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Architects add value to RMI projects

28/07/2021


Posted in Archive & Article & Design & Heritage or local interest & News


Tagged : Energy performance , Clay Architecture , Architects Value , RMI , Repair , Maintenance , Improvement , Historic Buildings , 20th Century Buildings , Post War Buildings , Natural Ventilation , Acoustic Performance


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Architects add value to RMI projects

School building repairs backlog

The government has recently completed a long-awaited national survey into school buildings. The Condition of School Building Survey, of over 22,000 schools, has concluded that schools in England face a repair bill of more than £11 billion. This is almost twice the previous estimate. You can read the survey report by following this link. The new survey found that £2.5bn was needed for electrical and IT repairs alone, while repairs to boilers and air-conditioning was £2bn and mending roofs, windows and walls was £1.5bn.

Many of these projects are minor works: small, relatively straightforward construction projects, typically less than £500,000 in value spread over the vast range of RMI building projects. Some schools require much larger projects, due to the number, size, age or condition of the buildings affected. A few schools have buildings that are so past their useful life and beyond refurbishment that replacement with a new building is the most sensible option.

Clay Architecture and our work with schools

At Clay Architecture, we have worked with schools over the last two decades on extensions, new buildings, and RMI projects both minor and major.

Especially where RMI works are concerned, many schools tend to look for a local building contractor, or perhaps a surveyor or construction project manager. Perhaps the perception is that this not the type of work architects would be interested in. Or, that you only use an architect for projects that require innovation and design flare. Or, that an architect will be prohibitively expensive.

As architects, we add a layer of value to RMI works that other professionals and trades cannot match. Architects think holistically. We think as much about the use of a building and its occupants and how they use the space, as we do about getting the job done. Even on RMI works, it is critical to also think about materials choice, sustainable design principles and inclusive design principles.

RMI work taps directly into the technical side of our training and experience as architects. Cost control, value engineering and project management are all as important as design. In fact, we argue that they are intrinsic to the design process. We enjoy technical projects, especially when the work is challenging or complex.

Standard building details are a part of every surveyor and architect’s training. There may be projects where this sticking plaster one-size-fits-all approach will suffice, but a standard detail can only do so much. It only deals with the most obvious, surface cause and problem. There are many instances in which standard details are not enough.

School RMI work adds to our knowledge, because working on a school building is a form of research. This continuously adds to our experience of the very many ways buildings are put together, perform, age, or fail.

Most school buildings fall into two categories

  1. Historic buildings for which training and knowledge in historic buildings is essential. Uninformed application of contemporary materials or methods of construction to a historic building can be detrimental, and can damage, cause harm or have a negative effect on the performance of the historic building fabric. The most common and unfortunate example of this is the widespread practice of repointing historic brick walls with a concrete mortar, which permanently damages and spalls the older, softer brick.
  2. 20th Century buildings, particularly buildings built during the Post War building boom between the late ‘50s and early ‘70s. This is a period in which there was an exponential growth in the speed and volume of building construction, characterised by innovation and experimentation in new materials and new methods of construction: asbestos, timber, steel or concrete frame, pre-fab and system builds, non-standard builds and other one-off experiments. These were built at a time when knowledge on how materials and buildings perform was still either in its infancy or had not yet trickled down into good practice. It is through the issues that arose from these experiments that we have developed a stronger, contemporary understanding of thermal performance, thermal bridging, thermal mass, interstitial condensation, solar heat gain, airtightness, natural ventilation, acoustic performance, healthy buildings, fire safety and health and safety to name but a few of the many considerations in a contemporary build.

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Faversham has a 1960s teaching block with an exposed concrete frame which started failing a decade or so after the building was completed, and since then the school had been tied into a repeating cycle of repair and maintenance works. They engaged a surveyor, who inspected the concrete defects and came up with a solution to repair the concrete, and a recommendation for a standard recladding and reglazing of the building.

The school had other ideas and engaged us to look at the building afresh. We started by asking the question; why do the faults and problems keep recurring? We investigated and analysed in detail how the building was put together, and the root of what was causing concrete failure. We looked at how we could specify and design the new cladding and windows to be fitted in such way as to protect and insulate the concrete frame from weather and climate, stop cold bridging and slow or stop the on-going degradation of the concrete frame, improve natural ventilation, and reduce solar heat gain and still have good levels of natural light to the building. The solution also considered how the work could be done with minimal disruption while the school was in session. None of this involved straightforward standard details.

The skills an architect uses for design and innovation are the very same skills we use to analyse a particular building or building defect to come up with a solution to a very specific and individual set of issues or circumstances, with a holistic approach that can address far more than just the root problem. And, this can be done cost-effectively.

The concrete repairs, recladding and reglazing of Queen Elizabeth Grammar School was a minor RMI project, less than £500,000 in contract value. But, by asking for more than a standard solution, the school got a ‘new’, significantly better performing building out of an old, failing building, for considerably less than the cost of a new teaching and science block.

The ability to think through and work out a bespoke solution in detail, is a specialist skill that can only be gained through experience, knowledge and training. Making every detail work hard for our clients is the approach we apply to all projects. Even projects that appear straightforward, like reroofing works, can go through several iterations in the search of the right roofing solution. This is because there is always more to be considered, and more value to be gained, by taking a little time to think things through, to develop the right solution to a problem.

28/07/2021


Posted in Archive & Article & Design & Heritage or local interest & News


Tagged : Energy performance , Clay Architecture , Architects Value , RMI , Repair , Maintenance , Improvement , Historic Buildings , 20th Century Buildings , Post War Buildings , Natural Ventilation , Acoustic Performance


Related posts :
Clay Architecture sustainable design principles
Kent Design Award 2012 for Best Public Building ( Education )
20 Things We Like - Video 2: John Prizeman
20 Things We Like - Video 4: Sculpture, Drawing, Painting
20 Things We Like - Video 5: Dumplings


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