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ITP MEDIA GROUP / BUSINESS MARCH 2022 • VOL. 17, ISSUE 03 RESHAPING THE NARRATIVE OF A ‘MALE-DOMINATED’ MEP INDUSTRY YOUNG PROFESSIONALS SHARE A BOLD MESSAGE, CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO AND PAVING THE WAY TOWARDS A STRONGER, MORE DIVERSE, AND INCLUSIVE MEP INDUSTRY ITP MEDIA GROUP / BUSINESS MARCH 2022 • VOL. 17, ISSUE 03www.geberit-global.com/pluviaMarch 2022 | MEP Middle East 3 www.mepmiddleeast.com MARCH 2022 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 03 CONTENTS COVER STORY: CHANGING THE NARRATIVE OF A ‘MALE-DOMINATED’ INDUSTRY MEP Middle East reached out to more than 40 MEP ﬁ rms, offering their young engineers, technicians, and support staff the opportunity to share their stories, their proﬁ les, and their message to the construction and engineering industry PROJECT UPDATE The co-founder and managing director of Ellington Properties, Joseph Thomas, shares exclusive details about the MEP and construction works on its Wilton Terraces project 06 INDUSTRY INSIGHT Elsner Elektronik’s Bastian Elsner and Rita Buse on building shading solutions SPECIAL REPORT Weathermaker FZE’s Rejil Kumar on the tangible beneﬁ ts of prefabrication 26 COMMENT grfn’s Omnia Halawani on construction stakeholders playing Chinese Whispers 24 30 344 MEP Middle East | March 2022www.mepmiddleeast.com www.mepmiddleeast.com PO Box 500024, Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 444 3000 Web: www.itp.com Offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London & Mumbai ITP MEDIA GROUP CEO: Ali Akawi CFO: Toby Jay Spencer-Davies Managing Director: Alex Reeve EDITORIAL Group Editor: Carla Sertin Editor: Anup Oommen Tel: +971 4 444 3448 E-mail: anup.oommen@itp.com Art Director: Amjad Ayche E-mail: amjad.ayche@itp.com ADVERTISING Group Sales Manager: Vinay Ravindran Tel: +971 4 444 3155 E-mail: vinay.ravindran@itp.com ITP LIVE General Manager: Ahmad Bashour Tel: +971 4 444 3549 E-mail: ahmad.bashour@itp.com PHOTOGRAPHY Senior Photographers: Efraim Evidor, Adel Rashid Staff Photographers: Ajith Narendra, Fritz John Asuro PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Group Production & Distribution Director: Kyle Smith Production Manager: Denny Kollannoor Production Coordinator: Mahendra Pawar Senior Image Editor: Emmalyn Robles CIRCULATION Distribution and Circulation Manager: Evijin Pathrose Distribution Coordinator: Avinash Pereira Circulation Executive: Rajesh Pillai MARKETING Director of Awards & Marketing: Daniel Fewtrell Subscribe online at www.itp.com/subscriptions The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. 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The most reliable and respected source of MEP news and in-depth analysis in the GCC region To flip through previous editions of the MEP Middle East magazine, visit mepmiddleeast.com/emagazines/digital-magazine Published by and © 2022 ITP MEDIA GROUP FZ-LLC.EDITORÊS LETTER March 2022 | MEP Middle East 5 www.mepmiddleeast.com NEW YEAR, NEW DIRECTIONS Anup Oommen Editor, MEP Middle East anup.oommen@itp.com W hen I took over the MEP Middle East brand in January 2020, I began my ﬁ rst Editor’s Letter with the words “New Year, New Directions.” In equal parts, I feel both humbled and excited that, a year later, I’m closing out my tenure at ITP Media Group’s MEP Middle East with the same words. At the outset, and as many of you already know from our daily and weekly morning coffee chats and late lunch conversations, I have been appointed as the digital editor for ITP Media Group’s ﬂ agship business title, Arabian Business, effective 1 March. Hence, new year, new directions. However, there’s more to this message than the move. Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a number of you – including clients, main and MEP contractors, architects, designers, consultants, and suppliers – and I am extremely grateful for the opportunities that I’ve had to learn from you, interact with you, and work together with you to hold the industry to higher standards. Quoting those wiser than me, who have referred to 2020 and 2021 as “one extremely long year”, I understand that the journey hasn’t been easy, thus far. The MEP industry has been coping with procurement and supply chain issues, low margins, high competition, ﬁ nancial and contractual ambiguities, delayed payments, variations in contracts, claims and disputes, evident skills gaps, as well as cost- and time-overruns – which have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, liquidity concerns, and concerning practices such as L1 and back-to-back contracts. However, through the “new year” that was 2021, stakeholders within the industry have also demonstrated a respectable amount of resilience by steering their ships