 Embarking on a construction or renovation project of any kind will always be an exciting endeavour and there’s really nothing quite like watching what’s on the blueprint develop over time and start to come to life.
But, of course, the road to success is paved with all sorts of obstacles and, while you can manage the project yourself, it will likely increase your stress levels, make the process a lot less enjoyable and potentially cause issues that might not have manifested had you enlisted the services of a professional and qualified construction project manager. This is the route that most developers go down because it does make everything run a lot more smoothly, with the construction and delivery of the project taken care of on your behalf. Skills to look out for when finding a project manager to appoint will naturally include in-depth knowledge and experience of the construction industry, as well as building contract and contract law, and the intricacies of the construction work itself. But you also need to make sure that they have strong problem-solving skills because development projects often come with a range of complicated problems that could be resolved in various different ways. Communication skills are also an absolute must, since it’s often necessary to liaise between different parties and manage everyone’s expectations effectively. From your perspective, working with someone transparent and honest, who provides you with accurate reporting on a regular basis, will give you greater peace of mind that the project is on track. Leadership is something else your choice of project manager must demonstrate and you need to work with someone capable of reacting to circumstances positively, rationally and in a clear-headed way. Having someone in your corner who knows the industry inside out and who stays up to date with all the latest innovations coming to the fore means your project is far more likely to be successful, completed on time and on budget. If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of this kind of service, get in touch with the Dilys Wilson Layton team today.
0 Comments
 One of the biggest pushes forward when it comes to new build project management is in the field of affordable housing.
This is far from surprising given that the average asking price for a house is ten times the median salary, and given that most mortgages only allow a person to borrow up to 4.5 times their annual salary, the dream of owning a house is beyond the reach of a huge number of people. The solution to this requires a concerted effort across developers, planning authorities and the government in order to create the best circumstances to create high-quality, long-lasting affordable housing, which given the scale of housing required necessitates new builds. Building huge numbers of houses is not common but it is also not unprecedented; in 1942, the Burt Committee was set up to determine the most cost-effective ways to rebuild Great Britain following the devastating effects of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz bombing campaigns. In just six years from the unconditional surrender of Germany to 1951, 1.2m new houses were built, around 11 per cent of which were prefabricated. This was an incredible level of production which amounts to over 173,000 houses being built each year. Whilst this is half of the roughly 300,000 houses needed per year to meet the government’s housing targets, they do not have the lingering effects of the most devastating war in British history to contend with. Exactly how this will be tackled is likely to coalesce around the time of the first Budget of the new government, which will determine how much money will go into affordable housing and the establishment of a planning and housing system that goes beyond a local scale. That will be half of the battle, with planners, architects and developers also playing a huge role in developing effective housing that is not only beautiful but designed around need rather than short-termism.  In many places, the church is the centre of the community, is one of the most historically significant buildings in the local area and one that often requires care when managing reconstruction and renovation projects.
Adapting churches is far from a new practice; Greensted Church in Essex is the oldest wooden church in the world and has been adapted many different times over the centuries to meet the needs of the rural communities that rely on it. Most reordering and renovation projects are far more harmonious than Greensted, but the concept of a church changing with the times is shared between this and other historic community pillars in ever-changing worlds. In an ecclesiastic context, reordering is the alteration of church property to incorporate additional uses, not all of which need to be exclusively religious. This could include adding secular function rooms to a church by altering or reducing chapel space commensurate with the number of regular practitioners, adding cafes, eating areas and cultural centres. Some reordering projects are particularly unusual; St Paul’s Church in Bristol has been adapted to include a flying trapeze school, taking advantage of the extra height of a church to allow for an unusual, highly interesting repurposing. Whilst some religious hierarchies are opposed to reordering, it is far from a new concept. Churches have always been mixed-use to some degree, owing to their importance to the community. They have served as village halls, been used as polling stations, been used as makeshift places of rest and recuperation and formed the centre of more secular celebrations such as village fetes. Ultimately, a church should consider effective reordering with the help of strong project management and construction if there is a concern that the alternative is falling into disuse and disrepair. Nobody wants to see a historic building disappear, and reordering is the best way to avoid it. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed