Have you been involved with a public building or project that has made a difference to a community?
Yearbook and Awards 2022
Submission Deadline extended to Friday 4th March
We are now looking for submissions for the SPACES Yearbook and Civic Building of the Year Awards 2022.
You are invited to submit any project which has received an element of public funding. Submissions are invited nationally and can include:
- New building and refurbishment projects across the public sector
- Buildings that add value to the communities they serve
- Buildings from all sectors of public construction
- Projects that demonstrate collaboration
- Projects that demonstrate Engineering excellence/ingenuity
- Surveying projects that renew embedded value
- Examples of construction team excellence
- Articles of interest on public sector buildings
Anyone can make a submission whether you are the client, architect, contractor, engineer, surveyor or project manager who feels there is merit in a particular building or project.
You can make your submission here.
From these a shortlist will be made of those projects that are eligible to enter the Civic Building of the Year Awards.
Please note:
- Schemes must have been completed and be operational between 1st October 2020 and 30th November 2021 (NB An extension to allow for COVID).
- They must also have received an element of public funding to aid their delivery.
- There is no limit to the number of submissions per client/organisation who are members of SPACES, non members can submit up to three projects. To find out more about SPACES membership see our website.
- Anyone involved in the scheme can submit an application.
- In addition to completing the form, you must send up to 5 photographs (file name = project name) and any supporting documentation.
Submission Deadline Friday 4th March 2022
You can view a copy of the 2021 Yearbook and last year’s award winners.
For other ways to be involved with the awards and yearbook, please see our website.
Congratulations
CIBSE Silver Medal
Our Congratulations go to Andrew Rowe, SPACES Finance Director and Immediate Past President who has been recognised with a silver medal for serving on the CIBSE Continuing Professional Development Panel for over 15 years before becoming vice-chair and later, chair of the CIBSE Education and Membership Committee.
Save the date!
Study Day 2022
Thursday 23rd June 2022
We are delighted to return to De Montfort University on Thursday 23rd June 2022 for our national study day. You may recall in 2020 we had to cancel our study day and instead took that opportunity to rollout our first programme of SPACES webinars to support our members with some amazing speakers. In 2021, our study day went online with a Virtual Conference and was a huge success with 18 speakers over a two week period and some 750 registrations for the different sessions.
This year’s theme is Net Zero Carbon – Building Resilience. It is the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced, and if ever there was a time to pull together, share knowledge, experiences and network it must be now. As always, we will be offering a variety of sessions looking at what others are doing on their Net Zero Carbon (NZC) journey.
We will be exploring a diverse range of areas such as
- What are the strategies most likely to deliver success across an LA estate and how will we know that we are on target?
- Does the industry have the skills, knowledge, training programmes and expertise to respond to NZC?
- Are our financial systems simply unfit to deliver NZC so long as capital and revenue budgets are kept in separate pots?
- Will levelling up help deliver NZC?
- How can the digital revolution helps us deliver successful outcomes?
We are in the process of pulling a programme together (see our website or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates). If you are interested and have a project that you would like to showcase, please let Fiona know.
We are looking for sponsors and exhibitors. Our packages start from £500+VAT, for more information please see our Sponsorship Flyer.
Virtually meet your colleagues
Technical Meeting
Tuesday 22nd March @1:00pm
There will be an online Technical Meeting. The chair for the meeting is Steve Rufus, Vice-President, SPACES and Head of Profession – Engineering.
This meeting is open to all SPACES members, but will be of particular interest to engineers. Please let Fiona know if there is a technical matter that you wish to add to the agenda. The meeting will predominately be around the output specs (engineering annexes) and EV.
For more information and to book a place, please see our website.
Watch Webinars in your own home or office
Addressing Climate Change across education settings
Wednesday 26th January 2022 @2:00pm
Gemma Taylor MCIBSE IEng (BEng Hons), Energy, Environment, Engineering and Carbon Lead in the Design Team, DfE presented on Addressing Climate Change Across Education Settings on Wednesday 26th January 2022.
You can download a copy of the slides from our website. A YouTube video is available and the link was sent to our members (you can also find the link when you sign into our website and go to the information suite. If you work in the public sector and have a gov.uk address SPACES membership is free and if you work in the private sector membership starts from as little as £100 per annum. You can find out more about SPACES membership on our website (and when you register don’t forget to agree to receive our e-newsletter).
Catch up
YouTube Channel
You can watch recordings of the Virtual Conference and Awards on our YouTube Channel.
Technical Webinars will be available in the members only area of the SPACES website and will be publicly available on our YouTube Channel after 6 months (depending on permissions of the presenter).
