Employment Opportunity

Mark Lovell Design Engineers are looking to add a new graduate Civil and Structural Engineer to their team. We would envisage the ideal candidate to have 3-5 years experience. However, this does not necessarily exclude those that do not quite fall within these parameters.

The practice has been established for over 20 years and has a reputation for producing creative and elegant solutions to engineering problems. The office is based in Devizes, Wiltshire which has significant benefits for lifestyle and good working conditions.

We would ask interested candidates to please write to Mark Lovell with an introductory letter and copy of their CV.

Party Wall or Boundary Wall

The redevelopment of urban brownfield sites and extending/altering properties within towns is something most of the adult population gets involved with at some point in their lives. Most people, albeit in a rudimentary manner, have a limited awareness of the process and generally know that Planning Approval may need to be gained from the Local Authority to legally facilitate the works.

Many people, if asked, would specify that Planning Consent for the works may be required and would at least check whether their proposed works needed consent or not. However, the Approval process does not stop there; contrary to ill informed beliefs!

Some slightly more informed on the process would specify that the construction works would also need Building Regulations Approval.

The majority of the population believe that if you have Planning Consent and Building Regulation Approval, that you can then legally proceed with the construction works, setting aside issues such as Listed Building Consent. The construction density within our towns and cities is intensifying to such a degree that this statement is rarely true and lawful. Many of you at this stage are saying; Why?

In the UK, in 1996, the Party Wall Etc. Act 1996 gained statute. However, the definition and legal impact of this piece of legislation is somewhat lost in its name; “Party Wall Act”. This Act does not only legislate and control works to walls which are shared by adjoining owners. It also puts controls and restrictions on works by an owner, even when carrying out works totally on their own land.

These works must be designed and constructed to a pre-agreed standard by both parties or their nominated and appointed Party Wall Surveyors/Engineers on each side of the boundary. The approved works must respect the boundary owned by others and their neighbours, nearby structures and buried services. It is a criminal offence by the owners instructing the works not to do so in situations where the Act has been enacted. These construction works can immediately be stopped by the adjoining owners gaining and serving a County Court Injunction/Summons against the owners of the works for not complying with the requirements of the Party Wall Etc. Act 1996.

It is strongly recommended that all proposed construction works are reviewed by a professional person to check whether a Party Wall Agreement is needed or not. It is suggested that an Agreement is needed on many more projects than one would realise.

Another passing comment to consider, which many householders and builders are not aware of, even when an extension does not need Planning Approval or a Party Wall Agreement, it may still need Approval from the Local Water Utility Company for works in the vicinity of their plant/apparatus! A blog subject for another day.

The “Google Age” self-administering approach by the general public on these items has made the potential for very costly oversights far more commonplace.

The Ongoing Legacy of Legislation

The regeneration of new large scale housing schemes appear to be springing up around the country to meet the shortage of dwellings. Many of the schemes, from a cursory point of view, appear to be system timber panel type frames which are rendered or brick faced. Many of these schemes are being built on sites with are known to suffer from an increased flood risk.

It is believed that the reasons for timber construction are: increased speed of construction over traditional houses and a lower, more affordable price. These lightweight timber systems are compact, highly insulated and energy efficient in heating terms.

The pre-finished panels which form many of the standard systems are factory manufactured (MMC) and clipped together on site within a few days.

Building Regulations Standards dictate the fabric U values required and the high levels of air tightness of the built form. Government policy has dictated these changes to try to reduce carbon emissions.

It should be remembered that thermally lightweight buildings heat up very quickly, which is beneficial for buildings which have intermittent use but would question the logic for every day housing. The Government has funded many schemes to help homeowners of poorly insulated old properties to reduce their heating bills. It should be remembered that many of these properties are formed from traditional construction and would generally benefit from being warm in winter and cool in summer.

However, Building Regulations Standards have, in one way, been instrumental in increasing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the built form in the UK. The highest energy demand for the country now exists in the summer period. The reason being is that it takes three times as much energy to cool a building per degree centigrade than to heat it. Therefore, with increasing mean global summer temperatures and the trend of building thermally lightweight properties which overheat rapidly in warm conditions, unless air conditioned, the dwellings become hostile environments for humans to live in.

An old, but well insulated traditional masonry and mortar type house, on an annual basis, is much lower in energy use terms than the new modern lightweight prefabricated ones. There are other limitations with MMC houses which can be discussed with and argued by anyone wanting to engage with this discussion on housing design: is there anyone there?

The question to ask: is the country invested in new housing which is fundamentally flawed in its design? Are we building “White Elephants” which will rapidly need to be replaced in the coming decades? In times of limited resource availability, should we not design and built houses with an expected service life of 120 years and which also run passively needing very limited technical fixes to make them serviceable?

