Page 7 - The Keble Review 2016

H B Allen Centre kThe Contractor’s View
eble Bursar Roger Boden sat down longer that we would have liked and a with BAM Construction Director little bit fraught at times, we have had Anthony Nagle to talk about the to make sure we deliver the effect and
that. Without those models, quality can sometime suffer because if you can’t see the finished product you don’t know what you are working towards. If you can get people to understand what you are trying to achieve, everyone will buy into that process. People will spot problems, so we can come up with solutions at this stage, which means we can build more quickly and the quality will improve – it’s all about building before we build; if we can do that the job will be a real success. Team work is an absolute priority.
Oxford colleges build for the very long term. Are you confident that your building will be around in 300 years’ time?
Yes, because you have the ability to grow and change within the inside. Internally you have the capacity to be able to add new technology so you can future proof the building. I don’t know how far technology will go. If I was to talk to someone 250 years ago, would they ever have imagined how things would have changed? The
main body of this building is traditional and strong. So long as it is maintained correctly, it will be around for a long, long time.
H B Allen Centre and the motivations and challenges faced by a contractor delivering this scale of project.
Why were BAM so keen to take on the project?
We like working in Oxford. We want everybody that comes into this building to remember it in the future. We hope that people who live and work there will produce something of beauty - that’s what makes it a living building rather than just a building.
We have now signed the contract but getting to that point took eight months. Why?
This has been complex in so many different ways, partly because there are so many different people involved. RMA (Rick Mather Architects) have their own vision about what to build and are very true to their vision which is one of the reasons people like working with them. We are not just thinking about the aesthetics of it,
we have got to make sure that we are not going to give you a problem in the future. So whilst the experience was a little bit
Pictured: BAM Construction Director Anthony Nagle (in blue) and senior team
quality needed.
What are the greatest challenges in taking a two dimensional drawing and turning it into a reality?
The next 6 – 8 months are probably the most important as we’ve now got to really work as a team. We now start bringing the building out of the ground. There are a lot of potential complexities, particularly with Acland House as we’ve got to hold that up in the air whilst we build from underneath. You have to make sure that everything above it fits so sorting out the sequencing is crucial. It’s not a huge building but
the logistics are extremely difficult. We only have one entrance so getting that amount of material in and around will be a challenge. Plus, at peak time I’ll have 350 people working so we’ve got to provide catering facilities, toilet facilities, welfare facilities and just getting the work force to the site can be problematic.
We build a computer model which we will develop and use so that we can let everyone know how it comes together and numerous people will have input into
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