Industry News

Industry news BAM signs first university pain-gain share alliance deal

Sheffield Hallam University has appointed three partner suppliers for the first pain-gain sharing alliance model to be used in the higher education building sector.

The Hallam Alliance is made up of the university, design-led consultancy BDP-Arup, contractor BAM and facilities manager CBRE.

Over the next five years, the partners will deliver a £220m campus programme aiming to set a new benckmark for “best for project” delivery and building management.

This will be delivered through formal cooperative boards which require unanimous agreement.

The complex four-way agreement uses the new NEC4 alliance contract and has taken two years to thrash out.

Paul Cleminson, construction

director at BAM said: “This new type of framework means the clients, designers, construction contractors and FM providers all have the same goals and objectives, with benefits such as transparent open book costs approach, and improved risk management.

“This builds mutual trust which will then the drive efficiencies, standardisation and continuous improvement that we are all seeking.

“This is a very exciting time for us all. We are all incentivised to work together to create valuable apprenticeships and work placements and provide many opportunities for students to have real local work-based learning.

“The Alliance will also prioritise using the local supply chain, which will boost businesses in the Sheffield City Region and help grow the local economy.”

Partners will work collaboratively through all stages of design, construction and operation to maximise transformation and deliver best long-term value.

The model provides an opportunity to reform the way major projects are created and designed.

The collaborative and cohesive mindset in construction procurement and delivery is designed to better deliver welldesigned, well-built and well-managed buildings. The initial project for the Hallam Alliance will be the delivery of the first phase of the University’s campus plan – with work due to start this month on renovations to the atrium of the University’s Owen Building.

The first major new-build scheme at University’s city centre estate will be a 23,000sq m facility due to start next year.

Daniel Ladbury, Director of Estates and Facilities at Sheffield

Hallam University, said: “The Hallam Alliance approach will not only enable the transformation of our estate, it will also transform how we deliver and manage our estate and our vision to drive industry change while driving efficiency and best practice.

“The Hallam Alliance provides a unique opportunity to bring academia, professional services and industry together to solve the current and future challenges currently facing universities, the commercial sector and the construction industry.”

Successful Washroom Design in the Age of COVID-19

Arguably one of the most difficult design challenges today may be one often taken for granted: the washroom.

With few exceptions, the washroom has emerged as a make-or-break test for business, medical, educational, and manufacturing leaders anxious to put their organization back to work with confidence and safety. If owners, architects, and facility managers get the washroom wrong, workforce distrust and doubt about returning will spread across the enterprise like the virus itself.

Dr. Greg Poland, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,

Minn., doesn’t mince words when describing the challenges ahead. Consider washroom water faucet and door handles, for example. “We swabbed them and put petri dishes in the incubator. The handles [were] grossly infected with bacteria and viruses.”

Today’s best practices to prevent the spread of infection may be the improvised and ad hoc design solutions developed in hospitals, emergency rooms, and other essential frontline washrooms over the last few months. What’s the best way to inform your design with this hard-won understanding? It’s a question Avi Bar and Paul Kechejian have given a lot of thought.

Both professionals live and work in the New York City area. Their proximity to a hotspot and service to medical centers throughout the ordeal may offer highlyinformed, real-world insights available nowhere else.

Bar and Kechejian hold national and regional positions at American Specialties, Inc. (ASI), a respected U.S. manufacturer of sanitizer dispensers, partitions, lockers, visual display products, and other washroom supplies. Their national and regional perspective allows them to engage with architects as well as facility owners like New York’s top hospitals. Bar and Kechejian share a few words on the lessons learned:

• Wide Design Freedom. “Identify a supplier that presents you with a large design palette,” says Kechejian.

“Don’t limit yourself to a narrow range of material choices just because that’s all the supplier offers.

For example, look for a source that represents metal, plastic, and phenolic partitions across a wide array of sizes and colors.” • Think Open Source. Some soap and sanitizer companies offer proprietary products that may sound good upfront, but lock the owner into a costly long-term contract. “Don’t specify soap or sanitizer products that tie-up your owner financially.

Non-proprietary dispensers accept any qualified product, which can increase availability and reduce costs,” Kechejian advises.

• Collaborate. Our understanding of and the demands placed on us by

COVID-19 are constantly shifting.

Your supplier should have the manufacturing agility to respond to nearly any design requirement. ASI, for example, supplied and installed metal partitions for an emergency

Covid-19 field hospital in Old

Westbury, a village on the north shore of Long Island, in 72 hours.

• 1% Risking 100%? Don’t underestimate the washroom. It may represent less than 1% of the building cost, but it puts 100% of the occupants at odds or at ease with their employer’s return-to-work decision.

The IPG supporting suppliers with a green mission

Every British business will be under increasing pressure over the next decade to take measures to meet the Government zero emission target in 2050, with the aim to slow down and reverse the effects of climate change. The IPG and its members will be staying alert and moving swiftly to ensure they are able to offer products which will meet the requirements of the installer and their clients particularly in respect of heating our homes efficiently in the years ahead.

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arlier this year energy regulator Ofgem stated gas boilers will have to be ditched from all homes or upgraded by 2050 to meet government plans to cut the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere. All new homes built after 2025 will have boilers installed with a green alternative to gas. The IPG welcomes the Intergas statement that was released earlier this month by Stephen Zouch, Managing Director. Stephen said “Intergas, is on a mission, to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and to support households using gas to heat their homes.” In 2019 Intergas had already written about the urgency of taking action to combat climate change and how one 15-year-

old schoolgirl was spearheading a youth revolution to shame governments into doing something. I’m not sure any of us realised just how successful Greta Thunberg would be but the rest, as they say, is history. Following Greta’s lead, Extinction Rebellion, a global group of slightly older climate activists, have been protesting to compel the government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and to declare a climate emergency. On 1st May the UK Parliament declared a climate emergency. Later that month, the sensors at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, detected a concentration of CO2 that equalled the amount in the Earth’s atmosphere three million years ago, when trees grew at the South Pole, ‘Climate emergency’ sounds like the perfect way to describe the global environmental fix we’re in. But there’s more and it’s closer to home; in December A&E departments reported an increase in patients with acute respiratory infections and in babies with bronchitis. According to research by King’s College London, cutting air pollution by a fifth could result in almost 4,500 fewer children developing acute bronchitis every year. It’s been clear to most of us for years that whatever we’ve been doing to reduce pollution, it’s not enough and, if we didn’t know it, Greta drew our attention to it. Now more than ever before, households, transport providers, businesses, governments – need to be pushing ourselves and our organisations to help negate our own impact on the environment. The IPG understands that the Independent heating and plumbing merchants will need to be at the forefront of this movement, ensuring that they use and are supported by suppliers who fully understand and embrace the changes that will happen in this marketplace and that manufacture the products with the technology that installers and the end user will demand to meet the government deadlines. David Cairns, Head of Supplier and Commercial for The IPG said; “This is where being a member of The IPG will benefit the independent, as we will ensure that we partner with companies that have a full understanding of the climate issues that the world and industry faces. And work with the suppliers who are developing their product range to meet government targets.” For more information please visit: www.the-ipg.co.uk www.intergasheating.co.uk

ENJOY SOME EXTRA ROOM BY MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR OUTDOOR SPACE

Spending more time at home has unsurprisingly forced homeowners to rethink their living space and the garden is a place many now regard as another ‘room’ for the household to enjoy. Offering additional space to relax, get some fresh air, or run around, it’s a space that can easily be maintained with a little love and care, or transformed with some clever thinking.

Adding a railing to a deck is a great way to enhance its appearance as well as providing a basic safety feature. A glass balustrade is a very stylish addition to the garden, that will create a modern, streamlined finish. The Sabco Aluminium Side Fix Balustrade Rail Kit is a costeffective solution, providing a system that is simple to install which achieves a sleek and minimal look. Suitable for 15mm glass, the kit includes 2500mm length rail, glass clamps, cover plate, seal and side cover plate, and can be easily cut to size or mitred for corners.