Skills, Training and Planning

The Blog section of the website has, for a while, become like the forgotten poor relation, we have spent so much of our time and energy talking and thinking about the impact of the “B” word! It has consumed not only our energies but most of the UK's as well and has become a two year Hokey Cokey! Are we near to the end of the dance yet?

The construction professions in the private and public sectors which design, develop and build the infrastructure for the country are trying to plan for the future whatever that might become. The construction sector has lost capacity and capability since the financial crash of 2008, irrespective of what level of funding is or may be available going forward for future projects, the UK needs to facilitate the training of people to fill the growing skill gaps within the construction and infrastructure sector. In many sectors of our market, the magnitude and scale of the loss of skills and experience is becoming critical, maybe to a point where many will not be able to be re-established as the ageing workforce is not able or being given the opportunity to pass on their trade or profession to apprentices. The fabric of the built and social environment depends on being viable and functional.

Industry needs to be helped to train much needed apprentices and technicians as school leavers are being unnecessarily encouraged by current trends to go to University, where at the end of their studies, many will have created themselves significant personal debt and probably will have little prospect of finding suitable or rewarding employment which will enable them to repay these debts. The current trend appears to be that many of these personal debts will become written off over time by the tax payer. A better and more realistically socially engineered government policy could easily limit and avoid this mounting problem.

Our private, business and national financial models need to be changed from growth based systems to sustainable ones. Planet Earth and humanity cannot continue to be be lead by short term financial gains, a new Era in our evolution needs to be “Born” and not just spoken about. Little has been achieved by Earth Summits over the last thirty years!

Flood Resilience

In the UK, and the World as a whole, the impact of Climate Change is becoming very significant and appears to be coming ever more so. Planet Earth is becoming subject to more extensive and extreme global weather patterns.

The weather in Britain over the last few winters has become wetter, several years ago the Somerset Levels were flooded for many months and now the north of the UK has been repeatedly flooded many times in a very short period. Rain intensities of 300mm per day have recently been recorded in the UK. This is many times greater than would have previously been considered possible. However, these figures are being eclipsed by new extreme values in the far east of over 1.2m in a single day!

The population of the UK has repeatedly written to the Government to highlight many issues of inadequate policies over many past parliaments. It is acknowledged that some flooding would still have occurred, if reasonable measures had previously been implemented. However, the rate of climate change on the planet is far beyond what even sensible house keeping measures would have controlled.

The tabloids have picked up on the word “Flood Resilient” and it has become a buzz word on most peoples agenda. However, continuing to allow the much needed new houses to be built in flood zones is not reasonable, sensible or sustainable.

Will the politicians and their immediate advisers, continue to allow new developments to be built in  flood zones?

The ruling Government time and time again only considers the short term policy impact, irrespective of the consequences. Decisions on the way forward, need to be made by groups of appropriately selected professionals, where holistic long term solutions are created, without the need to confirm to party edits. The policy decisions made by any Government must be tempered by sound advice from our Engineers and Scientists. The view from most town windows is almost totally controlled by  Design Engineers or Civil Engineers. The resolution of form must firstly follow function!

Society must become more aware of holistic ways of living and must become more self governing, using appropriately skilled design and engineering professionals to guide them. Engineers can help to solve problems but please do not let the politicians make the problems too big to solve for the benefit of all humanity.

The population of the UK can vote in the referendum on whether EU membership is sensible or not. However, alternatives to residency of Planet Earth are not available.

January Sole Soaking!

In this era and at the beginning of 2014 most city people will look out of their windows and only see man made objects, generally these are designed by Structural Engineers, Civil Engineers and Designers with only a few traces of the natural world present; an odd tree, a few blades of grass or a few patio pots are the only items which link them back to their roots. The day-to-day existence of most city dwellers is totally dependant on the performance of utilities infrastructure companies.

The extreme wet and windy weather patterns over the Christmas period within the British Isles has clearly demonstrated this point. The weather and environment factor is not an isolated phenomena but a global problem which Governments need to correctly understand and stop merely trying to pay voting lip service to and thereafter allow the financial institutions to carry on in a myopic manner.

In the modern world unless social/environment models significantly change it will become more difficult and much more costly to live on Planet Earth. Where will the prosperity come from to support this? The developed world's economic model based on continual growth cannot work in the longer term and the sooner that the G20 countries recognise this, the better the quality of life for the general public.

Societies must become more aware of holistic ways of life and must become more self governing and respectful of the piece of Planet Earth which they are inhabiting but benefit from knowledge sharing and accessible good global database stores. Humans must also learn, as the population density grows even further, to design places of habitation which provide homes for other forms of nature. Bees, birds insects alike need to be recognised as important species with which mankind cannot in the long term survive without, or do we evolve into machines and become extinct?