Have you got a question?
SPACES Technical Enquiries
We now have a LinkedIn group for our members to post questions. This is for members only. Please click on this link to join.
1. Do not post anything that you wouldn’t want your Chief Exec or your Mother/Children to see.
2. Respect other members of the Group
3. What happens in the Group chats stays in the group
4. This group if for those signed up for SPACES membership only as per our records
5. The group and the posts are moderated by SPACES, we reserve the right to remove anything that goes against our By-Laws.
Organised by ACES – The Association of Chief Estates Surveyors and Property Managers in the Public Sector
Public Sector: How to model buildings to net zero
Wednesday 9th March @11:00 am
Climate change and the growing ESG agenda has created an unprecedented shift in demand for low emitting carbon buildings.
Half of Councils across the UK have declared a climate emergency and are increasingly under pressure to take action to decarbonise the operational, investment and development assets. Weighing up green improvement cost and risk of obsolescence versus public benefit is a key consideration at a time where Public Finances are severely stretched following the pandemic.
Councils and Central Government are at varying stages on their decarbonisation journey and our webinar will break down the steps required to set a course for Net Zero buildings.
Speakers
- Rob Burke, Head of Buildings and Projects, Cluttons
- Philippa Grant, Global Head of Sustainability, AESG
- Claire Barrett, Director of Property and Strategic Asset Management, Westminster City Council
- Gillian Charlesworth, CEO, BRE Group
For more information and to book your free place, please see ACES website.
Summary of what’s been happening
Useful Information
(Follow us on LinkedIn for updates)
IET and BSI publish Amendment 2 to the 18th Edition
The IET have now issued the press release regarding Amendment 2 to the Wiring Regs. Amendment 2 comes into effect immediately when published on 28th March 2022 and the previous version, BS 7671:2018+A1:2020, will be withdrawn six months later. For more information, including the significant changes see IET & BSI publish Amendment 2 to BS 7671:2018 see Electrical Contracting News.
Safety issues when adding PV panels to existing roofs
CROSS Safety Report raises concerns over the lack of structural engineering knowledge and dangerous assumptions in assessments for the installation of photovoltaic (PV) panels for a number of public sector buildings and schools.
See here for more information.
UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2022
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has recently published a report outlining the UK government and devolved administrations’ position on the key climate change risks and opportunities that the UK faces today.
See here for more information.
Public-Private Partnerships: Driving Growth, Building Resilience
The LGA has commissioned Partnering Regeneration Development and Newbridge Advisors to produce this good practice guide. It aims to support councils to plan and establish more effective public-private partnerships, which can deliver the investment, development and services that are essential to boosting economic growth and recovery.
See here for more information.
IPCC report – Impacts of the Climate Crisis
The IPCC report published this week provides the world with the most detailed insight into the impacts of the Climate Crisis to date.
It highlights the damage caused by global warming so far and points to the unavoidable increase of climate hazards over the coming years.
However, the report also gives cause for hope. It shows that – if both climate adaptation and mitigation efforts are drastically scaled up this decade – it is still possible to create a climate-resilient future.
The full report is here. The three takeaways can be found on LinkedIn.
A safety case regime for high-rise residential buildings
The HSE have supporting information on A safety case regime for high-rise residential buildings as part of the proposed Building Safety Bill.
See here for more information.
Guidance on Collaborative Procurement for Design and Construction to Support Building Safety
Guidance on Collaborative Procurement for Design and Construction to Support Building Safety: An Overview from Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was published on 10th January. See the overview and main documents.
See here for more information.
Constructing the gold standard: An independent review of public sector construction frameworks
Dr Hywel Davies, Technical Director of CIBSE reports on how The Construction Playbook triggered an independent review of public sector procurement that recommended adopting framework structures and features to deliver better, safer, faster and greener outcomes in the public sector.
Fore more information read Hywel’s article and the report Constructing the gold standard: An independent review of public sector construction frameworks.
Levelling Up the United Kingdom
The Policy Paper Levelling Up the United Kingdom, was launched on 2nd February 2022 by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
See here for more information.
The Carbon Emissions (Buildings) Bill
The Carbon Emissions (Buildings) Bill, presented by Duncan Baker, MP, received its first reading in the House of Commons yesterday (2nd February) and is scheduled for second reading on Friday 18th March.
Baker’s 10-minute rule bill seeks to regulate embodied carbon in the building process. It will require the whole-life carbon emissions of buildings to be reported and for the first time require the construction sector to set a limit for embodied carbon.
See here for more information.