Listed Building?

What can I do to my Listed building? At Cityzen we work on a lot of Listed properties, so we’re used to advising building owners as to what work can be done to a Listed building. We have worked on Listed hotels offices and won a 2018 Sussex Heritage Trust award for one of our Listed domestic projects, showing that with the right design team, contractor and client we can make a tired Listed building shine. You can read all about the project here. Late 2020 we finished a rebuild to a Listed building in central Brighton which was slowly falling apart, You can read more about it here and 2021 we got planning on an Listed hostel on brighton sea front, which you can read more about it here Often people will tell us that their building is a Listed and they want to change the windows / take a wall out / change the skirting boards, and ask, “that doesn’t need consent, does it?” Let’s start by explaining what a Listed building is: “A ‘listed building’ is a building, object or structure that has been judged to be of national importance in terms of architectural or historic interest and included on a special register, called the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest.” (Planning Portal guidance notes) “Listing helps to acknowledge and understand our shared history. It marks and celebrates a building’s special architectural and historic interest, and also brings it under the consideration of the planning system so that some thought will be taken about its future. ” (Historic England 2015) Buildings are graded in terms of historical significance – Grade II, Grade II* and Grade I being the most protected. Listing usually applies to the whole building and the surrounding area up to and including the boundary walls of the site (referred to as the curtilage). This also includes “modern” buildings that might have been added to the site; you may think these aren’t part of the listing, but they are – we’ve had a project where a 1960s asbestos garage was fought over! What work can I do to my Listed building? What you can do to a Listed building depends a lot of factors, such as its historic significance, its function, its condition or if it is important in terms of its materials. Your Local Authority Conservation Officer is in charge of making the decisions based on their experience and knowledge of the building. If the building is significant they also may bring in experts from Historic England. What work requires Listed Building Consent? Any works which impact on the fabric, appearance or layout of the building or change anything within the site – pretty much everything! This includes: (This list is by no means comprehensive and for guidance purposes only!) Buyer beware: you are the custodian of a historic asset and it is a criminal offence to alter a building without Listed Building Consent. Doing so can result in a fine, being enforced to put the building back to the original state, or even a prison sentence for both the owner and the builder! At Cityzen, we look to help Listed building owners to realise their plans but also to understand that they own a heritage asset, which will be there long after we are. What’s involved in getting planning permission for a Listed building? The legislation states: ‘Such an application shall be made in such form as the authority may require and shall contain: (a) sufficient particulars to identify the building to which it relates, including a plan (b) such other plans and drawings as are necessary to describe the works which are the subject of the application, and (c) such other particulars as may be required by the authority.’ Planning Policy Guidance 15 (PPG15) provides a full statement of Government policies for the identification and protection of historic buildings, and includes the following: ‘B.3 Applications must be made in triplicate on a form issued by the local authority. Section 10(2) of the Act requires that they include sufficient particulars, including a plan, to identify the building in question and such other plans and drawings as are necessary to describe the works for which consent is sought. For all but the simplest work this should normally mean measured drawings of all floor plans and external or internal elevations affected by the work proposed. There should be two sets of such drawings showing the structure before work and the altered structure or new development to replace it after the proposed work. The inclusion of photographs can be particularly helpful – of all elevations in demolition cases, or of the part of the building affected (interior or exterior) in alteration and extension cases. The Act empowers an authority to seek such particulars as it requires and an authority should certainly seek any particulars necessary to ensure that it has a full understanding of the impact of a proposal on the character of the building in question. An authority should not accept an application for consideration until it has sufficient information to provide such understanding.’ Gaining Listed Building Consent can often be a difficult, expensive and lengthy process. More design detail and drawings are required at an early stage and significant justification is required, potentially involving the need to procure archaeological reports and heritage statements to support your Listed Building Consent application. But every Council is different and every conservation officer will interpret the local needs and the needs of your asset accordingly. Any work to be done to a Listed building should be carefully considered before work is started. It is a heritage asset, so you have to be able to justify why the changes are appropriate – not just because you want to make it bigger or you don’t like the colour! On the flip side, owning a Listed building can be very rewarding and provide you with a unique piece of history on which you can make your mark, which will outlast us all. If you have a Listed
Are you ready for the new building regulations?

