A wall of black stone panels erected at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin in 2016 on the centenary of the Easter Rising, which paved the way to Irish independence, has been attacked for the third time.
The wall is controversial because it was being inscribed with the names of all those who died in the conflicts from 1916 to the end of the Irish civil war in 1923. That has meant soldiers from the Republican Army and the British Army, as well as both Roman Catholic and Protestant civilians, can appear next to each other.
The idea was for the wall, which is called the Necrology Wall, to be an icon of reconciliation, but it became a wall dividing political and religious beliefs, with some dubbing it ‘The Wall of Shame’.
On the previous two occasions it was damaged the stone and the inscriptions were repaired. Now the Dublin Cemeteries Trust says the damaged wall will be replaced with plain black, uninscribed stone panels.
In a statement, the Trust says it believes if the wall were to be repaired and the names reinstated for a third time it would be vandalised again, and that the Trust is not in a position to be able to keep repairing it nor to provide sufficient security to ensure it is not damaged again. "For these reasons, to repair and continue with the Necrology Wall project is no longer feasible."
Violet-Anne Wynne, a Sinn Féin member of the Irish Parliament, has welcomed the decision. In a statement on Twitter she wrote: "There was outrage when this wall was mentioned in the first place. Why? Simple really, on the wall it commemorates a war that wasn't ours, it commemorates a group of people that caused so much pain in this country, killing people and raiding homes of innocent people."
This (7-12 February) is National Apprenticeship Week, and to help companies make the most of it, CITB has produced a series of online ‘toolkits’ to support construction employers who want to hire an apprentice.
These website toolkits simplify access to information and reduce the obstacles that often deter employers from looking into the process. They include advice on writing apprenticeship adverts and interviewing as well as links to additional resources on integrating Fairness, Inclusion & Respect principles into the process.
With 70% of SMEs in construction having fewer than 10 employees, making these toolkits quick and easy to use was fundamental. Each section has clear, easy-to-follow headings so employers can find what they are looking for straight away.
They detail the various routes to hiring an apprentice across England, Scotland, and Wales. From there, there’s a choice of four other sections to explore, including support available from CITB. This could be practical support, assisting employers with completing paperwork, or financial support, with a breakdown of how to claim funding for an apprentice.
National Apprenticeship Week is an annual week-long celebration and promotion of apprenticeships. Now in its 15th year, the event aims to bring businesses wanting apprentices together with people looking to learn a trade through opportunities such as the stone industry’s Trailblazer* apprenticeship.
The title of this year’s Apprenticeship Week is ‘Build the Future’.
The construction sector is facing some major challenges ahead, including the need to recruit an additional 217,000 workers by 2025 to replace the ageing workforce and those who leave the industry, and meet the demand for construction work.
Apprenticeship Week places greater emphasis on apprenticeships as an important way the construction industry can secure a pipeline of future talent.
The CITB’s report Rethinking Recruitment encourages employers to consider recruiting apprentices from a wider talent pool than has perhaps traditionally been the case, increasing the diversity of the industry.
If you are thinking of employing an apprentice, you might to look at the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) guidance for employers of young people and apprentices. Click here to see the relevant part of the HSE website.
* There are currently three colleges in England offering the stone industry Trailblazer apprenticeship. They all have comprehensive information on their websites and welcome questions regarding all aspects of their training, including funding. They have dedicated apprenticeship officers who will answer any questions you have, so it is useful to contact the colleges as the first part of your search.
Another source of useful information regarding apprenticeships is Go Construct. Its website offers information on finding an apprentice, finding an employer and provides useful links on funding.
A company that is CITB-registered is entitled to a grant in addition to any grant aid from Government. Currently grants available include a £2,500 a year attendance grant and an additional achievement grant of £3,500 on completion of an apprenticeship.
If any stone company wants more information or help on training issues they can contact Claire Wallbridge, the training officer of the Natural Stone Industry Training Group, at claire@nsitg.org.uk.
