website under the heading ‘Okhta Center Continues Winning in Courts’.

The Okhta tower and four surrounding buildings are to be built on an 80 hectare plot on an old industrial site on the banks of the River Okhta, directly opposite the 18th century Smolny Cathedral on the other bank. The base buildings, linked by a

samples of Swedish, Russian and Italian architecture. As is done in many European cities, we could put these features behind glass and put them on display right here. But Gazprom insist on building a monstrous skyscraper on this exact spot.”

Archeologists had been told they’d have to leave the site by spring 2010, but they appear to have been given a reprieve – in June the project’s website reported that work was still ongoing with completion expected at the end of the year.

So Arabtec has had to work alongside the archaeologists as it started on site in September 2009 constructing test installations on piles to support the tower and the diaphragm wall which would surround the site. According to the contractor the tests, due to take around six months, are necessary to obtain a building permit for the project before the final project permit is issued. Strengthening work on the banks of the river is also underway.

The completion date for the tower is 2012, with the whole complex to be built by 2016. So it seems that, despite the protests and outrage, Gazprom’s huge tower will after all make its mark on St Petersburg. iCON

RMJM

IT’S SIMPLY A BARBARIC FANTASY VLADIMIR POPOV, DIRECTOR OF THE ARCHITECTS’ UNION

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concourse and glazed atriums, are to be set in a semi-circle between the tower and the river. The tower will house a concert hall, sports complex, cafes, restaurant and a museum of archaeology, as well as offices for Gazprom’s oil arm Neft.

The 80-floor twisting tower will change colour up to 10 times a day due to the changing position of the sun reflected on its glass. According to RMJM the inspiration came from “the concept of energy in water, with the form of the building deriving its shape from the changing nature of water, ever changing light, reflections and refraction.”

Arabtec has a blunter interpretation. The tower is in the shape of “a flame that resembles the logo of Gazprom,” it says in its press releases. That’s more complementary than what some locals call it – ‘Kukuruzina’, or corn-on-the-cob.

The structure of the tower is a hybrid: steel frame and floors with a central core of cast in situ reinforced concrete to ensure the lateral stiffness of the frame. The building’s facade will consist of two glass skins with air between them which acts as a buffer, helping with both cooling and heating. He designers calculate that the cost of operation of the building will be reduced by 30% as a result.

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FORESIGHT NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanoscience promises wonderful things in the near and medium future: bendy concrete, super steel, light emitting surfaces and walls that go transparent at the flick of a switch. But Trevor Rushton worries that the pace of development is outstripping our understanding of the risks to our health and the environment

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new Industrial Revolution is taking place under our noses. By working at a molecular level (nano scale) scientists are on the cusp of creating materials that perform in ways beyond our current comprehension.

Nano materials that add strength, insulate or clean are with us now. In the future we can expect giant leaps in the strength enhancement and durability of many traditional materials while improvements in lighting and light-emitting thin films can make big reductions in carbon emissions. Yet with these opportunities also come risks and responsibilities. The development of new materials continues apace but scientists’ understanding of the health and environmental risks is incomplete.

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RESEARCH PREDICTS THAT NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS WILL GO FROM $20M IN THE US IN 2006 TO $1.75BN BY 2025

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are tubular structures with diameters 1/50,000th that of a human hair and possessing eight times the strength of steel 04 QUARTER 2010

What is nanotechnology? One nanometre is one billionth of a metre, or if you prefer, one thousandth of a micron.

Nanoscience is all about dealing with particles at molecular level. Traditional physics does not apply. We are not dealing with scaled down materials that obey traditional rules but with particles that are subject to quantum physics – a whole new set of concepts and theories that suppose, amongst other things, that a particle is whatever it is measured to be but that it cannot be assumed to have specific properties or even to exist until it is measured. The study of particles at these scales is called nanoscience and their manipulation, nanotechnology. The American National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines nanotechnology as a “system of innovative methods to control and manipulate matter at near-atomic scale to produce new materials, structures, and devices”.