If you have not got your building in for Building regulations or you are not designing for the new regulations currently you could be in for a shock (clickbait, I know) ‘Under the new regulations, CO2 emissions from new build homes must be around 30% lower than current standards and emissions from other new buildings, including offices and shops, must be reduced by 27%.’ (Gov.uk) The Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) set out the changes to Part L and Part F, and the introduction of Part O, in its response to a public consultation on the Future Buildings Standard which concluded in April. The changes will come into force in June 2022, with a one-year transition period see my notes at the end Alongside amendments to the Building Regs, five new approved documents are published: Each of the new regulations have higher standards to meet for: thermal performance, air tightness, energy losses, heat gains, energy generation, calculation and testing methodologies all of which will slow down the design process requiring additional front-end work (cost), additional testing, witnessing and inspections during the build process. All of the above are good things for the planet but If you have a building in planning currently or at post planning stage, we would suggest you review the new documents as these could have a significant impact on the design and construction methodology. Building Regs ‘transitional period’: We thought I’d better clarify transitional arrangements, these will apply when the appropriate building notice, full plans application or initial notice has been submitted by Wednesday 15th June 2022 and work has commenced by Wednesday 15th June 2023. (this date is the date when the Local Authority cut off is so if you are using an Approved Inspector their cut off date may be prior to this date so they can then forward it to the Local Authority) So either you have to do a full plans submission of drawings and calculations, or an Initial notice to start work on site, this can be done by an approved inspector and this may buy you some time. If it’s a small project you can get away with a building notice to say you are starting work on site and then you have to have evidenced that you have started work on site by 15th of June 2023 The legal evidence for this is : Excavation for strip or trench foundations or for pad footings Digging out and preparation of ground for raft foundations Vibrofloatation (stone columns) piling, boring for piles or pile driving. And from our understanding of the addendum you will only get the transitional approval if you have started every building, so you cant dig the foundations for one building under an application for multiple buildings on a site! The new regulations overall are a good thing and will promote energy saving, reduce overheating and create better homes, but this will mean additional upfront design cost to ensure what’s been designed at planning will work in reality. If you are designing a new building please do get in touch, we play nicely with others and love helping other practices get there concepts through compliance to detailed designs, out to tender and on to site as well as developing our own project from concept stage. Compliance and detailing is not sexy but it’s what makes buildings work.
Part O – Overheating

Part O – Standards for overheating in new residential buildings Part O aims to ensure that new residential buildings, including homes, care homes, student accommodation and children’s homes are designed to reduce overheating. The regulation has two routes for compliance: ‘simplified method’ to compliance based on minimising solar gain and removing excess heat. It splits England into areas of ‘moderate risk’ and ‘high risk’ of overheating, the latter including urban and some suburban parts of London. It sets standards based on whether the house or residential unit is cross-ventilated, (if it’s not possible to cross ventilate DSM is required) considers orientation and introduces a standard for the maximum amount of glazing allowed in a single room. Cross ventilation is not 100% clear in its meaning within the regulations – ‘The ability to ventilate using openings on opposite facades of a dwelling’ (there is no mention of obstructions nor roof light) But it is a simplified method so any deviation would require the second compliance route: ‘Dynamic thermal analysis method’ which is a more complex assessment using the CIBSE TM59 methodology The guidance includes strategies for limiting unwanted solar gain in the summer through: Fixed shading, Glazing design, Building design / layout orientation and other means. And then the removal of excess heat through: Opening windows, Ventilation Louvres and Mechanical extract systems When designing to Part O the measures implemented must ensure overheating strategies are safe and usable by occupants, taking into account noise and pollution near the home, as well as the safety and usability of the windows and security, which may affect occupant behaviour. Information on overheating strategies must be passed to the building owner in the form of a Home User Guide. Designers Compliance Checklist must also be provided to building control. Also to things to think about are the interactions with: Part B – openable glazing size may impact on the overheating calcs if your window area needs to be smaller than an escape window Part F –the removal of excessive heat may exceed that of purge ventilation Part J – open flued appliances gasses may be drawn into other areas (but who’s putting a open fire in?) and if your building is over heating why are you putting the fire on? Part L – Limiting solar gains in of windows could have a detrimental effect on a buildings ability to absorb heat from the sun in winter, unless it’s designed with solar shading Part K & M – increase protection from falling maybe required, and it could be problematic where restricting access or limiting the amount of opening is required Part Q – Security could be an issue especially for ground floor dwellings as openings may create a security risk It will also have to take into consideration any planning requirements for noise and pollution that have been set down as openable windows may not be acceptable or suitable. So, when you are designing a new building keep the above in mind! If you are designing a new building please do get in touch, we play nicely with others and love helping other practices get there concepts through compliance to detailed designs, out to tender and on to site as well as developing our own project from concept stage. Compliance and detailing is not sexy but it’s what makes buildings work.
