gcp plant 68 trees and 69 shrubs to support local tree planting program

gcp have recently teamed up with Avon Needs Trees to support their ambitious tree planting program across the Avon valley. Avon Needs Trees is looking to reforest and rewild the Avon valley by planting trees which will enhance biodiversity, provide natural flood management, improve water and air quality as well as sequester carbon from the air.

By volunteering at the Stanley Lane site gcp managed to plant 68 trees and 69 shrubs which will be maintained by Avon Needs Trees through their ongoing commitment to the site. We also donated to planting at ANT's nearby site at Hazeland and hope that these trees will continue to grow over the coming years and go some way to offsetting the carbon we create as a business in the future.

gcp are committed to tackling climate change both through our designs and our actions. We hope to build off this initial planting session by further developing our carbon tracking, reduction, reporting, and offsetting strategies to better understand how we can make a difference.

Work Life Week 2021: Using National Awareness Days to Evaluate Our Progress

At gcp, supporting mental health has always been at the core of devising sustainable working practices. We have long had family-friendly working policies in place and support flexible working requests for a variety of reasons from caring responsibilities to personal development, knowing that there is no “one size fits all” solution to improving work/life balance.

For the last few years we have used Work Life Week to evaluate our progress, celebrate achievements in this area and set targets for the following year. In a busy, hybrid working environment, it is helpful to use National Awareness days and weeks as a way for the whole team to think about and discuss our mental health at the same time.

In 2019 we held a mindfulness and creativity week, where we took some time out to be creative together. This was a great opportunity to have fun, take a break from our screens and chat with members of the team we might not work with on a day-to-day basis.

In the midst of a pandemic, Work Life Week saw a change of focus to physical activity breaks: we set ourselves a 1,000,000 step challenge for the week and encouraged everyone to take time off from their screens to get some fresh air. Working virtually, we also held coffee mornings as an opportunity for some chit-chat amongst the increasingly work-focused Teams meetings.

It is important to highlight that these weeks aren’t just one-off events, but something gcp are keen to continue to improve on. In the past year, we have signed up to Thrive at Work West of England and have embarked on a two year commitment to improve and evaluate our working procedures in a way that puts keeping our team mentally healthy at the core of what we do.

One year into this commitment  we have made some subtle shifts in established working practices to support mental health, wellbeing and balance. At the beginning of 2021 we introduced private health insurance for everyone, to provide easy access to medical support for physical and mental health issues.

Long supporters of Mind, all members of the Senior Management Team have already completed Mental Health Awareness Training for Managers in 2021. This training will be provided to the rest of the office during 2021s’ Work Life Week.

This year we also ran an Employee Satisfaction Questionnaire to let us know what we are doing well already and what we need to improve, on an individual and organisational level. This will now become an annual undertaking, with benchmarking questions used to track trends amongst our team. As a result of this survey, we have:

• Put mental health at the forefront of one-to-ones and reviews

• Committed to putting wellbeing plans into place for anyone who needs it

• Reinforced our one-to-one chats, now scheduled every 6 weeks (these are informal chats with directors outside of the formal review system, when any issues or concerns can be raised or feedback given)

• Checked in on the wellbeing and mental health of staff via an anonymous survey

• Arranged mental health awareness training for the Senior Management Team

• Collaboratively planned for return to the office / bubble mixing

• Attended a RIBA CPD Wellbeing session, with action points fed back to the wider team

• Encouraged coffee breaks Tuesday & Thursday @10.30 for drop in (online – or in office for those in an office-based bubble)

• Empowered staff to set up challenges, breakout rooms, coffee breaks, informal meetings as and when they need / want them

To follow, we will in the next 6 months:

• Arrange mental health awareness training for the whole team

• Devise a wellbeing & mental health policy, using our survey results, research and findings from year 1

• Run the annual Employee Satisfaction Survey & report on trends / actions to wider team

• Undertake a review of our appraisal system

Our Events Team will:

• Define a place to play games, do puzzles, sketch at lunch (when closer contact is permitted)

• Plan architectural/cultural day trips

• Plan lunchtime events: games, exercise, Lego, pub – a mix of events to appeal to a wide audience

It is fair to say that the pandemic has highlighted both the positives and the challenges of virtual working and so this year for Work Life Week, we have changed the focus towards discussions about what sort of working environment we want to create as we move towards 2022.

gcp became employee owned in 2020 and now more than ever the wellbeing of our colleagues is central to us being a successful business. In Work Life Week 2021 we will be having daily discussions around the following:

Flexibility:

What does flexibility mean to me?

How does it impact my colleagues?

Mental health:

What can I do to help my mental health?

What can gcp do to help my mental health?

Practicality:

How do we see the new flexible and hybrid system working?

Creative and collaboration:

How do we see creative and collaborative design working in the new flexible and hybrid system?

Burn-out:

What is the best way to avoid burn-out? How do I work best?

