So the design team has done all of the hard work. Detailed construction drawings are signed off. Specifications have been agreed. The constuction team is in place and its all systems go. It’ll get pretty frenetic on site. Deadline pressures and budget constraints will be kicking in from the get-go and all the while you need to deliver building performance to the most demanding standards in the world (Passive House or NZEB). This is going to be the challenge for many construction professionals in the near future – well in places like Dun Laoighire-Rathdown and Manhattan its already a reality ! So how do you go about meeting this challenge ?
The Qualibuild and BuildUpon initiatives are already helping the construction industry to adjust to this new paradigm by increasing awareness of the issues at play with low energy construction/renovation. However, the culture of the construction team is what will ultimately determine the success of the project.
A culture of education, collaboration and innovation needs to be fostered within all low energy construction projects.
Education is the first step as well as on-going process. The vast majority of construction professionals at present, both on and off site, do not have the depth of knowledge necessary for low energy construction. Low energy construction projects, by their nature, involve a step change in standards and norms. The construction team need to embrace a culture of education to understand not only the ‘how’ but also the ‘why’ of these new demands. The most prominent new demands are related to thermal bridging, airtightness, ventilation and window detailing.
Collaboration, or the Big-C as I like to call it, it what gets me really excited about low energy projects. The silo approach to project management does not work here. While we may have great expertise within the design team (its vital actually) they will still need the help of the construction team to both validate and optimise solutions. The big design problems will have been dealt with before getting to site but there will always be those knacky problems that pop up on the way through that need to be solved. This is where trades people, with years of experience and no little amount of skill, can contribute to the solution. And everyone loves demonstrating their skills and experience.
Interestingly, collaboration has become almost contagious where clusters of low energy projects exist. In Manhattan, building contractors that were once fierce competitors now meet at regular open evenings on their respective builds to develop better solutions to shared problems. In Germany, collaboration has gone beyond the construction site. Architectural offices, engineering offices and component manufacturers are collaborating to create solutions for common low energy construction problems.
Everyone will need to embrace innovation. There will be new concepts and technologies, new ways of doing things. A step change in performance demands this.
Of course there is an element of fear and risk associated with stepping out on a low energy build. This is why project leaders need to adopt an inclusive approach with the entire team. Its back to good old fashioned human relationship development, listening, providing support and building trust.
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