______________________________________________________________________________________________ Century Facades
we would like to discuss if the foundations of a building are connected to building safety in this context,” queries Graham.
The BSA and BSR were changes introduced post Grenfell, plus Covid also brought in new challenges. While based in tragedy, these events spurred innovation that brought improvements across construction. Graham cites quality assurance as an example.“ Quality assurance used to be paper documents filed in offices at construction sites, where you were lucky to get 200 photographs of an entire building,” he says.“ Today we use the latest technology and on one of our intermediate projects, for example, there might be 20,000 QA sheets signed off by the operatives, with another 40,000 linked photographs. These are submitted via Wi-Fi or 5G, they are with the entire project team within hours and can be sent across the world. Everybody can see what’ s happening in every single square metre of building. That’ s huge progress and an area where we’ re class leading at Century. I don’ t think anybody takes it as far as we do.”
“ Our QA department is independent of the other departments because they must be non-biased,” Tim continues.“ Design is another area where Century shines, as we recognise that design is a function with multiple aspects, so we have over 20 engineers working in three different departments in house: information management, facade engineering and technical submissions, and design composition. These are very much specialist roles, a far cry from the draughts people of old.
“ We have also separated the design team from the scheduling team to create a new department. As a result, things are scheduled, checked, batched and procured, to suit both the method of construction and the site programme. We have different departments for different reasons, but over the last 13 years we’ ve established a systemised approach as to how we’ re best placed to deliver these projects’ complexity.”
Century has always taken a long-term view, ambitiously adopting new approaches, and addressing challenges as they arise. It is now well placed to take advantage of increasing opportunities in the new build BTR and PBSA residential sectors, as well as developing new business in office refurbishment and data centre markets.
“ We currently operate generally around London and the South East, and we are exceptionally proud about the projects we’ ve completed in these areas. We are now looking to expand into new cities and towns, as part of our ambition to become a national contractor,” concludes Graham.“ Our goal is to encourage the construction industry to challenge the status quo and develop modern methods of construction, reducing carbon content and focusing on sustainability, and Net Zero.” ■
www. centuryfacades. co. uk
Best wishes and lasting success to Century Facades
We look forward to our continued partnership. From all the team at Reynaers Aluminium. Thank you for your business.
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