For a simple yet effective aesthetic, the Balustrade Wire Rope Tension Kit can also be paired with the Balustrade 3 Metre Handrail and the Balustrade Base Plate and Floor Post in Brushed Satin as part of a modular solution to create a system to suit the size and shape of your deck and create a new, impactful area of the garden to enjoy.

Reviving tired fences and gates can instantly lift the garden. A fresh coat of paint can revive the appearance, but this can be let down by hinges that are rusted, bent, loose, or worn. Complete fence and gate projects with a new set of matching ironmongery such as the Gate Hinge Kit with Ring Gate Latch, for a finished look.

To strengthen old existing gates or for construction of new gates, the strong welded construction of the Timber Gate Building Kit prevents gates from sagging and is zinc plated with an epoxy black powder coated finish for hard-wearing resistance to corrosion.

Designed to stand up to all elements of the British weather, IronomongeryDirect stock the professionals’ choice of brands. With an array of contemporary and traditional finishes available, including black iron and galvanised steel, and everything from fence post shoes to gate bolts and gate hinges. You can be confident you’re buying quality hardware that will last, to make your garden project stand out.

To view these products and see more from our extensive range, please visit: www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk

The flush sash, with added panache. Eurocell adds stylish new French door design to its Aspect range.

Eurocell, the UK’s leading manufacturer, distributor and recycler of PVC-U building products in the UK, is giving installers an even more stylish option to offer customers with a new, flush sash French door.

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he new door design uses the stylish profile, attractive chamfered glazing rebate and patented gasket cover trim of Eurocell’s Aspect bi-fold door system, and offers a perfect complement to the seamless look of its Logik S Flush windows.

The contemporary flush finish and super slim sightlines are only part of the story, though. With no bulky, floating dummy mullion, there’s a truly uninterrupted view to be enjoyed from inside the house.

Meanwhile, the view from outside is enhanced by the use of elegant butt hinges rather than the conspicuous exterior flag hinges dictated by a rebated door. This discreet, adjustable pencil hinge design preserves the smooth exterior lines of the frame and sash in keeping with today’s design trends. Plus, it offers the option of inward or outward opening to increase design flexibility where space is limited.

The new door will be available double or triple glazed and in the full range of 7 Aspect foil colours. Eurocell have confirmed an Anthracite Grey through-colour profile will also be offered as standard. A highly popular colour trend at the moment, especially in RMI projects, through-grey means none of the white PVC core is visible, even along the edges of the door frame. The result is a door with all the looks and style of an aluminium design, without the premium price.

Another new addition is Eurocell’s door restrictor, which can be used with the latest French door and with Aspect bi-fold access doors. This allows the door to be left open in any position up to 90°, preventing it blowing open and damaging the hardware, or blowing shut and trapping fingers.

Like all Eurocell products, the latest French door is designed for simple, fast and accurate fabrication. In fact, fabricators who already make the Aspect profile system will be able to start right away with only a couple of additional items needing to be bought. It can even be used to fabricate single entrance doors too.

Following indicative testing to BS6375 and PAS24, the Aspect Flush French door is fully compliant with Part Q requirements for security, and in line with Eurocell’s commitment to sustainability that sees it recycle and re-use more PVC-U than any other manufacturer, it is made of at least 50% post-consumer material - Made & Recycled in the UK.

Despite the growth in bi-fold door installations in recent years, the French door remains the most popular choice of ‘lifestyle door’ among homeowners, with over 200,000 expected to be fitted this year alone. By introducing this new take on a design that has changed little in the last 30 years, Eurocell are hoping to galvanise sales still further and give their installer base another great product to take to their customers.

Ian Kernaghan, Eurocell Head of Product Design and Development, said the flush French door was one more example of Eurocell’s commitment to helping installers capitalise on emerging trends in the market:

“The new door design meets a need among homeowners for a flatter frames and less of the detailing that comes with more traditional profiles. It can also be installed with two threshold options – our standard frame, or a lower aluminium version for compliance with Part M regulations on building access.

“And of course, it offers complete peace of mind in the usual 10 year guarantee and 5 year hardware guarantee we provide with all our products.”

Find out more at Eurocell.co.uk/aspectflush