Another intiative expected to roll out across the country is the Try a Trade Programme that started trialling in 16 Schools in the West Midlands in the autumn last year. The aim is to give youngsters preparing to leave school the chance to find out about and experience working in industries where apprenticeships are available to help prepare them for their working life ahead.
A 56.5m ‘halo’ of marble commemorating the victims of a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena was revealed in January. Here, Hardscape and IP Surfaces talk about their making of the memorial.
Precision and attention to detail. They were the vital ingredients Hardscape and its sister company IP Surfaces brought to the project to create the Carrara marble Glade of Light memorial to the 22 people who died in a terrorist attack at Manchester Arena on 22 May 2017. The victims included six children under 16, the youngest just eight.
The memorial will be officially opened later this year, on the anniversary of the atrocity, when the hawthorn tree in the centre of the ‘halo’ of marble should be full of white blossom and some of the flowers in this extension of the Cathedral Gardens will be in bloom.
However, the memorial was revealed in January when the construction and planting were completed and the fence around the site was removed.
The memorial is all the more powerful for its apparent simplicity, but as every stonemason knows, the simpler the line the more accurate it has to be. There is nowhere for errors to hide.
The Glade of Light.Galliford Try installing the memorial.
That’s why Hardscape wanted to take responsibility itself for the construction of the memorial on site. The 26 pieces of marble that form the two sections of the ‘halo’ were shaped and inscribed with the names of the victims at IP Surfaces, the company established by Hardscape founder Mathew Haslam to add lettering, inlays and other artistic elements in a variety of materials to hard landscaping. (You can read more about IP Surfaces here.)
Manchester City Council, the clients on this project, ran a competition for the design of the memorial, which was won by landscape architect BCA Landscape.
It is an indication of the importance and standing of the memorial that BCA Landscape Director Andy Thomson was interviewed by the Architects Journal, in which he is quoted as saying: “It was both a great honour and a great responsibility to win the competition to design this memorial... Set within the wild beauty of the planting is the simplicity of a circle, that references the infinite and the eternal carved in Bianco di Carrara marble.”
It had already been decided to extend the park in the Medieval Quarter at the western end of Manchester Cathedral Gardens before the bombing incident. The route had become a cut-through that Manchester City Council wanted to close.
Galliford Try had been chosen as the main contractor and Hardscape had been chosen by landscape architect Planit-IE to supply the stone for the garden. Planit-IE had worked with Hardscape before and Partner Lindsay Humblet says: “We always get 110% service from them because they’re passionate about what they do.”
Planit-IE wrote the specification for the competition for the memorial, it having been felt a third party should design it. When BCA Landscape won the competition, it was an easy decision to stick with Hardscape to produce it because BCA had also previously worked with Hardscape on a number of successful projects.
The Carrara marble quarry chosen to supply the marble for the memorial.
The team involved in the project visited eight quarries in Carrara, Tuscany, before deciding on the particular marble they wanted, which needed to be technically sound to offer the least amount of movement as well as being aesthetically pleasing.
BCA wanted the marble slabs to be bookmatched. As Andy Thomson told AJ: “This creates a beautiful effect within the marbled surface that also mimics the bilateral symmetry that we see in nature and is particularly evident in the ephemeral moment of a passing butterfly.”
By the time the slabs were being cut, Covid restrictions had begun and the decisions on individual slabs were made using remote digital assets via the internet. Each slab weighed 2.3tonnes.
Once the slabs arrived with Hardscape in the UK, the team came to inspect them and BCA chose precisely where the cuts would be made for bookmatching.
In the centre of each of the joining edges is a semicircle, which is to accommodate a ‘memory capsule’, containing whatever the bereaved felt was appropriate to commemorate the deceased. These are capped by bronze lids with marble inlays and central bronze hearts.
The caps are both resin-bonded and mechanically fixed into position.
