Push boundaries again

Gavin Davids

It had to happen eventually. Less than two years after the Burj Khalifa opened; it’s already being superseded by a bigger, newer, taller building being built by our neighbours in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

When the news of the Kingdom Tower broke at the start of August, I was away on vacation, locked in the remote fastness of the Himalayas. Yet, even there, Prince Alwaleed’s announcement made front page news in the Kathmandu Post.

That little snippet should tell you all you need to know of the importance of the Jeddah based mega-project. Much like how the Burj Khalifa has become representative of Dubai, Saudi Arabia now has an icon it can build its brand around.

Leaving all that aside, from an MEP point of view, the most exciting thing about the tower is that the limits of the industry’s technology are being pushed again, having just about re-established their boundaries following the Burj Khalifa’s completion.

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What’s even more exciting is that the boundaries of MEP technology and innovation are being pushed in the Middle East. It’s easy to over look in the hype, but the Middle East’s MEP companies are slowly beginning to acquire the status of ‘trendsetters’ in the industry.

In the last decade, we’ve had local companies working on some of the biggest projects in the world, from the Burj Dubai, to the Palm Islands and now the Kingdom Tower.

Mehdi Jalayerian of ESD says the tower is going to be a catalyst, and I’m in complete agreement with that. I believe it is going to be a catalyst for the MEP industry in the Middle East to take the next step in innovation, in technology and in leadership.

I’ve no doubt that in a few years this region will be known as the go to place for international designers and consultants looking for ideas, innovation and audacity in their MEP consultants.

While we’re all being positive about how far we’ve come, Stefan Schmied and Mark Attenhofer of Geberit offer us a sobering reminder of how far there is to go in certain areas of our industry.

It’s all well and good to take on these ambitious projects and challenge ourselves, but all that good work will be rendered irrelevant if we don’t remember to focus on the basics.

While I’ve seen some evidence of that changing, I do think that it can happen faster, and that if we’re serious about becoming the go to place for MEP, then we need to ensure that we’re the market leaders in every single facet of the industry.

That includes embracing new technologies and innovations, and adapting them to work in the Middle Eastern environment. It also means showing the initiative and the courage to begin testing and developing technologies of our own. For far too long, the region has been dependent on outside sources for inspiration. The talent and the ingenuity exist here, it just needs to be coaxed out.

We also need to adopt and adhere to fixed standards to ensure that we get the best out of the industry. There has been positive moves towards this, but more needs to be done.
After all, it’s all well and good dreaming of these mega-projects, but it takes true genius to turn them into something that is workable, efficient and sustainable.

These are exciting times we live in, but it would be a shame if the MEP industry wasn’t leading the way. After all, without it, these projects wouldn’t have gotten off the ground.

Gavin Davids is deputy editor of MEP.