in “new directions”. Leading ﬁ rms within the industry have focused on improving feasibility studies, choosing better models of construction management, doubling down on core competencies, and placing people, processes, integrated planning, and advanced technologies at the forefront of their strategies. As the editor of MEP Middle East, it has been a pleasure for me to spotlight key issues such as value engineering vs cost cutting; the need to evaluate the overall lifecycle costs of a project; the need for early engagement of MEP stakeholders; adherence to strict building and regulatory codes while optimising material requirements; meeting energy efﬁ ciency targets; ensuring the safety of buildings; avoiding clashes and reworks; reducing construction wastage; sustaining high building performance standards and the move towards prefabrication (refer Special Report on Page 24); and the need to improve digital and technology maturity of organisations; among others. We also witnessed the much-anticipated return of face-to-face meetings, networking opportunities, conferences, which spurred positive business sentiment and stoked a post-pandemic bullish market. While the existing problems aren’t going to magically disappear, there is still a ray of hope as stakeholders across the supply chain have begun to collaborate better, coordinate better, and raise benchmarks for basic competencies and technologies required on projects. Additionally, MEP veterans have also pointed to the dire need for an increased focus on diversity and inclusion, emotional intelligence, and mental health within the industry. Case in point – it has been disheartening to note the deﬁ ciency of female representation in the industry, with a number of respectable MEP ﬁ rms unable to participate in MEP Middle East’s campaign for International Women’s Day, simply because they didn’t have any young female professionals to feature. Although females tend to outperform their male peers in the academic environment, their diminished representation within the electromechanical, HVAC, and building services engineering space remains a cause for concern – a topic that has been further expounded in my ﬁ nal cover story for this brand. I believe that the industry is ready to embrace new changes. While I pass the baton and dive into other opportunities, I will still have my periscope raised to keep an eye on how things progress on the MEP front. Clearly, as we step into another new year, there’s a growing need for new directions, again. Here’s wishing the MEP industry all the best. I will be cheering from the side-lines! Signing off … Yours truly!6 MEP Middle East | March 2022 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY 6 MEP Middle East | March 2022 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY RESHAPING THE NARRATIVE OF A ‘MALE-DOMINATED’ MEP INDUSTRYMarch 2022 | MEP Middle East 7 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY March 2022 | MEP Middle East 7 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY MEP Middle East reached out to more than 40 well-established MEP ﬁ rms – including contractors, sub-contractors, multi-disciplinary and specialised consultants, as well as suppliers – offering their young engineers, technicians, support staff, and blue-collar workers the opportunity to share their stories, their proﬁ les, and their message to the construction and engineering industry. On one hand, the deﬁ ciency of young female representation in the industry is disheartening – with only half the ﬁ rms able to participate in the feature – on the other hand, the bold message shared by those who’ve responded is extremely uplifting, showcasing scores of women standing up for themselves and supporting each other to ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion.8 MEP Middle East | March 2022 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY Over the past year, industry veterans, engineers, technicians, and administrative staff working within the Middle East MEP industry have pointed to a progressive – and much-needed – shift in workplace culture, which has fostered better diversity and inclusion. That said, leading voices within the industry have also called for consistent, continued, and meaningful changes, stating that there is still considerable room for improvement to boost equity in representation, payment, and opportunities for growth. While the industry has witnessed meritorious women being hired in various positions across the supply chain, the problems of pervasive gender stereotypes, stigmas, and systemic biases remain. To challenge the status quo, in 2021, MEP Middle East ran an extensive campaign offering a number of women in leadership positions the opportunity to share their insights on