The time has come to be truly respectful of Planet Earth and all that dwell within its sphere. We need to learn to harmonise the needs of all and try to understand the Grand Design and from this learn to design respectively and sustainably. Resources are finite and we need to use them carefully and wisely.

Employment Vacancy

MLDE are looking to recruit a Civil / Structural Engineering Graduate with about two years post-University experience. In the first instance please send through a letter of introduction and CV for consideration, contact details can be found here.

Tellisford Mill - Nominated for LABC National Building Excellence Award

Tellisford Mill, near Bath, Somerset, which MLDE acted as Civil and Structural Engineers for, has been entered into the Local Authority Building Control, National Building Excellence Awards final. The awards ceremony will take place in London during November.

This follows on from the Regional Award received by the project in June 2012 in the LABC South West Building Excellence Awards in which Tellisford Mill won the “Best Small Commercial Building” Award.

The project, which involved the installation of a new 55kW micro-hydropower turbine producing clean, renewable energy and restoration of the mill to its original purpose incorporating contemporary accommodation/office spaces, also received four awards in Mendip District Council’s, Mendip Building Excellence Awards in March 2012.

Pegasus - Prince of Wales attends memorial dedication at the National Memorial Arboretum

The Prince of Wales was joined by hundreds of current and former paratroopers and guests to officially unveil sculptures at the National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire on 13 July 2012.

Prince Charles attended the ceremony at Alrewas to unveil the memorial which was sculpted by Charlie Langton and Mark Jackson. MLDE were commissioned to engineer the memorial plinth and the structural stainless steel armature to support Pegasus.





The memorial combines two bronze sculptures, a paratrooper, sculpted by Mark Jackson, standing alongside the winged horse Pegasus, ridden by Bellerophon, the official symbol of the Parachute Regiment, and is dedicated to the soldiers of the Parachute Regiment and associated airborne units. The sculptures were cast by Castle Fine Arts Foundry.

Tellisford Mill - Mendip Building Excellence Awards

MLDE were in attendance at Mendip District Council’s, Mendip Building Excellence Awards on Friday 16th March 2012, for the project Tellisford Mill which MLDE acted as Civil and Structural Engineers for. The results for this project were :

> Best Commercial Building Under £1 Million - Winner
> Best Extension or New Build in a Historic Context - Winner
> Best Sustainable Development - Finalist
> Best Vernacular Building - Finalist

The ambition of Clients, Rachel Feilden and Anthony Battersby (Founder members of Mendip Power Group) were realised with the installation of a new 55kW micro-hydropower turbine producing clean, renewable energy and restoration of the mill to its original purpose incorporating contemporary accommodation/office spaces.

The Architects for the project were Klaentschi and Klaentschi and construction was carried out by local contractor Randall of Beckington.

Aardman Animations HQ, Bristol - Feature Staircases

Aardman Animations new HQ, based in Bristol, has a feature article within Hot Dip Galvanizing Magazine.

MLDE designed and engineered a pair of new bowstring double flight feature staircases to provide a central focus to the atrium space. The building was designed by Alec French Architects for Aardman Animations.

Please refer to our website for more details of these elegant staircases.

Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas

MLDE would like to wish all their existing and new Clients a Happy New Year.

MLDE have carried out works to many Listed Buildings and properties in Conservation Areas, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, etc. and to reflect this a new page has been added to the website entitled Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas

An interactive Google Map has also been included on the page and we have begun to indicate some locations on this map of projects worked on by MLDE that are Listed or in Conservation Areas, with the intention of adding more to this over the next few weeks and completing the map.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The team at Mark Lovell Design Engineers would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The office will be closed for the Christmas period but will be back on Tuesday 3rd January 2012.

Engineering – Autumn Statement

The global market runs world businesses, governed by global economics. The scant world resources, commodities and products naturally determine their own value and market size. The global market with subtle shifts in trends, skews the market allowing opportunities for different economies or new products to take a firmer hold of the sector. The current world economic model based on continual growth cannot function into the future, it is simply not sustainable. The current Western economies are faltering due to excessive debt caused by trying to create growth.

In the past few decades most global scale products were made in the lowest cost centres in the world, irrespective of the remoteness of the manufacturing plant. The actual transportation cost of the materials and consumables to and from the works and onwards to their markets has had little impact or influence on where they are actually made. This trend will become outdated as energy and resources become more expensive and difficult to find. More efficient local recycling of goods will also be needed in order to limit the unnecessary use of fuel and energy.

New highly sophisticated fabrication facilities will make a huge range of different mass produced products for different global brands from downloaded secure Cloud based information sources.