Futurebuild 2022

It’s good to be back, for the first time in 2 years I’m in London and I’m at a show like nothing had happened, the Nightingale hospital has gone and the Excel centre is buzzing with thousands on construction professionals. It’s certainly was a great show for geeks like us, the road to Zero Carbon is not an easy one with no magic bulit, but lots of little wins and looking at every aspect of a building and it’s component parts will get us there, here are a few of my picks from the show (Yes I blagged a VIP badge): World´s first fossil-free steel? SSAB stand was showcasing their HYBRIT technology, the coking coal traditionally needed for ore-based steelmaking is replaced with fossil-free electricity and hydrogen, thus emitting water vapor instead of CO. The result is the world’s first fossil-free steel, made without creating CO2 emissions and by using fossil-free energy sources. The Fossil-free steel has the same properties and quality as traditionally produced steel, so it will perform in the same way in all applications. Fossil-free steel matches the current standards of steel. Also from SSAB they were showing off their GreenCoat® steel façade and roof products, highly resistant to corrosion, UV radiation and scratches and feature a bio-based coating with a substantial portion of the traditional fossil oil replaced by Swedish rapeseed oil, which reduces the environmental footprint. A long life span 50 years Technical and 25 years aesthetic and fully recyclable, great for harsh environments and cold temperatures. A new name to me was Prefa who provide aluminium profile products again for roofing and Facades, fully recyclable and lightweight with 40year guarantees. And over half the price of zinc and less issues with underside condensation. Some great looking products. I found a great product for breaking the thermal path at ground level which will be an issue under the upcoming changes to part L. Thermoblock from Marmox, it’s a high compressive insulation layer to reduce thermal bridging, and if you talk to them nicely they will do you Psy values to help with the SAP calcs, again important going forward in the new Part L I spoke at length with the nice team at James Latham re there timber fire door blanks and the testing and who’s using them, we have been struggling to find primary tested door sets, over the last few months that meet clients criteria, so these might help going forward! (They also do a wide range of panels, laminates, mouldings, and decorative products) One of the best meetings of the day was with the nice people at EDGE to review some of the many samples that they keep and showcase in there London Show room, all kinds of Beautiful recycled, reimagined and natural products. Including a compressed fish scale panel, that uses discarded food waste products, which sounds weird but looked amazing! If ever you are in London and need some inspiration look them up 146 Marylebone Road, NW1 5PH. Delabie had a great stand showcasing a few innovative water saving products including a cistern-less flush, for high use WCs, and many low flow taps and showers. Sunamp was quite a interesting product that I had not seen before or come across, a Thermal battery and heat exchanger, using phase change materials. No harmful materials can be charged via various means, electricity, Solar thermal, or any heat producing appliance. The material used can store up to 4 times the energy of water and thus can be around 4 times smaller than a traditional hot water cylinder, clever stuff, great when paired with Low or Zero Carbon systems and where space is a premium. There were hundreds of great products on show from products and companies we know, use and support, Water Blade, Biotecture, Aico, ACO, Internorm, Viesmann and Wedi to name a few, It was also great to see Large stands from Italy and Austria showing off some really innovative products and materials. If you want to listen to any of the hundreds of talks or look at the products do go to the Futurebuild website.
Water Neutrality

Currently we are dealing with the contentious issue of Water usage within the West Sussex area to provide Water Neutrality Calculations for new planning applications. The areas in question are the Special Area of Conservation, Ramsar sites and Arun Valley Special Protection area which are being affected by increased ground water abstraction, these areas of interest are being harmed and having a detrimental impact on wildlife hence NAtural England has stepped in ensure no future harm comes to these areas. The districts affected by this requirement are: Horsham, Crawley, Chichester and South Downs National Park. Applicants will need to demonstrate how new projects firstly reduce and reuse there water, then offset any additional water requirement. Any Planning applications which cannot provide any offsetting will be refused as it’s a matter of law based on Natural England’s Statement. Offsetting must be within the council area in question and may be difficult achieve without a framework of local projects or insight. Looking at projects within the district, will also be a unknown cost which is difficult for a developer to grasp. Having been on the planning call today a ‘strategic mitigation strategy between councils and southern water may not be inplace for upto 18months. So with unknown costs, unknown methodologies and strategic way forward this means that projects won’t get planning and that development in the local area may stall. Pertinent links to the current guidance and legislation is below https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/planning/water-neutrality/ https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291739/scho1009bqzt-e-e.pdf https://www.waterwise.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/WESSG-2021-Water-Neutrality-Practical-Guidance-2.pdf https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/media/17041/ne_wnfaqs_arunvalley.pdf Currently we can calculate water usage and reuse to determine the amount or water used and saved on site, but any offset strategy would have to be looked at on a case by case basis and a strategy put forward, and this project would need to be sourced by others (our clients) until the Councils and Southern Water create there ‘strategic mitigation’. Also to note is that any offsetting must be undertaken in ‘perpetuity’ and will be legally binding as part of the planning conditions and must be evidenced as completed (probably prior to occupation of your site) If you are looking to develop in any of the council areas above, I would be cautions until the ‘strategic mitigation’ has been agreed. None of the above is going to be cheap and none of is is going to go away, good luck out there.
