As part of our series examining the extraordinary winners of the 2017 Building Performance Awards in February, CIBSE Technical Director Dr Hywel Davies revisits the Collaborative Working Partnership award - claimed by Hoare Lea for their work on RNLI Porthdinllaen in Wales - a challenging project in unforgiving conditions. Better collaboration always results in better outcomes in a project, but sometimes it can mean the difference between success and failure: As Hoare Lea discovered in their project alongside contractor BAM Nuttall and the client Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) on the new lifeboat station at Porthdinllaen in Wales. This project won the Collaborative Working Partnership award at the 2017 CIBSE Building Performance Awards, and is an outstanding example of what can be achieved if all parties are committed to a truly open construction process. The team — comprising RNLI, BAM Nuttall Ltd, Opus, Clive Moore Architecture, Royal Haskoning, Hoare Lea and t...

Following his inaugural speech at the CIBSE AGM, held at the Royal Society of Engineering in London, new CIBSE President Peter Wong sets out the principles that will guide him through his presidential year, and the key priorities he has in his time as leader. It is a real honour for me to be the first CIBSE President from the Hong Kong Branch.  And I am delighted that several members from Hong Kong have been able to join me here tonight. As the new CIBSE President, I would like to take a few minutes to outline my vision for the Institution for the coming year. I’d like to start by posing a question:  Is engineering art? Michelangelo's David manifests determination, beauty and potent strength.  It is also structurally sound and demonstrates perfect proportions.  We call it a piece of art. Few would contend that Michelangelo's David is art   Look at the Beijing National Stadium, built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and colloquially known as the Bir...

As part of our ongoing series on the future of heat in the UK, Phil Jones, Chair of the CIBSE CHP/District Heating Group, writes for us about the next step in deploying the Heat Networks Code of Practice   and where it fits into the supply chain Lack of take-up in the UK results in a lack of data, creating a vicious circle  of uncertainty  When CP1: Heat Networks: Code of Practice for the UK, was launched in 2015 it sought to address a key problem that had been bogging down the technology ever since it was first introduced in the UK: lack of confidence. It is a fitting topic for the first ever Code of Practice that CIBSE has produced, because the technology is set to play a major part in the Government’s strategy to reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels for heating, and this strategy depends on making heat networks more widely used. The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) have now begu...