There is a perception that nanoscience and nanotechnology are all about making things smaller, the ‘top down’ miniaturisation of machines. In reality, scientists have pretty well reached the limit on this. What we’re talking about is engineering from the ‘bottom up’, starting at atomic or molecular level and engineering new materials or compounds using quantum physics. This is where the real opportunities are. By working with particles at the smallest sizes and creating new organic and inorganic structures it is possible to create materials that are lighter, stronger, thinner, harder, softer, more conductive or insulating – the possibilities are limited only by imagination. Scientists term this method “disruptive thinking” – discarding the old ways in favour of a completely new approach.

Because of its potential nanotechnology attracts more public funding globally than any other technology.

Development costs are high but prices should drop as production becomes streamlined. Odour eating T-shirts and trainers, sticking plasters and bandages, sun cream, self cleaning coatings and insulation materials are all available now. The construction industry has lagged behind but improved production methods should lead to growth in the availability of materials and products over the next 10 years.

The Freedonia market research group predicts that while nanotechnology in construction products amounted to $20m in the US in 2006, by 2011 it will have risen to $100m and $1.75bn by 2025. It has also been estimated that by 2014, the savings in carbon dioxide resulting from nanotechnology will have risen from 8,000 tons per annum (2007) to over one million tons. According to Research and Markets, the highest

growth opportunities arise from the application of nanomaterials to making better use of existing resources rather than generating new forms of renewable energy.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THIS STUFF? We learn in chemistry that the speed and intensity of a chemical reaction can be governed by the surface area of the components. At nano scales the surface area of even a few grams of material can be measured in thousands of square metres. So substances engineered at nano scale are far more efficient in chemical terms, with tiny amounts effectively working much harder. This increase in efficiency means that only very small amounts need be used. For example, silver, prohibitively expensive at macro scale, can be used as a nano material in textiles such as sticking plasters where its antimicrobial properties can help to clean and disinfect wounds.

Nano particles possess unique reactive, optical, mechanical and electrical properties that set them aside from larger particles. For instance their very high surface-area-tovolume ratio permits air to be trapped in a very thin layer, leading to the possibility of insulating paints or films. (Not all these properties are desirable, though. Small particles of aluminium can become highly explosive!)

Aerogels are particularly alluring for construction.

Exceptionally light – usually about 5% solid material and 95% air – they’re superb insulators and can support over 2,000 times their own weight. A 90-mm-thick panel of aerogel can provide an R-value of R-28, beating about R-5 for a conventional, 100-mm-thick composite roofing panel hands down. You’d need to sandwich the gel between layers of a suitable moisture repellent, though. If you make aerogels translucent, imagine the possibilities for facades and roofing.

So far two things have captured the lion’s share of nanotechnology in construction: titanium dioxide (TiO2) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). TiO2 is the ‘special sauce’ in selfcleaning glass. It breaks down organic pollutants, compounds and bacterial membranes by a process of catalytic reaction in which organic (carbon containing) compounds are oxidised on contact into carbon dioxide and water. When exposed to ultra violet light, TiO2 is also ‘hydrophilic’ – it attracts water, which forms into sheets and washes off particles that have been broken down by the catalytic reactions. Such properties make TiO2 a perfect material for glass and façade treatments or for deodorising and sterilising coatings.

Sometimes found in nature and first discovered in 1952, CNTs are allotropes of carbon in tubular structures that can be either single or multi walled and of a diameter measured in nanometres (about 1/50,000th the diameter of a human hair) and a length of up to 180mm. Multiwalled tubes act telescopically, possessing eight times the strength of steel and five times the Young’s Modulus yet having 1/16th the density. Aside from their strength, CNTs are also efficient insulators and display unique electrical properties. Being composed entirely of carbon, nanotubes belong to the family of fullerene structures – they are sometimes termed “buckytubes”. By comparison, “buckyballs” are similar members of the family, but their structures are spherical rather than cylindrical. Together, these materials are undergoing intense scrutiny at the present time.