The design specification will be the critical intellectual property which Cloud technology will protect via safe direct non externally downloadable CadCam interfaces within the new generation of sophisticated Fabrication facilities. These facilities will be more evenly dispersed over the globe than the current production centres. Their density will increase as energy prices increase. The relentless world demand for internet and computers almost ensures that the predicted Cloud production will happen quite soon.

It is believed that about 9% of all the world energy is currently consumed by computers and the internet, albeit inclusive of the embodied energy of the systems and the power needed to run them! Regional economies will need to be re-established. The world needs joined up thinking by engaged joined up thinkers to create an holistic solution which actually works for mankind. A celestial alternative to spaceship earth is not an option for the majority of this planet.

Mark Lovell

Anglepoise Giant Chandelier - MLDE Providing Design Engineering Assistance

MLDE have been providing Anglepoise with Structural Engineering assistance in the realisation of their 4.5m diameter Giant Chandelier consisting of eight Giant 1227 lamps.

This visually impressive piece will be shown for the first time at Qubique, a new designer show in Berlin, Germany, showcasing an inspiring selection of high-quality and unique products.

Qubique will run from October 26 to 29 2011 at Berlin’s decommissioned Tempelhof Airport.

Trade Days: Wednesday, October 26 and Thursday, October 27, 2011

Public Days: Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29, 2011

Opening Hours: 10:00 AM – 19:00 PM

MLDE providing Design Engineering assistance for Pegasus Sculpture

MLDE are supporting Charlie Langton and Mark Jackson with the design engineering aspects to help develop beautiful and elegant sculptures of Pegasus and a Paratrooper.

The Parachute Regiment, to mark its 70^th Anniversary, has commissioned its first-ever National Airborne Forces Memorial. It will be sited at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, which commemorates military lives lost since 1948. The images below show the Artists clays in progress.

The completed Airborne Forces memorial of Pegasus with Bellerophon astride and Paratrooper beneath is due to be unveiled in July 2012.

'Tree' – Oak Table displayed at Design Junction

Benchmark Furniture and MLDE have collaborated in the unveiling of ‘Tree’ at designjunction as part of the London Design Festival last evening. This stunning 11.4m oak table is a unique piece of furniture. The picture below shows the elegant, light and concise design of the finished table in position at the exhibition.

The structural philosophy for this table being that it functions as a tree with a central base “trunk and roots” which supports the main table top “canopy”, with “branches” supporting the spreading canopy.

Visitors can see this in person at the event which is open from Thursday 22 September - Sunday 26 September from 11am to 6pm

designjunction

Victoria House Basement, 37-63 Southampton Row, London, WC1B 4DA

MLDE working with Benchmark Furniture for DesignJunction

MLDE have recently been working in collaboration with Benchmark Furniture to create an exciting new table for designjunction, an event to be held as part of London Design Festival and intended to showcase the very best in global design.

Bringing together a stellar line-up of leading UK and international lighting and furniture brands, the event is set to excite, inspire and challenge anyone with a passion for design.

designjunction will be open from Thursday 22 September - Sunday 26 September from 11am to 6pm.

Designjunction
Victoria House Basement
37-63 Southampton Row
LONDON
WC1B 4DA


“ The table will be made from a log that took 6 months to locate. It is the longest planked oak log that any of Benchmark’s sources in the timber trade has ever known. To machine the log, Benchmark has had to cut holes through the walls on either side of the workshop. It might be expected that a table of these proportions would need a substantial under frame but this table will deliver long, clean lines with minimal interference from the under structure as a result of an inventive design and intelligent use of materials.”

The relationship between the two parties goes back several years with MLDE acting as Structural Engineer for Benchmarks Offices in Kintbury in 2003. The project involved utilising the exiting roof space and Structure and inserting a very lightweight structure to allow the conversion of the loft space with minimal disruption.

White Elephants and Dinosaurs

In the modern era Engineers have mostly kept a low profile and have not generally become involved in politics; only reacting to the demands of others. Their design skills used to solve problems created by non holistic policies. This is a strange situation when one considers that virtually all items in the world are Designed and Engineered. Most people will look out of their windows and see only man-made objects being totally dependant on the utilities infrastructure for example.

Society must become more aware that a holistic approach to sustainable design must be put into place, and Engineers should take a much more active role in helping to guide the process. Not simply accepting the way things are. Taking “ownership” of their future. It is strongly felt that the current reactive design processes must be changed to proactive ones, and governments need to learn this too.

The time has come to truly respect that Planet Earth's resources are finite and to use them carefully and wisely. It is important for all clients, whether private or corporate, whom are awarding commissions to take sustainability and energy use seriously, with consideration from the outset. Clients need to be much more careful about the manner in which they appoint their consultants. Many, many White Elephants are currently being created in the world and never has the saying: “measure twice cut once” had more weight. Are you making an informed decision or a pre-programmed one, which might be commissioning a Dinosaur?

Mark Lovell