Digital Construction
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My name is Richard Bayfield. I was appointed Project Director by New College
some three and a half years ago. I was tasked with the strategy for procurement, to find a
construction company, a builder that could deliver in a collaborative way, in a way which
would ensure very high quality. I feel the one key attribute that SRM has brought to this project
is its attitude, its proactive attitude, its collaborative attitude. Their staff are willing
to go the extra mile. We're working between some very old buildings, some other colleges.
They've built relationships very well. Sustainability has been a very key issue as
well that we've worked with to look at how we can reduce our carbon footprint off the build process
and also the carbon footprint of the management of the building once it's handed over to New College.
We've got ground source heat pumps that have been delivered. We've got very high standards
of insulation but we're still looking at other ways in which we can help deliver this project as
sustainably as possible. We've reduced the cement content in piles. We've done the same thing with
some of the concrete frame as well. In fact, we've replaced some concrete structural elements with
timber elements. I think what has been very good about the SRM team, Dave Scott in particular,
but all those around him, the design team, the sustainability team, is the fact that
they are actually working together and they're not afraid of someone coming up with an idea
and testing that idea. We've got our designers, our architects and engineers who've all bought
into sharing information. The project has become an ICE, Institution of Civil Engineers, carbon
champions' exemplar project for the methodology. And again, I think this was fairly unusual in my
experience that being a centre of education, of educational excellence, we've managed to tap into
the engineering department within Oxford University. One of the New College Fellows is
Professor Barbara Rossi and we've added her input into regular sustainability reviews, peer reviews,
and that's made a big difference as well. And again, I feel it's something that's quite rare.
I'm not sure why it is so rare because when you have an engineering department a few metres away,
a few hundred metres away from the build, then why not get the academics involved and tap into their
knowledge and they've come up with some really sensible, really good ideas, which have benefited
everyone. And safety has been exemplary as well. I think that's another important aspect. The clerk
of works here a few weeks ago said that he's been on building sites for perhaps 40 years now and he
felt this was one of the best kept, most safe, but also with the right culture. We want to play that
back. We recognise that mutual respect between everyone on the build and coming in for a meal
in these wonderful surroundings is a very small way of saying thank you, but it does show
a huge expression of gratitude as to what we've achieved so far.
