First Principles

Richard Smith
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Atkins clinched the coveted title of ‘Consultancy of the Year’ at the 2007 and 2008 MEP Awards. We speak to Richard Smith, group chair of carbon critical buildings at Atkins, about what makes a winning firm.

Smith comments that “some people would have had long faces a long year ago when we won a job, because then they would have to deliver, and sometimes you just cannot say no. It is quite the opposite now. Someone said that actually this feels like the UK now, with a three- to four-month work horizon.

“Previously this would have run into years for consultants in the Middle East. And it was a false world. We have just returned to what most of our life has been like. You have to work hard to win a job, and you are delighted when you do. But the rapid transition has not been easy,” says Smith.

He says “a lot of clients and organisations are using this period now to re-evaluate their processes. [Green] legislation is being put into place, and we are learning from the lessons of the past. We were moving incredibly quickly before as an industry, and did not have the luxury of stopping to think.” This is the time to revisit ‘first principles’, to return to the fundamentals of best practice in both design and building.

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Smith describes the current situation as “quite complex”, and stresses “we are not under the illusion that things will just bounce back to what they were. What will come out of this is that things will be different to what they were before.” In this regard, Atkins is exerting considerable effort in trying to understand the current situation and marshal its resources accordingly.

“The Atkins business model is totally dynamic, and is always being reviewed. Some of the larger contractors I have spoken to have not been that affected. They lost work, then won other work on the rebound. Their turnover is down a bit, but not fundamentally. Then there are people who have had horrendous experiences. And then there are those still recruiting because they have work in Saudi Arabia, for example. It is kind of how the dice fell.

“The market has probably stabilised, but it is hard to call. There are a lot of enquiries, but not many of them are converting into projects. You have one story here in Dubai and then another completely different one in Saudi Arabia. So it is a very difficult question to answer in its totality.” Smith does concede, however, that there are signs of a “slight improvement”, as opposed to “signs of it getting it worse and worse, as it might have been two to three months ago.”

The ‘back to basics’ approach intimated by relooking at first principles poses significant opportunities for the MEP sector, for example. This means that the business outlook is actually “very positive in the medium term because of the uptake in carbon critical design, and the ability of MEP engineers to step sideways into that.

Starting to turn

“I am not so sure that globally it is good for architects, on the other hand. Generally the building industry will follow the economic situation globally. The US is starting to turn. UK house prices are starting to rise. It remains very difficult to predict in the Middle East, where I do not think there is a single answer.”

Smith acknowledges that the experience to date has been akin to a crucible of fire for the construction industry in general. The industry grew in response to the market requirement, which was to produce design solutions for very large numbers of buildings. But the question is if that is going to be the case in the future?

“We are certainly going to see more due diligence and consultancy work. I suspect clients are going to tread a little more carefully at the formative stages of projects, and engage in more consultancy to validate design decisions.