So the climate is in chaos?

This week’s news is no surprise to us, and if you have been living under a rock the IPCC has written a report on Climate Change and how we are impacting it, you can read the report here: https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7694945791276485947 We started Cityzen over 10 years ago due to clients wanting to understand how to make there buildings work and use les energy, we were looking at how the thermal performance and carbon emissions modelling to reduce the impact of our clients buildings, we have modelled different technologies and looked at there various outcomes, we have been specifying PV and Heat pumps and Low and Zero Carbon Technologies (LZC’s) since the beginning, we live the mantra that the best equipment and materials are the ones you don’t need. And we have taken steps in the office and in our own lives, cycling as much as possible, having PV, and having and now embracing electric cars, and making investments in sustainable projects like Brighton Energy Coop. What’s next you ask, we’ll we have been in the industry long enough to see that legislation is the only driver that really drives change and could drive down emissions, we have done countless ‘ECO’ projects and projects where the environmental elements were just a tick box exercise, or the sustainable elements were value engineered out. This is no longer good enough. The Government and clients must embrace the technology and the building modelling software available to not just mitigate climate change but to embrace the changing landscape of the weather brought about by climate change. Last year the Governments Policy paper ‘The ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’ highlighted Greener Buildings as a target which was great but the government has already stopped the Green Homes Grant scheme, similar to previous schemes there was very little take up, due to the excessive charges and registration schemes required which often added to the costs, we know of one contractor locally who got all his staff trained at great expense to meet the requirements of the scheme for it to be stopped. Previously we have been part of government pilot projects to show how the schemes worked, each time the government has not listened to the feedback so I don’t hold out much hope for any future incentives, therefore legislation is the only way forward. And the rest of the policy really has no teeth or drivers to meet any goal that were included. So what can we do? We are still designing with energy and materials reduction in mind, we are highlighting the potential cost savings by using LZC technologies (this is all standard stuff for us) but now we must look border and push the boundaries of our buildings further to Reduce the amount of materials used and wasted, reduce the amount of unsustainable materials used and look at new ways of doing things, We have been using Modular construction for some time and this can have a great impact on materials usage, time on site and quality. We also need to look at how we design our buildings, 75% of our housing stock was built in the pre the requirement of insulation, and we are mainly replicating designs developed by the Victorians and have mostly been replicating it ever since, but today we need to cope with more rain, flooding, more extreme heat and storms and according to the IPCC report these will only get more frequent and stronger. It’s all a bit F*cked. But we all have a responsibility to try and build better for our future and the future generations sake. We don’t have all the answers, but we are willing and able to meet the needs of the future. Just for some fun you might want to read my Sustainable Construction blog which we previously wrote! and if you want to know more about how detail better buildings for our clients that can be built and have a positive impact on the future do drop us a line.