The bereaved were invited two-to-three families at a time to bring their memory items to the memorial to insert into the capsules. Once the objects had been inserted the memory capsules had to be sealed using the bronze and marble lids. One of Hardscape’s team was always on hand so the bereaved could see them being sealed, precisely, with dignity and respect.
The names are written in brass inlays.
The names of the deceased are also written in the stone, with the inscription being cut by waterjet into the marble and filled with brass inserts.
Bronze dividers stand proud of the surface.
There are bronze dividers between each of the slabs that, like the memory capsule lids, stick up proud of the surface. This is largely to discourage skateboarders from damaging the memorial.
The joints were also further complicated by there being a slight fall on the marble surface to stop water pooling on it. The joints had to accommodate the fall, hence they were cut on a waterjet to achieve the compound angle required.
The marble has been sealed with Tenax Stoneline 81 to protect it and make it easier to keep clean.
As well as the memorial itself, Hardscape also continued to provide the paving for the rest of the garden. There was York stone paving already on part of the site, which has been re-used. In order for new paving to match that, Hardscape sourced newly quarried York stone from Johnsons Wellfield Quarries.
There are 1,300m2 of 150mm x 300mm x 80mm sandstone paving, half of it with the top face shot sawn and the other half diamond sawn, interspersed with a total of 30m2 of the same stone with a pattern etched into it that evokes the medieval architecture of the Cathedral.
The main paths are edged with Portuguese granite and the gardens include glacial boulders that Hardscape sourced from Wales. It also provided granite ends for wooden benches.
Mathew Haslam, the founder of Hardscape and its Managing Director, is understandably proud of the whole project and moved by the poignancy of the memorial.
He told NSS: “It’s a great example of what stone can achieve; how you can manipulate it to achieve a design intention for a particular location, and the awesome energy it can bring to a project.
“What has been achieved here has received the sort of recognition that is usually reserved for a building. It has all the ingredients of what I stand for and what the team here assists me in achieving on an hour-by-hour basis. I’m very proud of our part in this project.”
When the slabs arrived in the UK, they were inspected by the design team and the decision made about how exactly the bookmatching would be cut. Once the slabs were cut and inscribed, Hardscape took control of installation to ensure the same level of accuracy was achieved as had been required for making them.
After the fence around the new Glade of Light memorial in Manchester was removed in January the bereaved left flowers to their loved ones who died in the suicide bombing and are commemorated by the memorial.
Nationwide hard landscaping materials supplier London Stone has added a sixth director to its board with the appointment of Diana Catrinoi-Cornea ACIM as Marketing Director.
Diana joined the business as an Admin Assistant in 2016, and now takes full responsibility for London Stone’s marketing, e-commerce and web development departments.
Alongside her full-time role at London Stone, Diana has attended further education and training to develop her skills and experience in the world of marketing and in doing so has achieved a Level 6 Diploma in Digital Marketing as well as becoming an Associate of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (ACIM).
Lee Jones, Head of Manufacturing Solutions at NBS, a website looking to make construction product information digitally available to designers and specifiers, explains why drop-in, digital product information is the route to more sales for product suppliers.
Following a deep dive into fire safety in construction, Dame Judith Hackitt’s 2018 report, Building a Safer Future, said that if construction was to become truly transparent and building accuracy improved, radical changes are needed in the testing, describing and marketing of building products.
This led to the publication last year of The Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI), which sets out defined principles for supplying information that is clear, accurate, up-to-date, accessible and unambiguous.
Developed by the Construction Products Association following industry-wide consultation and now managed by Construction Product Information Ltd, the code contains 11 clauses that cover aspects such as responsibility for product information, transparency of information regarding performance, proof of stated claims, and general information honesty and competency. Firms are assessed on their ability to comply with the 11 criteria and, if they are successful, are awarded a numbered, time-limited licenced mark indicating the product information provided by that company is compliant with the CCPI.
This is not free. Assessment fees range from £1,750 for companies with a turnover of up to £5million and go up to £5,500 for companies with a turnover of more than £100million.
Clearer, more accurate product information should benefit manufacturers and specifiers alike, but for some the Code for Construction Product Information provokes trepidation.
It shouldn’t. Implementation of it should only serve to raise safety standards and trust in products, improve regulatory compliance and boost sales. Early adopters of this approach have much to gain – and evidence taken from NBS and Glenigan, which last year started working together under the growing Byggfakta Group, a major European construction software and data provider, show how it can help ‘level up’ current marketing offerings.
Embracing change
Despite the CCPI suggesting that digital product information might be considered industry best practice, construction product marketers appear to be hesitant to invest in the digitisation of their product data.
In a survey, one in three considered managing product information a ‘barrier to effective marketing’, yet 63% of product manufacturers still supply product specifications as PDFs. Widely regarded as problematic, PDFs get filed away for future use even though they can quickly become out-of-date, presenting a risk of the wrong information being used as part of design specifications.
Six out of 10 of the survey respondents said they look favourably on the CCPI and changing building regulations.
What we’re seeing is a disconnect between seeing the changes as a force for good and actually taking direct action to make those changes.
Product libraries, databases and product information management (PIM) systems that can integrate into manufacturer websites for an auto-update listing function could help – and the number of them available is increasing.
For both manufacturers and specifiers, this can be a time-efficient way of working, while adding a layer of quality control and comfort that the right specs are being used in the right way.
Specifiers want digital data
Given its benefits in speed and accuracy, it's not surprising specifiers want product information in a digital format. In fact, in last year’s NBS Digital Construction Report, 81% of specifiers said they want manufacturers to provide information as BIM or digital objects. In medium-sized organisations, 92% want information this way.
It’s a sign of the times. Increasing pressure on time encourages specifiers to seek ready-made solutions from product specification platforms during the design stages of a project. With a complex decision process to manage, it pays to have the level of detail they require on any product, material or system available at the click of a mouse.
For suppliers, having products listed in this way with all the significant data specifiers need can significantly increase the chances of those products being specified.
Those companies that have their ducks in a row when it comes to product information management (PIM) will no doubt reap the rewards.
Time to get onboard
If the words of Peter Caplehorn, the Chief Executive of the Construction Products Association (CPA), being quoted in the online portal PBC Today* are anything to go by, manufacturers shouldn’t dawdle. He says: “Good product information must go hand-in-hand with competence in the handling of construction products and digitalisation of product information. Only when all these come together can we achieve lasting and tangible results.”
At the moment, the Code for Construction Product Information remains UK-specific on an opt-in basis. But if it proves successful it isn’t a stretch to imagine this leading to mandatory measures. The UK might be the initial testing ground that results in a roll out to the rest of Europe and beyond.
Of course, it’s unlikely that change will take place overnight and it’s only when projects begin to demand that the supply chain subscribes to the CCPI that we will see real transformation. If and when that happens, manufacturers will need to address how their product information is managed.
Manufacturers that choose to disregard this move could be doing themselves and construction in general a disservice. More resources given to PIM should improve the accuracy and quality of product marketing content, attracting more specifiers, leading to improved compliance and resulting in higher sales.
*PBC in PBC Today stands for Planning, BIM & Construction.
Storm Malik has left people living near Glasgow’s sandstone Trinity Tower wondering when they will be able to return home.
They were evacuated and six roads closed because the tower was considered dangerous. It already had scaffolding around it, erected by Enigma Industrial Services last year because the sandstone from which the tower is constructed had started falling off.
People living near the landmark tower fear they might be unable to return home for months.
The storm saw winds of up to 80mph and led to the death of a woman in Aberdeen when a tree blew over on her.
After the storm, an exclusion zone was set up around the Trinity Building in Glasgow, which was converted to apartments in 1986 having originally been built in the 1850s as a theological college for training church ministers.
Glasgow City Council said the tower's structural deterioration had worsened in high winds during Storm Malik.
Contractors from JCJ Group, who had begun repair work on the tower earlier in January, contacted the council after the storm saying the high winds had worsened the condition of the structure.
It was decided that the area had to be evacuated for the safety of the public.
A page on the Glasgow City Council website has been devoted to keeping residents informed about developments. It can be accessed at https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/trinity.
Robert Merry contemplates an increasingly digital future as he looks forward to the Stone Digital conference on 22/23 February.
On the theme of change and revolution in the way we live and work, a good starting point this month is Stone Digital – Shaping a Sustainable Future on 22 & 23 February – no doubt you’ve read about it on the pages of this publication and on social media. Two days of talks and panel discussions on the impact of digitization and sustainability of stone.
Construction as a whole has some key questions to answer if it is to continue to grow and survive as an industry. It has been estimated that the global demand for construction projects will have grown 85% by 2030 – that equates to 200million additional jobs worldwide.
This will demand a huge drive to attract people to work in the industry. For that to happen we need an industry that the next generation want to work in, which means digitalization, and values of equality and diversity.
But we need to embrace this new technology for other, more fundamental reasons as well, particularly in the UK where productivity has only increased by 1% in the past 20 years on construction sites. Reports suggest 10% less efficiency results in 5% less profit. We have to increase efficiency and productivity to be able to reinvest and grow. Currently only a quarter of projects finish within 10% of the programme deadline. That means 75% are late.
Artificial intelligence must be the route to this promised land. Robots will not replace workers entirely. It is even argued we will need to increase the number of operatives on-site – more highly skilled to operate the robots and integrate with other digital systems.
But we need to build better if we are to succeed. Otherwise robots will be spending their time on idle, waiting for clarification because the digital room template they are working to is not what is in front of them.
We spend too much time doing this already. Builders need to build better and more accurately. And, more importantly, check their work!
We have already seen a revolution in design digitalization – from pen and pencil to AutoCad in less than a generation.
When I began in this industry, piles and piles of printed drawings weighed the postman down , not to mention the number of felled trees it took to produce them. Now a shared cloud space replaces all that wasted energy (some would say with more wasted energy searching through the damn cloud) but it is progress... promise.
It sometimes feels like we are dealing with two extremes of an evolution still working side by side: digital real-time changes and updates posted in seconds bumping up against the enormous mountain of virtual paperwork and sign off procedures required for the actual change to be built.
Is this because contracts are written as confrontational documents used to attack and defend our positions?
Contractors talk about collaboration as a key element of their relationship with
sub-contractors, often making it a selling point to their clients. But everyone spends enormous amounts of energy recording their position in defence of their actions; demanding instructions because we all live in fear we will never get paid.
This has to change. We have to take the confrontation out of contracting. And we will need a very large sledge hammer to crack that particular nut.
There are robots already deployed on building sites – look at www.bostondynamics.com to see Spot, Boston Dynamics’ survey robot. Slightly unsettling or soon to be man’s best friend? At least you don’t end up carrying a warm plastic bag around with you.
There is also the Okibo decorating robot, the Hilti overhead drilling robot, and various bricklaying and 3D printing robots.
With the average building site having more than 80 trades working on it in multiple rooms under multiple contracts, co-ordination will be key. Construction sites are complicated environments. But we can… we must change the culture, manage the technology, educate and skill the workforce, digitalize the process and increase productivity to produce a more resilient industry and deliver better built buildings. Yes, that’s what we need – better built buildings!
Robert is giving a presentation titled 'On-site digital transformation' at 3.25pm on 23 February as part of the Stone Digital – Shaping a Sustainable Future conference.
SigmaRoc, the quarried materials group quoted on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market (AIM), has completed the acquisition of Johnston Quarry Group Ltd (JQG) and Guiting Quarry Ltd, operating eight quarries in the South of England, that it told its shareholders about in January (read about that here).