By adding CNTs to construction materials, huge improvements in flexural strength can be achieved. For example a 1% addition by weight of concrete can increase flexural and compressive strength by 8N/mm2 and 25N/mm2 respectively. Similarly, steel products can be RR www.iconreview.org

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Fig. 1

1. Now COATINGS FOR INSULATION PURPOSES

Designed to trap air at molecular level. Some manufacturers claim that three coats of insulating paint can achieve an average surface temperature difference of up to 15.5 C

SELF-CLEANING COATINGS FOR GLASS AND CONCRETE

Photocatalytic coatings based upon titanium dioxide Nanoparticles; applied as a surface layer to materials such as stone and glass

UV PROTECTION

Stainless steel nanofilm interlayers can block 99% UV radiation and around 97% infrared light, achieving perhaps up to 3° C reduction in room temperature. Zinc oxide-based nanoparticles can also be used to protect materials such as wood from degradation by UV light

CORROSION RESISTANCE

Homogeneous alkoxide thin films with ceramic nanoparticles offer superior corrosion protection to chromium plating, chromate treatments and zinc rich coatings

WATERPROOFING

Hydrophobic treatments applied to concrete surfaces or as admixtures using water based micro emulsions

AEROGELS (ULTRA LOW-DENSITY SOLIDS)

“Frozen smoke”, an ultra-low density gel using gas instead of liquid to produce a highly insulating solid

ANTI-STAIN AND ANTI-GRAFFITI COATINGS

Coatings containing ceramic nanoparticles such as zirconia that bond with the underlying material or create an air barrier that prevents the stain soaking into the background

ANTI-FOG COATINGS

Titanium dioxide coatings become hydrophilic (attractive to water) upon exposure to UV light, a feature that can be used to prevent fogging. Other technologies use carbon nanotubes to create heated surfaces and prevent condensation forming

ANTI-MICROBIAL COATINGS

Silver dioxide used as a coating or incorporated into products as a powerful aniti-microbial. Carbon nanotubes also kill E.coli. Coatings can also create exceptionally smooth surfaces to prevent contaminants collecting

RR enhanced by the incorporation of CNTs in their structure.

The Green Technology Forum foresees three phases of nano development driven by a demand ‘pull’ rather than a technology-led ‘push’ (See Figure 1). Currently, it identifies a market dominated by TiO2 and CNTs.

GREAT, BUT… Like with most new technologies, there is plenty of attention given to the potential benefits of nanotechnology, but there is concern that not enough research is being done on possible harmful effects. Currently there are no agreed methodologies for sampling, testing and analysis, although scientists are working on this. The matter is of sufficient concern for the European Agency for Safety and Health to elevate nanotechnology to the top of its list of emerging health risks.

For instance, at present there is no universally accepted classification of what even constitutes a nano material and while bodies such as the International Standards Organisation are working in this area, most definitions refer to a size range for nanoscaled materials of between 1-100 nanometres (nm) in at least one dimension and to their possession of unique properties because of their nanoscaled dimensions. However, the particles could “clump” together in sizes that are much larger than 100nm. This could affect the method of measurement, the definition of exposure limits, screening, exposure estimation and so on. Without universal agreement, there is a danger of misinterpretation and confusion.

In its risk assessment of nano products, the EU Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) recognises that the procedure for assessing the potential risks of manufactured nano materials is still under development. As it stands it regards free and low-solubility www.iconreview.org

particles as a priority concern.

As far as risks to human health are concerned, particles that are below 1 micron in size can enter the lungs and pass down to the gas exchange areas (the alveoli) where they may damage the normal body defence mechanisms. Take exposure to asbestos as an example: small fibres are highly biopersistant, they reach the alveoli and set up an inflammation and thickening of the lung that ultimately result in fatal diseases such as mesothelioma. By comparison, CNTs possess many similar properties – they are small, very strong and highly biopersistant but unlike asbestos, their potential health effects are relatively unknown. Some commentators have speculated that CNTs are the new asbestos. In America, preliminary work by investigators demonstrated that exposures to specific nanotubes had harmful pulmonary effects (such as a fibrotic response) in mice soon after exposure to relatively low doses, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. But there is currently not enough data to support the theory and, just as importantly, not enough to disprove it. So where does that leave us?

The nano revolution may be happening under our noses but do we want it going up them as well?

Of course, breathing nanoparticles in is not the only potential source of harm. Skin contact or ingestion are other mechanisms by which very small particles can enter the body.

While we possess mechanisms to deal with airborne contamination, very small particles can confound them. How might they affect the liver or brain? Recently, concerns have been voiced about adverse reactions following the use of silver nanoparticles in medical dressings and equipment, including argyria and staining. Argyria is a bluish discoloration

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FORESIGHT NANOTECHNOLOGY

2. Near future

3. Medium future

SOLAR ORGANIC THIN-FILMS

Based upon nanoparticles and polymers. Cheaper and more effective than conventional silicon-based photovoltaics. Some predictions are that organic thinfilms will cost 1/50th the cost of silicon materials and deliver 30% more efficiency

LIGHTING

Creating visible light directly rather than as a by-product of heating a gas or filament. See OLEDs below

WATER AND AIR FILTRATION

Metal coatings that kill contaminants by photocatalytic oxidization or by the use of nanofibres to create efficient filters. Iron nanoparticles detoxify carcinogenic chlorinated hydrocarbons in ground water. Gold nanoparticles coated with palladium remove trichloroethylene

ORGANIC LIGHTEMITTING DIODES AND FLEXIBLE LIGHTEMITTING DIODES

OLEDS are long-lived and efficient natural light sources that can be produced in very thin, flexible panels whose properties can be varied, for example to produce coloured light or to provide transparency at the flick of a switch

QUANTUM DOT LIGHTING

Nanoscale semiconductor particles that can be tuned to fluoresce at any wavelength in the infra red and visible portions of the spectrum

of the skin caused by excessive exposure to silver compounds. The problem usually disappears following treatment but can become permanent.

Research is also lacking on the effects of nanoparticles and the environment. While the particles may well be confined during manufacture, fire, demolition or contact with water could all provide means of escape. And what about disposal at the end of a product’s life?

Currently, most information on exposure comes from airborne measurements in a laboratory. Outside, readings can be affected by general background exposure to products such as nanotubes released during combustion. Overall there is a lack of reliable data on dosimetry and safe exposure for both humans and the environment.

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NANOTECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW Nanotechnology may not necessarily deserve its own set of special laws, but it is very important that health, safety and the environment are protected. Existing legislation is designed around the issues of products and risk protection, hazardous chemicals, environmental protection and, as such, is relevant to nanotechnology… up to a point. The risk is that the pace of nanotech development will outstrip the accurate identification of health issues and therefore outstrip also the protection legislation might offer.

New European Community regulations called REACH (short for ‘Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances) do provide an over04 QUARTER 2010

ENHANCEMENTS IN STRUCTURAL MATERIALS, SUCH AS STEEL AND TIMBER AND NEW STRUCTURAL MATERIALS

By controlling fibre-to-fibre and nanofibrillar bonding in wood it may be possible to eliminate the formation of defects in wood that limit its use. Steel can be made more corrosion resistant and stronger. Nanofibres can be used in concrete to improve its compressive and flexural strength

SOME COMMENTATORS HAVE SPECULATED THAT CARBON NANOTUBES ARE THE NEW ASBESTOS

arching legislation applying to the manufacture, placing on the market and use of substances.

REACH applies to nanomaterials by virtue of its own definition, but it was not designed specifically with them in mind and, as we have seen, nanomaterials are somewhat... ‘special’, to say the least.

Just as with conventional materials and products, some nanomaterials may be harmful and some may be perfectly harmless. The difficulty is, we’re poorly equipped to be able to make meaningful assessments of the risk. For starters, if you can’t measure something how can you control it?

Nanomaterials offer tremendous advantages over conventional products, with a huge range of exciting uses that could reduce carbon and improve energy efficiency in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago. However, with these benefits also come responsibilities and until such time as we have a proper, researched and unified approach to measurement strategies and an understanding of the potential effects on human health and the environment there remains a risk that we may be unleashing a modern-day Pandora’s Box. iCON Trevor Rushton FRICS ACIArb FBEng is technical director at consultant Watts and an expert on building and materials failures and defects. He is author of Investigating Deleterious and Hazardous Building Materials and Investigating Defects in Commercial and Industrial Buildings. This article first appeared in Construction Research & Innovation.

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LEGAL ARBITRATION

THE BEST EVIDENCE MONEY CAN BUY International construction law expert Douglas S. Jones reviews recent moves to try and make expert witnesses more loyal to the truth than to their clients

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he use of expert witnesses hired by parties in a dispute has been the subject of much attention in recent years, both in the context of domestic judicial systems, as well as in international arbitration.

That’s because they tend to be perceived as ‘hired-guns’, tailoring their evidence to positively reflect upon the party by whom they were appointed. This situation is exacerbated when parties and tribunals operate on an implicit understanding that this, indeed, is their role.

