Modern Building Services

MODERN BUILDING SERVICES FEBRUARY 2022 5 INDUSTRY NEWS Offices must improve or become redundant Office buildings that fail to demonstrate how they support the health and well-being of users will swiftly become redundant, according to a group of building services engineers. A webinar hosted by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) heard that the pace of change in workplaces over the next decade would be “astounding”. Frances Brown, Senior Associate at the engineering practice Hoare Lea, told the webinar that people now had far greater choice over when, where and how they work, which was fundamentally changing the way offices were used. “Employers now need to treat staff as customers…and health and well-being is a big selling point,” she said. “We aremoving towards a servicemodel for workspaces and people will want to get what they are paying for, including the right indoor environment, rather than just a physical space.” She said future workspaces would have to use digital systems to provide users with up-to-the- minute information about indoor conditions so they could decide “where to work and what is best for the planet” on a day-to-day basis. AEMTmourns the loss of a great friend It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Prof David Walters OBE, a longstanding friend and supporter of the Association of Electrical &Mechanical Trades (AEMT). All those who had the pleasure of knowing him, both personally and professionally, will mourn his passing. In 2019, David was presented with our very own Lifetime Contribution Award in recognition of his tremendous work around energy efficiency and electric motor design. He was pivotal inmany technical developments for both industry and for the association. At the turn of the millennium, he was influential in developing the AEMT’s joint project with our American counterparts to publish the ‘AEMT/EASA Rewind Study’ and the ‘Good Practice Guide to Maintain Motor Efficiency,’ which now forms the backbone for the new international repair standard that all service centres should be working towards. The study was important for determining that electric motors can be repaired or rewound without losing efficiency – and we are forever indebted to him for his hard work on the project. The diligence and time he put into raising the profile of our industry was illuminated when, in 1997, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his service to energy efficiency. He authored several papers on the topic and was instrumental in the concept, design, and manufacture of the ‘World Series Motor’ for Brook Crompton, an extremely popular range of machines which had market-leading features, gained the ‘Queen’s Award for Industry,’ and can still be found installed in all four corners of the world! David will be sadly missed by many in our sector, and our thoughts are with his family at this sad time. Professor Max Fordham MA(Cantab) FCIBSE HonFRIBA RDI OBE It is with great sadness that we announce that Max Fordham, the acclaimed engineer and pioneer of sustainable building design, passed away at his home on 4th January 2022. Max pursued a new approach to engineering based on his insatiable curiosity about how buildings work. He resisted pigeonholing into the conventional boxes of mechanical or electrical engineering, and was always interested in the whole building. He took a creative, but essentially practical, approach to building services design. Designing from first principles, he was often quoted as saying “start with the edge of the universe as a boundary and quickly narrow down to the specific problem”. In 1966, Max, alongside his wife Taddy, set up Max Fordham Consulting Engineer. The practice was founded on the idea of engineers bringing scientific knowledge into the art of building design. He developed his skills in what was then considered the new field of heating engineering to test his idea. Invention, innovation and success followed. The design of the practice itself, becoming Max Fordham & Partners in 1974 (a Partnership), was key to its success. Max and his practice won significant and varied recognition for their work in ensuring human comfort by giving buildings heat, power, water and ventilation in sustainable and elegant ways. Notable projects under Max’s leadership, include Tate St Ives, Alexandra Road Estate, Judge Institute Cambridge, and Contact Theatre in Manchester. These along with his lecturing (at the University of Bath) and other teaching earned Max many prestigious honours, including: Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (FCIBSE); Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; Honorary Fellow of the RIBA; awarded the Prince Philip Designers Prize by the Royal Society of Art, recognised as “a pioneer of environmental design for buildings” (2008); voted into the inaugural Building Hall of Fame (2006); The Queen’s Award for Enterprise, Sustainable Development (2004); CIBSE Gold Medal (1997); and, Order of the British Empire, OBE, for services to engineering (1994). From the start, Max sought a collaborative partnership approach to running a business to encourage shared responsibility and a feeling of ownership Max himself said “it’s a responsibility-sharing scheme, not a profit- sharing scheme”. Max Fordham LLP, as it came to be known in 2001, was the first business in the British construction industry to become a Limited Liability Partnership. “Employers now need to treat staff as customers… and health and well-being is a big selling point”