For this week and beyond gcp continues to place employee wellbeing and keeping our team mentally healthy at the core of our company values.

Planning Granted for new Cricket facilities in Bradford

The second ECB Urban Cricket Centre is one step closer to reality having been granted planning approval earlier this month.

Working with existing buildings is rarely straight forward and that was the case with this project in Bradford. In December 2020 we submitted designs to planning for two new cricket lanes and other community facilities at Parkside Sports Centre. During the planning process a huge attenuation tank was discovered beneath the proposed site which tested the project’s viability and ruled out large sections of the site for construction. With a bit of creativity and lots of design reviews, we managed to come up with a viable alternative which positioned the cricket lanes at first floor level, cantilevered out in front of the existing building as a prominent advert for cricket.

As a Bradfordian this has been a fantastic project to work on and it is very encouraging to see the ECB investing in urban areas with such incredible potential but limited existing facilities. This is what the ECB Urban Cricket Centre Initiative was set up to do, and hopefully projects like this will continue to pop up across the UK in coming years.

by Matt Bonney, Project Architect, gcp Chartered Architects

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Planning application submitted for the development of 10 new affordable homes in Station Road, Holt

The site presents an opportunity for the positive use of land abutting an established settlement, in the interests of sustainable development. The design of the scheme responds fully to the site context, whilst contributing to the long-term social sustainability of the neighbourhood.

The proposed new homes are arranged around a central green space, while frontages of the buildings are creating an enclosure, overlooking the shared space. As a result, the shared open space will benefit from passive surveillance, defining an inclusive safe space for people to meet and socialise. The new housing will be designed aiming to meet the Passivhaus standard, offering energy efficient homes that provide excellent indoor comfort levels. The scheme is also designed to exceed the Nationally Described Space Standards, providing a homeworking space in all units.

Residential Tower Blocks: Ensuring Building Safety Through Collaboration

In summer 2018 gcp were appointed by Rateavon Ltd to assist in the refurbishment of Spencer & Norton Houses in Redcliffe. This was the latest in a series of projects for Bristol City Council’s Major Projects team (BCCMP) which looked to regenerate their housing stock. Historically these works consisted of giving the buildings a face lift and improving thermal performance by insulating external walls and roofs, and replacing doors and windows. The brief for Spencer & Norton Houses was no different, but the path to delivery changed with the amendment to Building Regulation Approved Document B in November 2018.

This amendment was the first major change to regulation following publication of the Hackitt Report in May 2018. The amendment stated that:

“New regulation 7(2) of the Building Regulations 2010 applies to any building with a storey at least 18m above ground level… Regulation 7(2) requires that all materials which become part of an external wall or specified attachment achieve European Class A2-s1, d0 or Class A1 except for components exempted in Regulation 7(3).”

For those unfamiliar with the Euroclass system the first category A1/A2/B/…/F relates to combustibility, with classes ranging from F (untested) to A1 (non-combustible). Materials which achieve a combustibility rating between D and A2 can then be sub-divided by two other criteria, ‘s’ for smoke propagation and ‘d’ for flaming droplets. In each case the lower the number the better the material has performed. Just to add to the confusion ‘s’ rankings range from 1-3, whilst ‘d’ rankings range from 0-2. For a product to be suitable for installation on an external wall it needs to be non-combustible, produce little or no smoke and produce no flaming droplets, A2-s1, d0 or A1.

This requirement was long overdue and highlighted a section of the ‘golden thread’ which had previously been missing. The design team now had to identify all elements which formed part of the external wall and contact suppliers/manufacturers to confirm that these products are either exempt under Regulation 7(3) or have a fire test certificate proving the performance against fire.

The project at Spencer & Norton Houses was one of the first high rise residential developments to incur these new regulations. Initially it was clear that this was a shock to the industry and many manufacturers either did not have fire test certificates or these certificates were out of date. In one instance the design team chose to organize its own fire test to be completely sure that the new balcony panels would be suitable.

Being at the front of the curve in tackling these changes was certainly challenging but through close collaboration with the design team and Bristol City Council Building Control we identified a solution and implemented this strategy to satisfy the Building Regulations. Now we have a method in place the process will only get easier as we continue to work on BCCMP’s remaining housing stock.

Whilst these standards are currently only enforceable for buildings over 18m, it is likely that further amendments will see these requirements spread to a wider group of buildings. We are already seeing early adoption across housing association projects where clients will not permit external wall materials which do not achieve European Class A2-s1, d0 or Class A1.

Recommendations from the Hackitt Report will likely drive change throughout the construction industry in coming years. This change is vital in ensuring our existing and proposed housing stock is safe and suitable for all. Information management will form a key part of this process, but this is nothing new to the construction industry. We already have the tools to make the necessary improvements. We just need an industry wide change of mindset to prioritise building safety during procurement, design and construction.