South Coast Developer Conference 2020

BE Networking’s 2020 South Coast Developer Conference was held in (a wet) Brighton. This year, the conference was quite Solent-focused. Considering that it was hosted in Brighton, and that the first speaker was the Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, very little was said about the planned projects for the city other than the First Base project (redeveloping the former Amex House site on Edward Street), the 2-hour journey from Southampton and how bad the east-to-west infrastructure is to Brighton! There were several themes to the talks: As with all good projects, it’s not a case of ‘build it and they will come’. All of the above factors have to be in place to ensure a successful development. If you want growth, you have to have the infrastructure. If you want a destination, you need placemaking… Each of these elements were expanded on and questioned throughout the day, covering the ‘why’ of some of the new developments, how are they to be sustainable and what is sustainable? As we well know, the amount of thought, planning and processes needed to undertake such projects is significant. Throughout the day the audience was asked to interact with polls and Q&A relevant to each talk. I was particularly interested in the following questions asked: What is the most important thing that you want to see happen in 2020? It was a loaded question given the answers on offer, but still good to see that the construction industry has this at the forefront of its mind. It was a shame that no one could say ‘how’ it was to be addressed. Along with most of the panel members, we think it needs to be Government led and enshrined into the Building Regulations to make it happen. All things considered what do you think is a realistic and achievable target for the South Coast to get to zero carbon? 39% of the audience thought 2040 was achievable. This is probably realistic, but not where we’d like to see the goal – we’d like the issue addressed on a war footing, bringing it down to 2030 at least. But to achieve this, some of the developments spoken about would need the renewable infrastructure designed in now, so it could be in place for future projects (some of the South Coast developments discussed today have been on the drawing board for years and won’t come to fruition in the next 5+ years). So we understand 2040 but feel we all need to do our bit to push the target as much as possible, to create a better world for us all. Final question of the day: how hot are you feeling about 2020? At Cityzen we are at the front of the design process, and over the past few years our workload has been shifting around whilst developers and the Government work out what’s going to happen with the UK economy and the direction the country is going to go in. To that end, last year saw a lot of enquiries which were put on hold. So are we hot? I’d say not yet. We have a great team of designers and technical staff and are looking to expand our workload and our project portfolio further, focusing on development sites, hotels, assisting contractors with their D&B delivery, and acting as Executive Architects for other practices. Our pipeline has projects which run into 2021 but we are always looking for more, so if you need a construction and delivery focused design practice you know who to call! More information about BE networking can be found here. It’s always an interesting mix of construction professionals, developers and local government.
Sustainable Construction

Looking after our planet should be standard practice when it comes to architecture, not a bolt-on service. The sustainability of buildings is central to what we do at Cityzen. It is something we’ve been committed to improving since the practice was established back in 2010. Through environmentally conscious designs, building practices and products, we can help minimise the impact of construction projects on our planet. As champions of sustainable construction, we believe it’s our duty to help focus clients’ attention on choice of materials, energy consumption and carbon (and other) emissions. The argument for sustainable construction Let’s look at the context for improving sustainability within the construction industry: Improving the sustainability of building projects Modern buildings that we live and work in can achieve a much lighter carbon footprint than their predecessors. Although creating net zero commercial buildings will be more challenging (but is something we are constantly thinking about), there’s plenty we can be doing right now to transform the industry and deliver sustainable construction. 1. Exceeding Building Regulations Building Regulations are a minimum standard. In this day and age, it’s not hard to beat the performance figures set by the Government. Our designs exceed the required performance figures, resulting in improved building fabric, internal comfort levels and a reduction in fuel required (which lowers running costs and keeps the utility bills down). Part L of the Building Regulations is concerned with the conservation of fuel and power, and updates are expected in 2020 that will affect everyone, from architects to developers to contractors. 2. Leaving fossil fuels out of designs Fossil fuels need to stay in the ground along with other resources that are being extracted at an alarming rate. The UK Government’s Clean Growth Strategy will likely inform the updates to Part L, including the need to “phase out the installation of high carbon fossil fuel heating in new and existing homes currently off the gas grid during the 2020s, starting with new homes”. 3. Choosing sustainable materials Using fewer polluting materials and increasing the amount of sustainable materials will reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. Transporting materials adds to carbon emissions, therefore sourcing materials as locally as possible, to lessen the impact of transportation, will help further. 4. Waste management Site waste can be reduced with the use of BIM modelling using standardised components, modular and offsite construction, and good management of materials. We include (as standard) in our documentation the requirement for all waste to be sorted and recycled. Some of these things aren’t hard to do, yet still haven’t become the norm! 5. Circular thinking Construction waste is one of the biggest issues in the industry. Whilst modular and offsite construction can reduce this dramatically, what if we had a record of every component of a building and thought of that building as a materials bank for the future? Could the new building be re-used? Or could an existing building be re-purposed, saving tonnes of carbon? 6. Design, consult, measure and monitor The key to all of the above points is to understand what is required and why – critical thinking before pen even touches paper; questioning the requirements to ask if there’s a better way, and then designing based on facts as well as experience to end up with buildings that are considered rather than just designed and built. We like to work with clients who are engaged with how much energy a building uses, in both its construction and use. If you’re interested in sustainable construction, and think we could help, please get in touch.
