News
In this issue
Company News
• Q&A with Valerie Carr
• We can’t stress enough - design out stress
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Covell Matthews Aberdeen
• 9 Albyn Terrace, Aberdeen
• Tel: (01224) 634040 • Fax: (01224) 631649
Covell Matthews Edinburgh
• 6 Manor Place, Edinburgh
• Tel: (0131) 226 3366 • Fax: (0131) 220 1177
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New Building standards
• New Building Standards
BP North Sea Headquarters
• Verona - 'Designing with Stone 2007'
It is an offence to begin work for which a warrant is required before first obtaining the warrant.
Works not requiring a Warrant (but must comply)
Any work to or in a HOUSE.
Except:
• any work which increases the floor area of the house.
• any demolition or alteration of the roof, external walls or elements of structure.
• any work involving underpinning.
• any work adversely affecting a separating wall.
• any work involving a change in the method of wastewater discharge.
• any works to a house having a storey, or creating a storey, at a height of more than 4.5m.
Any work to or in a NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDING (no public access).
Except:
• any work which increases the floor area of the building.
• any demolition or alteration of the roof, external walls or elements of structure.
• any work involving underpinning.
• any work adversely affecting a separating wall.
• any work involving a change in the method of wastewater discharge.
• any works to a building having a storey, or creating a storey, at a height of more than 7.5m.
Other works not requiring a Warrant
• A detached single storey building, with a floor area between 8m2 and 30m2
• A detached single storey building, with a floor area between 8m2 and 30m2, ancillary to and within the curtilage of a house.
• Any work associated with the provision of a single sanitary facility.
• Any work associated with thermal insulating material to or within a wall, ceiling, roof or floor.
• Any work associated with open raised external decking.
• A door, window or rooflight when the work includes replacing the frame.
• Any work to a door, window or rooflight, including glazing, which is not a complete replacement.
Completion Certificates
Must be submitted by the ‘relevant person’ after construction; demolition; provision of services, fittings or equipment; conversion.
Relevant person
• the owner, tenant or developer doing work for themselves; or
• the owner, tenant or developer who has employed a builder to do the work for them; or
• the owner, where the tenant, developer or builder has not submitted the certificate when they should have done so.
Electrical Certification
Certification is required from an approved ‘Certifier of Construction’ in accordance with BS:7671.
• for example: NICEIC or SELECT
• other approved means of certification.
Types of certificate:
• Electrical installation Certificate
Required for all new build work, or alterations to a building where new circuit is provided.
• Minor Electrical Works Certificate
Required for any alterations or additions to existing circuits.
• Periodic Inspection Reports
Required where an electrician is certifying a different electricians work.
Sun Rooms
Sun Rooms with larger areas of glazing are becoming increasingly popular.
These fall into two categories.
• Thermally Divided. ie existing (or altered) structure / doors / windows.
Unrestricted glazing of a value of at least 1.8 Wm2K is permissible if the following conditions are met.
• U-values of extension elements must comply with regulation 6.2.9
• Separate heating controls must be fitted (radiator valves) to enable the heating to be isolated in the sun room.
• Not Thermally Divided.
A heat loss calculation is required for the existing house.
A calculation is then done based on a notional extension of the same floor area as the proposals.
The U-values of ‘notional’ extension elements must comply with regulation 6.2.9. and glazing to be a maximum 25% of the floor area.
A heat loss calculation is then prepared, for the desired extension and a comparison is made between the two results. The existing house (or extension) can be thermally upgraded to compensate for any shortfall. This is easier to achieve in an older house where there is probably very little insulation by simply adding insulation in the existing roof space.
• 10k Donation
• Andrew Mowat gains new achievements
Q&A with Valerie Carr
Valerie Carr join Covell Matthews as a Workplace Analysis to support our space planning team.
Verona - 'Designing with Stone 2007'
We can’t stress enough
- design out stress
Venture Production plc - Huntly Street, Aberdeen
CMA were approached by Venture Production to design a new Entrance Hall and separate Breakout Facility for their offices in Huntly Street, Aberdeen.
Venture Production plc are a leading new generation oil and gas company.
The brief for the Entrance Hall was to incorporate an innovative design which would make the space feel more inviting to prospective clients and staff alike. The company are also taking sole occupancy of the building and would like the Entrance Hall to reflect these changes through company branding and finishes. The breakout area is to provide a space that staff can visit to grab a coffee or have an informal meeting. The use of finishes are to be inspiring, contemporary and reflect the company's 'forward thinking' approach to business.
The breakout area is to be implemented by Christmas 2007 and the Entrance Hall will follow on at the end of completion as part of the overall contract.