In some domestic jurisdictions, such as Denmark, the judicial culture is so resistive to party-appointed expert witnesses that such evidence is rarely admitted.1 But in international arbitration the use of expert witnesses is widespread and arbitrators are often left with the challenge of determining the accuracy and veracity of conflicting expert evidence.

Conflicting expert evidence is not of itself necessarily problematic, and is a natural consequence of probing areas of complex, specialist knowledge. But when this conflict arises due to the reticence of the experts to depart from the ‘party line’, the fundamental utility of expert evidence is called into question.

The adversarial nature of the common law tradition, and that of many international arbitrations, can account for this

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attitude in several ways.

First, the simple fact that the expert is appointed, instructed and paid by a particular party can result in a feeling of loyalty toward that party. Particularly where the expert seeks to be appointed by that party in future disputes.

Second, the confrontational cross-examination environment can put experts on the defensive and generate a fear that his or her credibility is being attacked. This can result in a reluctance to concede that certain parts of the tendered evidence are not as concrete as may otherwise be thought.

Finally, as recognised by a former member of the Council of the Australian Medical Association, there is a reluctance amongst professionals to subject themselves to the rigorous process of providing independent expert evidence when the conflicting evidence of an expert acting as a ‘hired-gun’ is accepted, despite lacking scientific credibility.2

WINDS OF CHANGE In 1996 the UK’s ‘Master of the Rolls’ Lord Woolf produced a report which expressed concern over the excessive costs and delay involved in litigation.3 One of the issues he identified was the uncontrolled proliferation of expert evidence and the lack of impartiality on the behalf of party-appointed experts.

The ‘Woolf Report’ was immensely influential and sparked 04 QUARTER 2010

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reforms in the UK and other countries of the common law tradition. Many of these reforms relate to methods of enhancing the independence of experts. For example, in the UK the Civil Justice Council drafted a Protocol for the Instruction of Experts to give Evidence in Civil Claims, which since 5 September 2005 applies to all steps taken by experts or by those instructing experts. It sets out matters such as: l the importance of experts to litigation; l the duties owed by experts (and the need to balance the duty of reasonable skill and care owed to the retaining party with the overriding duty of the court); l the considerations that ought to be taken into account when evaluating whether expert evidence is necessary in any given case; and l the contents of experts’ reports, including a standard statement which that must be included at the end of all reports, verifying the truth of the statement and the completeness of the opinion (the wording of which is mandatory).

These reforms provide the context for the creation of the International Bar Association’s Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Commercial Arbitration (“IBA Rules on Evidence”) in 1999 and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ Protocol for the Use of Party Appointed Expert Witnesses in International Arbitration (“CIArb Protocol”) in 2007.

The IBA Rules on Evidence are commonly used in international arbitrations, but they have been criticised for inadequately dealing with the issue of party-appointed expert’s independence. For example, they require experts appointed by the tribunal to provide a statement of independence from the parties and the tribunal prior to accepting an appointment (Article 6), but they do not impose the same obligation on party-appointed expert witnesses.

This was notable, given the greater risk of bias toward the appointing party compared to tribunal-appointed experts.

The 2010 amendments to the IBA Rules rectified this deficiency to a degree. Article 5 now requires the partyappointed expert’s report to contain a statement of independence from the parties, from their legal advisors and from the arbitral tribunal. This requirement is not as robust as that for tribunal-appointed experts who must provide a statement of independence before appointment, thereby ensuring the expert’s mind is focused upon his or her paramount duty to the tribunal before he or she has a chance to identify with the case of either party. Nevertheless, the revision is a step towards ensuring the arbitral tribunal is better able to assess the weight that should be accorded the expert’s evidence.

The 2010 IBA Rules on Evidence also include a provision, at Article 5(2)(b), requiring the expert to provide a description of the instructions which they have received from the parties.

This ensures that the parties will not instruct the expert to behave in a manner that would affect the expert’s impartiality.