SigmaRoc says that, together with G D Harries, which was bought by SigmaRoc in 2020 and has six quarries in Wales providing stone, concrete and tarmac for construction and highway maintenance projects as well as polished and decorative aggregates for domestic customers, JQG will expand SigmaRoc’s offering of construction materials and agricultural lime to service customers in England and Wales.
SigmaRoc says the expansion of the product offering and geographical reach will benefit both companies, as well as SigmaRocs Precast Products Group (PPG) platform.
Max Vermorken, CEO of SigmaRoc, says: “We are pleased to close the acquisition of Johnston Quarry Group and to formally welcome its 69 staff to the SigmaRoc Group. As with every business we have bought to date, we aim to see it flourish, by respecting its history, its people and building on its strengths.
"The expanded offering across Southern England and Wales and interaction with the Group’s PPG platform will deliver further synergies and growth.”
Carlyle Europe Partners IV (CEP IV), a buyout fund that in 2016 bought a majority stake in international roofing and cladding slate company Cupa Group, the parent of the UK’s Burton Roofing, has sold its share of Cupa to Brookfield Asset Management. During Carlyle’s ownership Burton Roofing expanded from 10 to 37 branches.
“To rebuild trust we must deliver buildings that are safe.” So said Dame Judith Hackitt at an online national building safety conference presented by the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET).
Dame Judith stressed the need for competency, accountability, and responsibility to be at the heart of the new building safety system in order to rebuild the public’s trust in providing safe homes for people to live in.
Dame Judith is an engineer who previously chaired the Health & Safety Executive and now chairs the manufacturing trade body Make UK (formerly the Engineering Employers Federation). She headed the Independent Review of Building Regulations & Fire Safety that followed the Grenfell Tower fire.
As keynote speaker at the first session of the IET National Conference for Electrotechnical & Building Safety Competence (to give it its full title) on 31 January, Dame Judith also reiterated the importance of a culture change in the whole built environment sector ahead of regulatory change.
She said good building practices need to be incentivised by using disciplinary sanctions for those who exploit the system.
She explained how legislation will incentivise the take up of professional registration, which in turn will help to demonstrate competency. She stressed how the focus must be on delivering quality buildings that are safe, with genuine engagement with residents being essential to rebuild trust.
Currently there is a fragmented way of looking at buildings – walls, electrics, foundations, and so on – when in fact for them to work successfully as a whole building they should be considered together and linked by competency and quality assurance.
Dame Judith: “It is not good enough for people to simply say ‘my bit’s ok, it’s the other people who got it wrong, not me’. We need to start getting people to work together, to collaborate, and recognise that it is the overall outcome that matters.”
She added: “What matters is that everyone should be able to feel safe in their home. That is everyone’s right, irrespective of the type of dwelling they live in. That’s why we need to have this risk-based approach, and why competence and quality assurance must become part of the new culture across the whole of construction.”
The IET National Conference for Electrotechnical & Building Safety Competence, which is being delivered virtually across two dates, aims to bring experts together, working with or within the electrotechnical sector and in building services/safety related roles, with a key focus on individual competence, accountability and continuing professional development.
Sir Julian Young, IET President, says: “Professional registration is an important milestone for any engineer or technician, as it demonstrates professionalism, competence and personal commitment to the engineering and technology sectors.
“I encourage all our members and beyond to adhere to our Knowledge Network and Rules of Conduct, which provide guidance and informational sources to support people to make good decisions and act ethically.
“I assure you that the IET is working with appropriate trade associations and trades unions to help bring about a step-change in the level of relevant training, upskilling and professionalism of those working in the industry.
“It will not be easy or quick, but we are determined to make a positive difference and, ultimately, to raise the status of engineers and technicians across the UK.”
The second part of this conference is taking place, again online, on 21 February, starting at 10am.