Subsea 7, Aberdeen
• Lunch and Learn at the Hub
Val, can you give us an overview of your career leading up to joining Covell Matthews?
I graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art with a BA in design and worked for a few years in interior design before having my first child.
An awareness of my lack of knowledge of developments in computer aided drafting led to an MSc. in Computer Aided Architectural Design at University of Dundee in 1990/1. After two more children I took a post teaching CAD at University of Dundee, and, while doing this, was asked to help an Edinburgh based architect and workplace consultancy on a variety of workplace analysis, space planning and redesign projects.
Another child later, a developing interest in evidence based design and environmental psychology led to a three year research project and PhD examining supportive workplaces for healthcare staff. The PhD is not yet complete, but is at final revision stage, and should be submitted sometime in November 2007.
So hopefully we shall be calling you Dr Carr soon!
The PhD sounds interesting, could you tell us more?
Part of the PhD involved an extensive literature review of articles related to stress in the workplace (Karasek 1979, Cohen & Wills 1985, Siegrist 1996 etc.). Literature related to office and healthcare environments was also searched in detail to identify how the interior environment in the workplace might contribute to or detract from well-being and productive working practices. One of the outputs from the PhD is a model identifying the influence of various physical, ambient and latent stressors in the built environment. Findings from the PhD have been published in international journals and presented at various international environment and behaviour conferences.
How can Covell Matthews clients benefit from your research?
Working with Covell Matthews in my position as workplace analyst gives me the chance to apply theory into practice, being involved in large scale office redesign projects, acting as facilitator in consultation workshops and conducting post-occupancy evaluations of the refurbishments. This allows the company to continue to test, adapt and evolve existing workplace strategies, ensuring that changing working practices are accommodated in supportive work environments.
'Designing with Stone 2007' awards and lectures in Verona.
Andrew Mowat was one of 30 architects from 6 different countries taking part in the 4 days of seminars, looking at the Natural Stone Industry. Of course it's impossible to cover all aspects of designing with dimension stone in such a short time days; however, Andrew looked at key elements that gave him the proper tools to source, select and design with one of the world's most prestigious building materials. This course is particularly interesting in that it has been organized along with the MARMOMACC Exhibition, one of the truly international Stone Industry Shows, where he viewed new materials and technologies from around the globe.
The highlights of the trip were the visit to Antolini Luigi & C. SpA
and the Seminar: Structural Use of Stone: Case Study on the PADRE PIO Church by Renzo Piano
Covell Matthews Architects, for the third year running, won a place as the Scottish Representatives to the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
Stress occurs when we feel we have exceeded our level of stimulation and we can no longer react appropriately to situations that may occur in our lives.
This limit is different for everyone and some stress can be a good thing, enhancing our performance.
Often it is the way we react to and manage these 'stressful' situations that is key in our ability to cope with them.
It is important to understand for yourself what types of situations cause you stress and ways in which you can either change your reaction to them or change the situation to reduce your stress to a manageable level.
Especially in the workplace learning strategies for coping and dealing with particular situations or our own responses to them can help.
Remembering a few simple things such as:
• Not being a perfectionist - no one is perfect, so why do you imagine you have to be?
• Ask for the support you need - others may have insights that make it easier for you to figure out what to do next.
• Help reduce stress generally throughout your day by making sure you are always running on time, there's nothing like being late for making you feel stressed!
• Not taking your work home with you - make a rule to go home and stop talking about work after half an hour, work to live, don't live to work!
• Deal with each task as you come to it - you might make back some time in the long run and it saves you repeatedly looking at the same information over and over again.
Article written by Alex Penter of CMA
Good interior design and space planning is effective in reducing stress in the workplace. Please contact our interior design team if you wish to discuss your office environment.
10K Donation
On the 27th of July the Covell Matthews Baker Hughes 10K run team presented a cheque of £300 to The Bread Maker charity.
Andrew Mowat, Angela Milne, Claire Sautron and Donna Brown from CMA presenting the cheque
The money donated will be used to purchase a much needed bread slicer.
“I would like to thank you for the very kind gesture and effort yourself and your colleagues have made to raise money for the bread maker.
As a charity we are grateful of every effort made to help our goals of providing meaningful employment for adults with learning disabilities.” - Donald Anderson of the Bread Maker.
The Building works commenced in May last year and three storey office development has progressed rapidly since, under the management of the contractors, Bowmer and Kirkland for the developer Goodman.
Covell Matthews have provided a technical support role to BP throughout the formation of the brief, the review of the developer’s designs, the monitoring of the design development, and the construction of both the developer’s CAT A works and BP’s integrated CAT B fit out works.