However, this requirement needs to be carefully considered given that the CIArb Protocol and the IBA Rules on Evidence are designed to operate in conjunction with one another. The CIArb Protocol provides that while instructions are not “privileged”, they should not be ordered to be disclosed by the arbitral tribunal without good cause. As such, Article 5(2)(b) of the IBA Rules should be understood to require that the description of the instructions received by the expert must

always be provided, but the instructions themselves should only be requested by the arbitral tribunal when there is good cause for doing so, for example where the expert’s impartiality comes into question.

The CIArb Protocol has been structured along similar lines to the IBA Rules on Evidence, with the aim of enabling an arbitral tribunal to include in its directions “expert evidence shall be adduced in accordance with the CIArb Protocol”. The drafters have also endeavoured to align the Protocol with the IBA Rules on Evidence by ensuring that the language is consistent, if not identical. Given the increasingly wide acceptance of the IBA Rules on Evidence, this is an important and useful feature. The CIArb protocol is intended to provide more detailed guidance than the IBA Rules on Evidence, for example, on what should and should not be in an expert’s written opinions. The Protocol also caters for tests and analyses to be conducted, which the IBA Rules on Evidence do not.

The CIArb Protocol goes some way to enhancing the independence of party-appointed expert witnesses and their usefulness to the tribunal by picking up on many of the reforms that have been implemented by national courts.

Article 4 states that an expert that gives evidence in the arbitration shall be independent of the party which appointed the expert, and payment of reasonable professional fees will not itself vitiate this independence. The CIArb Protocol contains three additional clear statements of the principles of independence:4 l an expert’s duty in giving evidence is to assist the arbitral tribunal to decide the issues in respect of which expert evidence is adduced; l an expert’s opinion should be independent, objective, unbiased and uninfluenced by the pressures of the dispute resolution process or by any party; and

ARBITRATORS ARE OFTEN LEFT WITH THE CHALLENGE OF DETERMINING THE ACCURACY AND VERACITY OF CONFLICTING EXPERT EVIDENCE l the expert’s opinion must include an expert declaration in the form set out in Article 8 (declaring that the opinion provided conforms with these requirements).

The reforms outlined here can potentially add to the efficient and effective use of expert evidence, and they are a step in the right direction. But what is still needed is an assessment across the board of the value of recent litigious developments in order that the lessons learned in court may be applied with equal success by the arbitral tribunal, and the establishment of a framework by which such measures can be effectively implemented and enforced. iCON

l Prof. Douglas S. Jones is an international infrastructure and dispute resolution lawyer, and coeditor-in-chief of International Construction Law Review.

He is a Sydney-based partner in the firm of Clayton Utz where he heads the International Arbitration and Major Projects Groups. He acknowledges the help of Tim Zahara and Jennifer Ingram, Legal Assistants of Clayton Utz, Sydney, in preparing this article.

1. Jacob C Jorgensen, ‘Expert Witnesses in Danish Arbitration’ (2008) 26(3) ASA Bulletin 479, 480.

2. M Nothling, Expert Evidence: The Australian Medical Association’s Position. www.aija.org.au/info/expert/Nothling.pdf.

3. Right Hon. Lord Woolf MR, Access to Justice: Final Report to the Lord Chancellor on the Civil Justice System in England and Wales (1996).

4. CIArb Protocol Articles 4.1, 4.3 and 4.4(k).

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LEGAL BRIEFING

HOW DUBAI PLANS TO PAY WHAT IT OWES After a slow start, the Dubai World Tribunal seems to be gathering steam – and confidence – as a way for creditors to get their money back

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hrough all its ups Dubai showed itself to be bold and imaginative. Maybe too bold and imaginative. In November 2009 Dubai World asked to delay paying back US$26 billion of debt for six months, causing chaos in markets around the world.

But in bad times it’s showing mettle too, by trying to convince the world that even in times of crisis it’s a good place to invest. How? By setting up a transparent and fair way of dealing with creditors of Dubai World companies. Say hello to the Dubai World Tribunal.

It’s designed to boost legal security and transparency, says Axel Jacob, a senior legal consultant at Fichte & Co in Dubai: “The tribunal plays an important role in the restructuring process of the Dubai World Group. It flanks the process, and gives the concerned decision makers more air to breath as it provides a clear avenue where all potential creditors can channel their claims.”

The tribunal was set up by decree in 2009 and had its first hearing on 14 December 2009. In its first six months only three cases were filed. Now there are 23 listed, although no resolutions as yet. Press reports have suggested that there could be as many as 22,000 cases to be filed.

