Modern Building Services

MODERN BUILDING SERVICES FEBRUARY 2023 7 INDUSTRY NEWS ‘Bittersweet’ honour for air quality champion Air quality and child health campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah has beenmade a CBE for services to public health in the King’s NewYear Honours. She described the award as “bittersweet” because her campaigning was prompted by the death of her nine-year-old daughter Ella, who is the first person in the UK to have air pollution stated on her death certificate. “It is an absolute honour and recognition for the campaign [but] children are still dying, and my ambition is to keep on campaigning so that no other parent has to experience what I went through,” she said. MPs are currently debating her proposed Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill – also known as ‘Ella’s Law – which has already received approval from the House of Lords and the London Assembly. The new lawwould introduce specific responsibilities for building operators to meet indoor air quality (IAQ) targets in line withWorld Health Organisation (WHO) guidance and Kissi-Debrah has become a prominent voice in the push to improve standards of ventilation in buildings through her work with the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). Waiting lists “The NHS will not be able to reduce its waiting lists until we clean up our air,” she told a BESA webinar marking the first ever World Ventilation Day on November 8 last year. “It is also much easier to control the indoor air than the outdoor – so tackling IAQ is a great way to give people back power over their own environment and save lives.” The WHO has established that 3.8 million premature deaths worldwide are linked to poor indoor air every year out of a total of 8.7 million from general air pollution. “We have to be clear about this…bad IAQ leads directly to deaths,” said Kissi-Debrah. BESA said it was delighted to hear of her “richly deserved honour”. “Ros is an amazing campaigner and a force of nature,” said Nathan Wood, chair of the Association’s Health &Well-being in Buildings group of which she is Honorary President. “She completely understands the importance of improving ventilation to help protect children and the most vulnerable, in particular, from airborne pollutants and to reduce the risk of disease transmission. “Everyone at BESA and anyone in our industry who has had the privilege of attending a meeting with Ros or hearing her speak will be delighted that she has received this recognition. It should inspire us all to redouble our efforts and work even more closely with her to clean up our air – both indoor and out.” www.theBESA.com UK’s first zero carbon mixed use scheme banks on FHP’s building services expertise Building services and engineering consultants FHP has been appointed to support the £2.5bn design and construction of the UK’s first zero carbon mixed use development. The move has seen FHP provide a package of RIBA Stage 5 electrical, mechanical, public health and design verification services for the Bankside Yards West project on the south bank of the River Thames. There, nine buildings that will provide housing for 650 homes along with 350,000 sq. ft. of office and commercial, cultural and retail space and leisure amenities are under development as part of an ambitious regeneration project set to transform the local riverside area. A key feature of the plans is sustainability, with themainArbor office complex built to deliver a carbon neutral operation and achieve BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ status. Through careful planning and design, 45% less carbon dioxide will be created during the building’s operation while a 30% reduction in energy consumption will also be achieved when compared to standard buildings. FHP was appointed by MEP Sub-Contractor T Clarke to provide MEP design expertise and technical services around the development of three new high-rise properties at the Western Yards site off Blackfriars Road. The work included responsibility for RIBA Stage 4 design and involved verifying critical elements to facilitate a fully coordinated BIMmodel to LOD 400, which enabled drawings covering the fabrication, assembly, and installation of components to be finalised. Revit and fabrication elements were also used as part of the MEP design completion process. www.fhpp.com Bowmer + Kirkland and NBS join forces to improve the design management process Construction and development group, Bowmer + Kirkland has been announced as the first ‘Contractor Partner’ working with Newcastle-up- on-Tyne based construction technology firm NBS. The functionality developed by NBS on its Chorus platform, will allow design managers to better collaborate with their design partners and manufacturer supply chain, speeding up the design process and reducing defects in construction. Bowmer + Kirkland is set to make the most of these developments, using NBS Chorus to work more efficiently with design partners and better manage the design and construction phases of projects. Also included will be improved features to help contractors work with their approved suppliers. Design managers can then take snapshots of specifications at key work stages to create an archive of ‘big data’ from previous projects, helping to maintain robust digital records. Since the launch of the Chorus cloud platform in 2019, all of NBS’ specification writing customers have successfully transitioned from the desktop to the cloud, and is now used by over 3,600 design practices. The NBS partnership with Bowmer + Kirkland has been led by Framework Delivery Director, James Vaux-Anderson, who noticed that since 2019, the use of the NBS Chorus platform has increased amongst its design partner architects and engineers. www.bandk.co.uk www.thenbs.com Catalyst Building, credit @bandkphoto Bowmer + Kirkland