This has been a demanding, challenging and in many ways exhilarating project to be part of and the views of the completed building show that a significant office environment has been created by the team for BP.
- Nearing Completion
The BP North Sea Headquarters Building at Stoneywood Road, Dyce is due for completion at the end of November.
The office wings open to the cathedral like atrium space which accommodates reception, touch down space, café, and restaurant and acts as the connecting street for all office users with glazed lifts and feature stairs linking all three levels.
The ground floor of the building has a 3.4 metre ceiling height providing the office wings with excellent daylight quality and enabling the deep service zones required for kitchens, HIVEs (highly immersive visualisation environment), and conference rooms.
The generously glazed office wings are 16.5 metres wide with large open courts between and the internal layout is primarily open plan with fully glazed meeting rooms. The wing escape stairs are treated as external pods providing a sculptural form to the end of each wing and a clear internal open space.
The building is set in landscaped grounds, now taking shape, with strong conifer tree belts extending from each wing to the boundary. A two level car park is set in to the rear lower end of the site accommodating some 650 car spaces.
Early entry has already been provided to BP to commence computer room installations and there is now a concentrated effort from all parties to achieve completion on programme, so that BP can relocate some 1300 staff from BP’s present offices to their new home in the New Year.
We all have a limit to the levels of stimulation we can cope with and it is inevitable that at some point throughout our professional and personal lives, we will feel that we have reached our limits.
Lunch and Learn at the Hub
We had another successful Lunch and Learn in September. Three guest speakers from various sectors of the furniture industry who gave our clients and us an insight as to what’s happening in the development of furniture for the Workplace.
Alexandra Murray from Herman Miller gave a talk - which required a considerable amount of audience participation - on the importance of the correct ergonomics in seating and dispelled some of the myths around ‘special seating’.
Sarah Ramsay from Tangram Furnishers gave us a presentation on “Exceptional Furniture in the Workplace” asking you to consider the concept – if we are all looking to recruit exceptional people - why not think of using exceptional furniture.
Laura Jevons from Claremont Interiors took us through a presentation, which asked you to think ‘In and Out of the Box’ looking at the wide range of furniture types available and to consider what’s really needed for your business.
The venue this time round was in the Aberdeen University Hub and we had a good attendance of Facilities Managers and Project Managers from a wide range of businesses.
If you wish to be invited to any future lunch and learns please contact Andy McNair
Andrew Mowat gains new achievements
- Part Three Examiner
Andrew Mowat of Covell Matthews has followed in George Simpson's of Covell Matthews footsteps in becoming a Part 3 examiner for the Architects' Professional Examination Authority in Scotland Ltd. (APEAS) this year. In case you are not aware APEAS is the new body that manages and operates the Part 3 in Scotland.
- Nominated for the SBCC
Andrew has been nominated as the RIAS (Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland) representative of the Consultative Committee of the SBCC Scottish Building Contracts Committee by the Director of Practice, Andrew Leslie.
New Staff
The Aberdeen office has had two new personnel joining us this quarter and one who has rejoined us after completing her degree.
Alex Penter has rejoined the Shell Team where she spent her year out in 2004 – 2005. Alex will graduated in December with a BSc Interior Architecture. We are delighted to have Alex back with us.
Nicola Rennie has joined us as communications co-ordinator for the Shell Team. Nicola’s background is in banking customer services and brings with her a great deal of enthusiasm and experience in customer service.
Chris Billimore has joined us as a year-out student before heading off to the University of Tasmania next year on an exchange programme to complete his architectural degree.
Lochter Outing
The 31st of August saw the Aberdeen Office’s annual outing. This year an action packed day was enjoyed at The Lochter Activity Centre, near Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire.
Activities included: archery, clay shooting, blind quad driving, digger driving, target golf, target shooting and by far the most popular activity, high speed grass carts.
To add a competitive edge to the days events 3 teams were organised to compete against each other for prizes to be presented at the end of day barbecue. The very friendly and impartial Lochter staff helped to keep scores and make sure cheating was kept to a minimum.
Top male points scorer went to Andrew Mowat and top female points scorer was Claire Sautron who managed to record one of the highest scores in the target shooting that the Lochter staff had seen, questions have since been asked whether Claire leads a double life as a marksman.
• CMA Golf Event
CMA Visualisation of the proposed breakout area
Covell Matthews Architects are delighted to be involved with Subsea 7's latest business
Building (Scotland) Act 2003
(Amendments May 2007)
The Edinburgh office have recently appointed five new members of staff.
Architectural staff include Jennifer Ng, Diana Oceguera, Claire Watkins and Christie McNaughton, who rejoins the practice to oversee the MetroCentre project.
We also welcome Sarah Kidd who join