APS SCOTTISH STUDENT AWARD 2008

Design risk management - Military Museum, Cadiz

The winning entry for this new APS award scheme was submitted by Sarah Castle of Edinburgh University who attended the APS Convention Dinner to be honoured for her achievement and be presented with the APS prize of £500. The School of Architecture also received an award of £500 to encourage their commitment to consideration of design risk management within their courses.

Students submitting entries to the APS Student Awards Scheme were required to demonstrate how they have considered the avoidance of foreseeable risks to the health and safety of those involved with the construction of their design or the maintenance and use of their building as a place of work, rest or play in the preparation of their design. Entries were recently assessed by the APS panel of judges - Murray Thomson, APS Director; John Marsh, Chairman of APS Scotland West Region and Bernard Warden of the HSE.     

“The Judges were unanimous in selecting Sarah’s entry as the winning design – whilst all entries demonstrated an appreciation of risks a contractor would have to manage during the construction process, Sarah’s entry alone considered what decisions a designer could make during the design process which would reduce the need for such risks to be managed by eliminating them.

In her written text Sarah states ‘there are many hazards associated with both the construction process and the maintenance of the completed building which will fall under the responsibility of the designer to either eliminate or control’.  This statement and her approach to the design process demonstrated an understanding of the ethos of health and safety risk management.  This is demonstrated throughout the design process through her understanding of the importance of site investigation relative to ground condition, spilling, flooding, ground contamination etc. and her resultant correct selection of secant piled walls given the inherent conditions of the site.

Sarah has also demonstrated an understanding of the importance of early collaboration between the Client, Design Team and Contractor in realising an appropriate sequence of construction within reasonable timeline for project delivery.  Maintenance of the building has also been considered with safe roof access within protected walkways provided for maintenance/cleaning of windows.

The Judges were also impressed with the quality of presentation.” 

This submission sets the standard for future student award submissions – and will be extremely helpful when the scheme is, as is hoped, rolled out to cover schools of architecture across the UK next year.

Another submission by David Lavelle of the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture was commended by the judges who commented: 

“This entry also considered what hazards a contractor would have to manage but paid more attention to how they could be managed rather than how the design could eliminate the hazard.  However, it did show an understanding of the likely construction sequence as well as giving consideration to how hazards might be avoided by design decisions.  In particular, it described a fundamental change of design philosophy to reduce risk, by changing from in-situ concrete to precast.  Consideration had been given to maintenance of the glass facade and a maintenance gantry was proposed; a more positive solution than simply proposing anchors or safety lines, which require a robust maintenance regime and are open to misuse.”

Congratulations also go to Murray Thomson who drove forward this initiative for APS. APS is now considering the development of the awards scheme on a regional and UK wide basis.