MODELLED ON UK ARBITRATION The first to be filed by a contractor relates to a US$354million contract on the Jumeirah Park project. Bin Belaila Baytur, a JV between UAE group Bin Belaila and Turkey’s Baytur, filed an emergency application in September for the tribunal to order Nakheel not to cash two performance bonds worth tens of millions of dirhams, which it said Nakheel was planning to do after talks about payments broke down.

The tribunal is modelled on UK arbitration procedure and is based in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), which, as a semi-governmental entity, is exempt from a number of Dubai and UAE laws (kind of like Dubai World).

Overseas investors feel confident about the set-up, says Jacob, and the fact that laws are drafted in English is a big asset.

Three judges make up the tribunal: chairman Sir Anthony www.iconreview.org

Evans, a former High Court judge in England and Wales; his deputy Michael Hwang, SC, a former judicial commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore; and Justice Sir John Murray Chadwick, a former judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.

Dubai World development

BAD START FOR NAKHEEL Many of the claims will be against Nakheel, the property arm of Dubai World.

The tribunal is showing itself to be tough on its own kind, which should give heart to creditors observing on the sidelines. Its biggest case so far is a US$13.3m claim by contractor Construction Delivery Group (CDG), who had a facilities management contract to manage 1,200 homes on Palm Jumeirah. CDG says it hasn’t been paid since 2008. Nakheel’s defence got off to a bad start October 7 when its lawyers were rebuked by tribunal chairman Sir Anthony Evans for failing to comply with legal procedures. As a penalty he ordered Nakheel’s defence team to pay one month’s worth of CDG’s legal costs.

Like its parent company, Nakheel has been working towards agreements with its creditors, helped by a US$9billion injection from the Dubai government. In March 2010 it announced that it had settled Dh2.5bn ($681m) of the Dh4bn it owed to trade creditors and that 80% by value of its trade contractors had agreed to accept a combination of 40% cash and 60% in sukuk, a type of bond. However the sukuk can only be issued if 95% agreement is reached.

Individuals who invested in stalled projects can transfer their investment to the six projects nearing completion, which Nakheel is now concentrating on. Alternatively they can hold onto their credits, interest-free, for up to five years and use them to buy other land or property or trade to others. Banks have been asked to restructure their loans.

It’s early days, but is the tribunal working to restore confidence in the emirate? Jacob says yes: “In general the picture is positive. Dubai appears to be slowly recovering.” iCON 04 QUARTER 2010

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We forget how building types morph dramatically. Imagine Manhattan without skyscrapers.

In his new book Richard Barras identifies IT and sustainability as the main factors now driving change in the form and function of buildings. But how, exactly? Rod Sweet reaches for the crystal ball Manhattan in 1874, and above, Manhattan today

In the late 1800s two key innovations, the passenger elevator and the load-bearing structural steel frame, combined with the high rents demanded in the dense city centres of Chicago and New York to push buildings higher than anybody thought previously possible. The speed at which they climbed was startling. The New York World Building topped out at a glorious 18 storeys in 1890, only to be dwarfed by the 55-storey Woolworth Building in 1913.

Annual subscription for 2011 just £53 for CIOB members!

In his new book, “Building Cycles: Growth and instability”, Richard Barras, senior partner of research firm Property Market Analysis, identifies the skyscraper as the most dramatic physical manifestation of new construction technology on the built environment in modern history. Its development poured petrol on the fire of speculative finance.

Investors shouldered each other out of the way and the sky became comprehensively punctured as developers urged their buildings higher to recover exorbitant downtown real estate costs. Manhattan got some 26 million square feet of new, vertical office space between 1931 and 1934 alone.

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Construction Research and Innovation | Vol 1 | Issue 2

So potent was this combination of new technique, demand, new business modalities (the concentration of financial services) and the apparently irresistible urge among developers to be taller than anybody else, that the skyscraper as a form would easily survive the Great Depression of the 1930s. Vacancy in New York’s financial district shot up from 1% in 1929 to 22% by 1933. The Empire State Building, finished in 1931 and the world’s tallest building until 1972, stood three-quarters empty for 10 years and didn’t return a rental profit until 1950. The extent to which the historic skyscraper boom in New York in the 1920s actually contributed to the Wall Street crash of 1929 - just as the property bubble led to the sub-prime crash of 2008 amplifies Barras’ overall theme that building cycles are both sources of instability and drivers of innovation and growth.

It took a long time for the skyscraper to crop up elsewhere in the world. Barras records that after the Second World War, 75% of the world’s high-rise office stock was still in just New York and Chicago. A further 17% could be found in other big

North American cities, while the rest of the world could claim only 8%. But was the skyscraper to be denied universality as a viable building format? Not in the least. The diffusion of this innovation was just as inevitable, Barras notes, as the spread of the Gothic cathedral from the Île de France outward to all European capitals. Further, the outward and upward reach of the skyscraper was fuelled by subsequent innovations in curtain walling, shell-and-core and fast-track construction techniques. In 1965 a European peak in high-rise floor numbers built equaled for the first time those built in the US, which suffered a slump that year. Hot on the heels of both Europe and America, however, was the Asia Pacific region, where unprecedented levels of office development - first in Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo, and latterly in Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen - set a steep growth curve in the cumulative total of high-rise office stock that passed the American tally at high speed in 2000 and continues to leave it well behind.

Shopping centres They don’t alter skylines like skyscrapers do, but Barras argues that the enclosed shopping centre - another American invention - has had just as profound an effect on urban function throughout Europe and the world. Created in the 1950s in response to several factors - mass car ownership, suburban development, an expanding highway network - the ‘mall’ ushered in such a step change in the scale economies of retailing that traditional town and city centres all over the West are still reeling.

The mall “crossed the Atlantic”, as Barras notes, in the 1960s, landing first in north-western Europe (UK, Ireland, Benelux and Scandinavia), and spreading in successive cycles to France and Germany, Iberia and Italy and thence to Central and Eastern Europe. Its last dramatic surge has been in Russia,

Analysing building cycles

Urban activity has been dramatically altered by the shopping centre, which seeks to emulate the traditional downtown by offering not just retail, but cinema, restaurants, health & fitness services and recreation opportunities all in one location reachable by car and safely shielded from the vagaries of the weather. By 1975 malls had siphoned off some 14% of high street sales in the UK, while two other sub-forms of the out-of-town shopping experience - the superstore and the retail warehouse - had ensured a rapid and sustained tailspin in high street turnover.

The shape of the future

Foresight

which inhabits a league of its own. Barras writes that since 2002, some 23 million square metres of shopping centre space has been completed just in Russia.

Foresight

Barras identifies two key factors that will shape economic growth and urban development in the coming decades, ICT and sustainability. Barras notes that online shopping had, in its first decade to 2008, accounted for 8% of total retail sales.

He calls this an unprecedented achievement for a retail innovation in Britain, where the historical first-decade capture is more like 3%. It’s not just online shopping, however. Information itself, he says, citing Dominique Foray, author of The Economics of Knowledge, has become “the most valuable commodity traded within the knowledge economy”, and this shift in importance from the material to the virtual, he says, “has fundamental implications for the future pattern of economic growth and investment”.

For one thing, the share of fixed capital devoted to storing and transporting data, as opposed to goods and people, is growing. One thinks of huge, barely-manned server farms and city streets torn up to lay fibre optic cable corridors. But a potentially more profound effect of the knowledge economy

“

The share of fixed capital devoted to storing and transporting data is growing. Look at the rise of places like Reading and Bracknell as software HQs

“

AD

has been increased investment in buildings in formerly peripheral locations close to motorway junctions serving information-led sectors like finance, distribution, logistics and business services. Barras notes that in the UK between 1981 and 2004 the share of output contributed by such sectors rose from 58% to 70% (while manufacturing shrunk from 26% to 19%). The rise of places like Reading and Bracknell, west of London’s M25 motorway, as preferred locations for software company HQs and multi-tenant business parks captures this trend. Further, these buildings themselves show how investment priorities have shifted from fixed capital to information. Their fabric is comparatively lighter and less expensive. Aesthetic considerations give way to flexibility and operational effectiveness. Writes Barras: “the unit construction cost of a business park office may only be onethird that of a prestige city centre office block, even before allowance is made for the differential in land cost.”

Construction Research and Innovation | Vol 1 | Issue 2

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