Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

What goes up…must be reused?

I’m on Phase 3 with Arup’s infrastructure team looking at urban redevelopment design so this caught my eye and got me thinking…

An article popped up on the company internal blog asking for design and construction experience of pre-cast RC multi-storey car park (MSCP). It stated the project drivers being programme and durability. Nothing out the ordinary so far.

A response was received within minutes based on recent experience that clients are now more aware of their social policy/agendas (sustainability) and constrained investment potential in ‘fixed’ structures. They state clients are favouring semi-permanent and flexible structures over traditional builds with greatest possible design life. The example given (below) was a ‘shape-shifting’ and deconstructable MSCP as the client sees autonomous vehicles making a traditional MSCP obsolete within a decade. This suggests design for deconstruction (DfD) and adaptability has the potential to be as if not more valuable to clients than durability…

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/east-village-calgary-parkade-platform-mixed-use-1.4855681

Planet. The design for deconstruction concept is founded on waste reduction so sustainability unsurprisingly. Technological development and sustainability incentives (UN SDGs) are driving up delivery efficiencies. Time-down, Quality-up.

People. The designing-in of deconstructability needs to happen at the project concept stage. Are rapidly changing attitudes and wider socials drivers such as autonomous vehicles (excuse the pun) triggering strategies away from permanent structures? Cost down.

Profit. Are clients/developers seeing opportunities in the two paras above to turn a quicker and more efficient profit? T-down, Q-up, C-down = Profit-up

Has anyone experienced similar quasi-permanent structures or concepts in their attachments? Any key considerations?

I wonder whether there is even utility in the concept for Defence – quasi-permanent bases for a decade or two say e.g. to deal with re-basing issues? Knowing defence, I suspect for the near future we will see more erratic rather than slowly evolving cityscapes instead…