Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) and low-pressure loss duct systems to minimise heating demand..

Finding Places project.undertaken in Hamburg for our recent book.

Design to Value., I was immediately taken by the humility of the process.This project was the city’s response to the allocation of 20,000 migrants fleeing Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq to be housed.

This was a people problem with complex, strong and diverse views and issues to negotiate.Although they used some very advanced modelling techniques, this was done only to support and inform a big conversation.

They largely got rid of the traditional processes of city planning, keeping only those things that seemed immovable.

Instead they used a process of discussion.For a prison that needs to be more rehabilitative, this means: showing what is visible from where; how activities are distributed across the buildings and the site; how the buildings are zoned and controlled to allow free movement while controlling who goes where.

For a pharmaceutical plant that needs to satisfy uncertain demand in an emerging market, this could entail seeing the capacity of the production equipment, its utilisation, the labour required to operate it, and the flexibility of the equipment to produce either different or more products..In each case the representation is driven by what client and stakeholders need to see to satisfy themselves that the proposed solution meets their needs, but also to inform the wider team to decide what the next design iteration needs to look like to create an even better and more detailed solution.. At the end of this process, we have not simply a good design but also a transparent account of how expert knowledge and stakeholder requirements steered the decision-making process.

This not only gives our clients the confidence that they have got the right solution, but ensures they understand why this design is preferable over all others.We maximise understanding, efficiency and value.. An approach that feeds back into the business.