Building Services

Faber Maunsell offer a comprehensive portfolio of building services engineering skills including the design of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electrical and public health systems. These core skills are supported by specialists in sustainability, acoustics, energy efficiency, fire protection, security, building management, as well as IT and communications.

Track Record and Resource

As one of the UK's largest building design consultancies we offer a complete portfolio of engineering skills that have been developed over a range of national and international projects.

Our design experience, both in public and private buildings, spans all sectors including offices, healthcare facilities, retail, schools, universities, airports, museums, residential, historic, hotels, sports, leisure, auditoria, dealing rooms, computer facilities, laboratories, prisons and industrial buildings.

From initial planning, project execution and handover, to advice on aftercare management and maintenance, we bring a market leading depth and breadth of knowledge and experience.

Skills

Our services integrate a wealth of design proficiency in the areas of acoustics, façade engineering, project management, air conditioning, sustainability, energy, heating, electrical distribution, ventilation, power generation, fire engineering, lighting, security, lifts, building management, information technology and voice/data communications.

Approach

With other central disciplines we coordinate structure, infrastructure, transport and environmental planning to optimise solutions.

Advanced research and development capability supports the creation of building services and façade solutions concurrently with the architectural design.

Issues related to health and the thermal, visual and aural environment are addressed with sustainability in mind to produce façades and mechanical, public health and electrical systems that are matched to the needs of our clients.

Meeting the needs of our clients derives from our continually questioning and re-stating the clients' objectives.

Delivering our service requires that we think beyond engineering to considering where our clients need help to understand design proposals, energy cost predictions, maintenance cost predictions and operational requirements.

Concluding our service demands that we think beyond contract handover to assist the client to achieve a fully commissioned building and to move in with the support of people who can advise upon the buildings operation and maintenance.

Computer Modelling

To provide real added value at the design and development stage, our teams employ computational fluid dynamics, thermal modelling, lighting visualisations, energy predictions and life-cycle analysis to support innovative architectural concepts by testing for compliance with industry standards.

We increasingly create 3D digital building models to assist our clients and fellow designers to visualise building proposals.

With the structural engineers in our teams we are offering 3D models at pre-construction stage to enable co-ordination and clash detection.

Supply Chain Partnerships

We are continually developing supply chain relationships with suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors in order to get the most from our mutual skills so that we both benefit accordingly.

Through building partnerships we are seeking to deliver building design and operational information in the format that the supply chain can use most effectively.

We actively participate in project extranet and EDMS systems used to manage project specific information from project supply partners.

Business Partnerships

Throughout design and construction, we offer customer support to manage and smooth the end-user occupation by:

• Explaining the operational performance and control of the building and contributing to the creation of building log books
• Fully validating the commissioning results
• Planning the handover and occupation process
• Providing advice and assistance upon building operation and maintenance during the first few years after handover

Computer Resources

To support our teams in delivering technical and operational solutions, the Faber Maunsell offices are networked with computing and communications systems. Our flexible approach to the use of CAD systems and our acclaimed design software is being increasingly combined with digital knowledge management to automate the design process and improve the delivery and quality of our design information.

Investment in People

Our long-established graduate training programme is the vehicle to ensuring that our people have both the technical and operational skills to support the increasing market need for visualisation tools during concept design, for co-ordination modelling within the supply chain and for real customer support from inception to well beyond handover.

Industry Standards

Our Integrated Management System is used to continually manage our adherence to the standards required by:

• Our externally audited quality assurance procedures to ISO 9001:2000
• The environmental management required by ISO 14001
• The Health & Safety Executive
• The designer responsibilities under CDM

For more information on our experience and capabilities please contact Richard Windmill.