海角视频

海角视频 participate in Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) conference and London Real Estate Forum (LREF) 2024, part three.

In the third of a series of conversations ahead of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) conference themed 鈥楴ew or Renew?鈥� and London Real Estate Forum (LREF) event themed 鈥楻eimagine鈥�, Ana Araujo, 海角视频 Partner and Retrofit Lead talks to Sam Youdan, Director, Structural Engineer, about his experiences working on one of the biggest redevelopment projects in the UK, Battersea Power Station. Here Sam describes the scale and scope of the Power Station redevelopment, risk management, and talks about what has been learnt.

AA. In 2023, 海角视频鈥檚 contribution to the retrofit of Battersea Power Station won the IStructE Structural Award for raising the standard for retrofit and facade retention at scale. The judges said: 鈥淭he retrofit of such a complex derelict structure required careful planning, inspection and testing of the existing foundation and structural frame. The existing foundations and structure have been strengthened and retained where possible, while featuring excellent construction detailing to satisfy current building codes and to meet the new buildings requirements.鈥�

That feels like a great summary, albeit brief considering the scale and complexity of the work needed to renovate and repurpose the Power Station. As we sit here today in September 2024, what are your memories of working on the project?

SY: It鈥檚 coming up to the two-year anniversary of the Power Station opening to the public, and nearly 12 years since I first started work on the project, and my overriding emotion is pride, and of a job well done. It was an incredible journey to go on and the relationships we forged with the team members that made it happen will be there forever. I remember very vividly the emotion of seeing people enter the building for the first time and thinking that we鈥檇 done our job as custodians of Power Station and bringing her back to life, and now if was time for everyone else to enjoy it. I鈥檓 still down at the Power Station relatively regularly 鈥� my 12,000+ hours worked on the projects ticking over a lot slower that it did previously 鈥� and it鈥檚 always such a great experience to see people enjoying the spaces that we created and the elements that we painstakingly restored.

In terms of how if felt at the time, I think we all experienced a full range of emotions. The project was challenging in many ways but being in the site office with all the design team, client team and trade contractors and being able to look out of the window and see the project created a huge sense of purpose. If any issues came up, we could talk face-to-face and go and inspect the issues on site immediately, which was really refreshing and continually allowed us to move things forward.

We talk internally about the camaraderie that we formed in the crucible of Battersea, and how we dealt with the stressful moments. Taking time away from the project as a team during work hours, being able to make time to talk through issues were key to keeping us all centred and dealing with the stresses and strains of the project.

Personally, it was that sense of purpose and seeing the project happen around me over a 10-year period is what made it such an incredible and enjoyable experience for me. The people I did it with and the finished product are what stick in my mind. I do miss having the empty construction site pretty much to myself at times, with just pigeons for company, but the sense of aura of the place is still there, and it鈥檚 great to see everyone enjoying it.

AA: What have you learnt from working on Battersea?

SY: The industry has evolved massively since outline planning permission for the Power Station was granted in 2010, and whilst there was always a thought of what we would all do 鈥減ost-Battersea鈥�, that hasn鈥檛 been an issue at all. The Climate Emergency and Embodied Carbon are at the top of the agenda for most of our projects, and certainly within Central London – Westminster and City of London in particular. The lessons we鈥檝e learnt from Battersea have been incredibly valuable and we鈥檙e applying them to all our projects. Battersea was challenging in many ways, not only in its scale but it鈥檚 complexity, and the number of different challenges and constraints in such proximity and how they are all interrelated. It felt like we solved every type of intervention to an existing building and taking the learning from each of those individual challenges has been hugely valuable.

AA. Can you expand on the lessons learnt from the Battersea project and perhaps provide a couple of examples?

SY: To pick two specific examples: One would be the steel ground beams, and how the site constraints led us to developing a unique solution at a critical interface. It was where new met old at the base of an existing columns and there were five different trade contractors needing to work in the area and interface with each other, so not only understanding how the new and old would interact, but how the five contractors would build their elements 鈥� a great example of 鈥淒esign for Construction鈥� or 鈥淭otal Engineering鈥�.

A second example would be how new build structure needs to work around the existing, and the impact this has. The challenge on Battersea was always to make the design as efficient as possible, and the key lesson learnt is the impact of working around existing has on efficiently, and most pertinently on our current projects, the impact this has on embodied carbon. All our projects now need early stage embodied carbon studies, and being able to apply the learning to these projects and accurately assess the impact of working around existing structure has been hugely valuable.

AA: How did you and the project team manage risk when working on the Power Station structure?

SY: We spent a lot of time at Battersea talking about risk, and how we would manage the risk profile. With an existing building, you can鈥檛 know everything on day one, and your understanding develops and evolves as you get to know the building. Looking at different elements and playing through different scenarios is a key part of what we do and helps inform our clients and the wider design team of how we mitigate and manage the risks on a project.

At Battersea, it was partly about scale, but mostly about complexity, and how different elements interacted. Several seemingly minor changes in different areas could result in issues arising elsewhere, so keeping abreast of all these elements and understanding what the implications might be elsewhere across a multi stakeholder, multidisciplinary and multiple phase project was a key part of what we did, and something we鈥檙e applying to all our refurbishment projects.

AA: Finishing today the same we began this conversation 鈥� awards for Battersea. The project has won a CTBUH 鈥楢ward of Excellence鈥� this year, congratulations. That鈥檚 a great achievement.

SY: Yes, we delighted to part of the Battersea project team which has won so many awards, we鈥檙e up to 24 now, I think. It鈥檚 hugely rewarding to see our work recognised by the wider industry.

海角视频 participation at CTBUH

Sam will participate in the Carbon Currency workshop on Monday 23 September, alongside Mark Rogers, Turner & Townsend, Jeff Spiritos, Spiritos Properties LLC, Arjan Dingste. Moderated by Adam Tarr, UN Studio the workshop starts at 1.30pm.

About the workshop: Carbon Currency

What if in the future, buildings compete based on their long-term environmental impact? This workshop will explore carbon pricing strategies as a means to incentivize a path towards fulfilling the UN Sustainability Goals. We will uncover how carbon value and exceptional design can revolutionize high-rise, and aim to innovate with materials, building technologies, and assembly methods.

On Thursday 26, 1.30pm to 4.30pm: Offsite programme: Battersea Power Station Development. Sam will join Franck Robert, Partner 海角视频 to co-host a tour of Battersea Power Station, the 17-hectare Battersea Power Station site is now one of London’s largest office, retail, leisure, and cultural quarters, hosting 25,000 residents and workers. The tour includes the station and Lift109, the observation elevator.