Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE Readers may be familiar with my interest in Building Information Modelling or BIM. Since the turn of the century I have been involved with the concept, helping to spur the government to make it their policy to mandate its use. In 2012 I was commissioned to produce a report for what is now BEIS on ‘BIM for Growth’, the potential effect on economic growth of the uptake of BIM in the UK. I became ‘UK BIM Ambassador for Growth’ in…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE The Office for National Statistics lists the construction industry as part of the service sector. This makes some sense in that we provide bespoke facilities to customers rather like a restaurant provides meals. However, our output is not a transient meal but delivers a very concrete asset which needs looking after for its whole life, a service we do not provide except reactively. We treat our output like a product, leaving the buyer to look after it. Owners are not…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE The 2008 recession destroyed a decade of progress in modernising construction practice as everyone reverted to pre-Latham/Egan behaviours. Progressive practice has climbed back in the last decade, but will it all be lost again? Two recessions ago, in 1992, the government asked Sir Michael Latham to report on how to improve the suffering construction industry. Construction always fares very badly in downturns as public and private clients typically slow or stop investing. Constructors and consultants shed staff and bid low…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE At present, building contracts are designed to manage the completion of a capital project on budget, on time and without defects, dealing with failures should they arise. The new situation, driven by concern for climate change and for occupant safety, is that buildings must also perform as promised, over time. The reality today is that buildings are designed only to meet capital budgets, with little concern shown for the lifecycle costs which usually exceed capital costs. They are also designed…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE I return to this topic again as it advances continuously. Government struggles with its procurement policy as forces pull in opposite directions. On the one hand, established practice is to seek lowest capital cost for design and construction in order to spread available resources over the most constituencies possible. On the other hand, there is growing awareness that processes seeking lowest first cost tend to produce poor value. Value is not just price, but a more complex concept embodying benefits…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE The Extinction Rebellion movement has certainly rekindled the awareness of everyone that climate change is real, and that drastic action is essential. But what can we in the built environment do differently other than the slow, incremental changes that are in train? Recent books point the way and give rise to some optimism. There are two, related areas of change to consider. Firstly, energy use in both making and running buildings must become zero-carbon. Secondly, the linear approach to building…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE The built environment is officially regarded as an enabler of the economy and of our quality of life. By the ‘built environment’ I mean the complex of economic sectors which plan, regulate, develop, design and build, operate and maintain the physical fabric of our civilisation, its buildings and infrastructure. These sectors total between 15 and 20% of the total economy and the current government view is that the success of built environment investments should be measured by the outcomes they…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon CBE No, this isn’t about cricket. It’s about learning from Australia how to deliver buildings that perform as specified. In October 2017 I wrote about the ‘Soft Landings’ concept as a way for designers and builders to incorporate facility management needs into their process and ensure that buildings perform properly. This tool is part of the Government’s version of BIM Level 2, but not widely understood or used beyond that. We remain a country with published aspirations to achieve high physical…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon CBE When a construction client signs a contract to deliver a project, they usually have three targets in mind: to deliver the required facility on budget, on time and to required quality. Cost and Time have proved relatively manageable, with objective evidence and increasingly clever tools with which to manage. Quality has never been so simple. There is a perceived degree of subjectivity about it and it is quite hard to monitor the progress of work to ensure that all standards…

Blog Author: Richard Saxon CBE, JCT Chairman Every part of the construction industry is challenged by rapidly evolving threats: stagnant productivity, falling human resources, failing business models, climate change, globalisation, advancing computer power, to name some of them. Most attention is paid to the plight of contractors and specialists, but the world of consultancy also faces these same issues. Professionals additionally face falling credibility and authority as respect for expertise declines. Their professional institutions seem powerless to communicate the value of the professional contribution to…