representation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, gender inclusion, diversity, female enrolment, opportunities in the workplace, and avenues for growth. While the brand received exceptional feedback for the campaign – highlighting women in leadership positions as role models within the industry – these industry veterans also raised concerns faced by young female professionals, calling for superior support systems to be put in place to ensure equity for women in the early stages of their career. Responding to this feedback, in 2022, MEP Middle East reached out to well-established MEP ﬁ rms, offering their young employees the opportunity to share their stories, their proﬁ les, and their message to the construction and engineering industry. Case in point: The survey showcased a deﬁ ciency of female representation in the industry. A number of respectable MEP ﬁ rms were unable to participate in this International Women’s Day campaign simply because they didn’t have any young female professionals to put forward. Although females tend to outperform their male peers in the academic environment, their diminished representation within the electromechanical, HVAC, and building services engineering space remains a cause for concern. Speaking in an exclusive interview with MEP Middle East, the senior director of Studies, Construction Management, and Surveying at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, Dr Hagir Hakim, says: “There is a big deﬁ ciency of female professionals within the electromechanical and building services industry. What’s equally concerning is that the need for females in this industry is dire.March 2022 | MEP Middle East 9 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY “Although this is a global problem, it is also a concern in the Middle East. Globally, only 14% of female graduates from engineering and corresponding academic disciplines ﬁ nd a job within construction and engineering roles in the industry, despite the fact that at an academic level the performance on average is similar between genders, with female students sometimes outperforming their male counterparts.” She adds: “There are numerous studies that show the direct impact that diversity and inclusion can have on productivity, efﬁ ciency, and proﬁ tability. The industry is losing out on a fantastic range of young skilled workers because it is slow in challenging its biases.” Hakim suggests a three-pronged approach to address the issue of diversity, calling for academia, students, and the industry to work collaboratively to dispel prejudices and the historical, systemic gender bias within the industry. “A number of academic institutions have attempted to oust long-standing myths that female students have a lower chance of ﬁ nding jobs within the construction and MEP sectors. While universities are attempting to bridge the academic-industry gap through career guidance programmes, internships, mentorship opportunities, and partnering with women in leadership positions, among other initiatives, there is still a chasm that needs to be crossed in terms of existing pre- conceived notions,” Hakim says. “For instance, a number of our female students point to the lack of challenging internship opportunities within the construction and MEP sector – as they are often side-lined to ‘gender-stereotyped softer internships.” As a result, quite often, young engineers question their abilities, how they will be welcomed in the industry, and their scope for growth in the future. Czarina Copiaco, who works as an electrical engineer in Buro Happold’s MEP building services design team, says: “Young engineers face uncertainty – the fear of the unknown – while joining a new job. Yes, a university may have equipped you with the theoretical basics, but how do these apply to actual projects? Who will you be working with, and how would they view you as a professional engineer?” Ann Elezabeth Johny, who works at engineering consultancy and advisory ﬁ rm Zutari (formerly known as Aurecon) as a mechanical engineer, adds: “Young engineers, at some point in their career, will have to face the dreaded ‘imposter syndrome’. This could be one of the greatest obstacles they need to overcome in their career. Ways to overcome the imposter syndrome would be to a) Use the situation to upskill in areas where they lack the skills and expertise, b) Discuss the challenge with a trusted mentor to identify areas for growth and opportunity.” Echoing these thoughts and sharing a personal experience, the intermediate electrical engineer on the WME Global team, Yashodha Wijesinghe, says: “I joined WME “Female students are often side- lined to gender stereotyped ‘softer’ internships.” Dr Hagir Hakim, Senior Director of Studies, Construction Management, and Surveying at Heriot-Watt University DubaiNext >