Collaborative Working Partnership
Recognising examples of collaborative working that have delivered outstanding outcomes on one or more new build or refurbishment projects.
Winner: Broadway Chambers - Woodford Heating and Energy
Achieving high levels of efficiency for the £7.4m high-rise Broadway Chambers apartment blocks, close to Westfield Stratford City, meant a close working relationship between Woodford Heating and Energy (WH&E), and Telford Homes.
From tender stage, the estimating team at WH&E and the commercial team at Telford were in constant communication about how to achieve the best possible results.
Early engagement and very open communication were key to this project’s success. Collaboration allowed WH&E to pass the main messages about what success looked like to their supply chain and site teams. This ensured the vision was understood by all involved from the outset.
The WH&E team was selected to match the client team in terms of personality and seniority, and this 'man marking' worked well. The influence and impact on the rest of the supply chain has been positive too, with almost no sequencing issues between trades during construction.
This, in turn, dramatically reduced the number of defects and reduced the number of calls the facilities management team has had to respond to post-occupancy.
Telford Homes acted on several levels during the construction – as client, developer and main contractor. So the trick was to ensure that WH&E, acting as the mechanical contractor to the main contractor, adopted the common practices of Telford and then shared these with the rest of the supply chain.
Regular customer satisfaction questionnaires were conducted with the aim of gathering feedback – both qualitative and quantitative. The feedback was discussed at board level and actions were taken to ensure mistakes were not repeated.
Project team:
Building services consultant: Silcock Dawson & Partners
Building owner: Telford Homes
Building occupier: Private individuals
Project manager: Telford Homes, Dave Wright
Quantity surveyor: Telford Homes
Brief consultant: Telford Homes
Architect: Stockwool
Interior designer: Stockwool
Mechanical/electrical engineering contractor: Woodford Heating & Energy
Main contractor: Telford Homes
Investment/property company: Telford Homes
Developer: Telford Homes
Facilities manager: Woodford Heating & Energy
Judges’ comments:
This entry stood out due to the very clear and considered thought process behind the collaboration. The contractor team was chosen to match the client team in terms of personality and seniority.
The ‘man-marking’ approach is quite unusual in engineering, but this project shows that considering personality traits and management styles in order to create the best team has been successful.
Finalists:
Lark Rise - bere:architects
TfL Palestra E.ON RE:FIT Optimisation - Transport for London
Urban Sciences Building, Newcastle Univ