Modern Methods of Construction

It’s fair to say that Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) has been slow to take off in the UK. Cityzen have been early adopters, however. DFMA (design for manufacture and assembly) is something we’ve been doing for years, developing modules and construction details ready for manufacturers to implement. Take a look at some of our (MMC) portfolio projects: Modular Hotel | Rooftop Development | Emergency Accommodation | Innovation Studios. I first wrote about using shipping containers as modular building components back in 2006, and our work since has been cited and featured in a few books. I was even invited to speak at the national Explore Offsite Housing event in 2018, to share the challenges and solutions that shipping containers offer. Improving the speed, quality and sustainability of a build is a win for everyone, and the construction industry needs to embrace modular and offsite as alternatives to the more traditional site-based schemes. Government appoints champion for Modern Methods of Construction There have been some encouraging signs that the tide could be turning. In November 2019, the Government’s Housing Minister appointed an MMC champion, Mark Farmer, who has 30 years’ experience in the construction and real estate industries. Mark’s role will be to help accelerate the uptake of Modern Methods of Construction; to advise the Government on how to increase the use of MMC in homebuilding, to develop a construction corridor in the North of England, and promote wider innovation in the sector. In the press release announcing his appointment, Mark commented: “This is a really important time for the construction industry and there is an urgent need to rethink how we build homes, delivering better quality, improved safety, carbon reduction and an array of exciting new career opportunities.” The technology exists to drive MMC forward Getting Modern Methods of Construction into the mainstream is going to be digitally driven. In previous blogs, I’ve written about being able to pick design options for your building like you would the wheels on your new car. We need to make clients feel the process adds value and quality (too many people still think of the post-war prefabs and how cold and badly laid out they were). In this digital age, we can design a flexible building using generative design to meet a client’s goals and then send it to a factory to be: It’s just a matter of looking at where the constraints are (on site, transportation to site, material availability or just style). All of these Modern Methods of Construction can help control the quality and waste. Hands-on construction skills are bound to slowly reduce as the industry invests in more varied robotic infrastructure, but we have to embrace MMC to meet housing needs and address the climate crisis. As a practice, we continue to look at change from every perspective. Each building is constructed from thousands of variables and has to meet ever-changing and ever more stringent targets. My technological journey began in 1989. Although I started out using a drawing board, I began learning Autocad that same year, started designing in 3D in the late 90s, produced renders and visualisations in the 2000s, did our first 3D prints and started using Revit in in 2013, and saw our first factory built projects come to realisation in 2016. We’ve come a long way – where can we help you get to? If you have a project in mind that could benefit from our experience in modular and offsite construction, please get in touch.
London Build Expo 2019

It was a whistle-stop tour around London Build Expo this year. After a site visit in the morning at St James’s Square, I dashed over to Olympia to visit the 2019 Expo. London Build is always a great event – see my write-up of their 2018 Expo. It’s an opportunity to see what new products are out there, and what’s trending construction-wise. London Build Expo 2019 It was good to see a queue of people in the ‘Meet The Buyer’ area who were waiting to see our old friends at Baxall (such a great contractor). A real shame I couldn’t get there earlier, as there were a lot of talks I wanted to get to, discussing sustainability, climate action, mental health, BIM and digital construction, and the Future London Summit. Hopefully they make some of them available on line. A few companies caught my eye: BeadMasterGreat products for achieving a perfect finish around sockets and switches. CristofoliBeautiful stone on a honeycomb backer board. If you really must have stone, these guys have a great solution to keep it stable and lightweight. GrippleA small stand this year. I love their products. If you have a lot of services to install quickly, these are the only suspension fixings to use. MarselliThey had a stand out stand. Some of their products are beautiful, really nice aluminium frame windows and doors. ProtektorAll the bead edges and profiles you could ever want! An unbelievable array of plastic and metal edges. SugatsuneThe guys showed me some lovely hinges, concealed and lift off (geek alert!). Coopers FireTheir ResQ-window fire curtain was a great product that I hadn’t seen previously. It helps first responders see through a fire curtain into a room prior to entry. Having done more CPD events on fire this past year than ever before, anything that can save lives and reduce risks has got to be a good thing. GIRA had a few KNX system products that always look great, but no new toys this year. The people on the stand told me they were waiting on the big shows in Europe early next year to release new equipment, so keep an eye on their website. My highlight of London Build Expo 2019 was an unexpected surprise: a retro gaming area with a few games that took me – and obviously quite a few other attendees – back to my youth (and no, I didn’t play any!).