ITP MEDIA GROUP / BUSINESS MAY 2021 • VOL. 16, ISSUE 05 STRATEGIC THINKERS WHY THE MEP INDUSTRY NEEDS TO “ACCELERATE THE DESIGN APPROACH AT THE SAME PACE AS TECH DEVELOPMENT”BK GULF Committed to efficiency since 1978 Awards BK Gulf established in 1978, is a leading contractor in electrical, mechanical, instrumentation and building services within the UAE & Middle East markets. The company provides integrated engineering solutions which encompass design, procurement, installation, project management, commissioning and facilities management tailored to client’s requirements. BK GULF is a DUTCO Construction Group. Call us on 04 880 1606 Modular Buildings Turn Key Solutions MODULAR BUILDINGS FACILITIES MANAGEMENT MODULAR SOLUTIONS MEP BUILDING SERVICESINFRASTRUCTURE & FIRE SYSTEMSwww.mepmiddleeast.comMay 2021 | MEP Middle East 3 MAY 2021 VOLUME 16 ISSUE 05 CONTENTS 36 WATER SECURITY How FRIATEC and STR AUB are securing the region’s pipelines 34 OPTIMISED HYDRAULICS Sobha’s Creek Vistas project gains from Geberit’s SuperTube solution 42 RESEARCH INSIGHT Pre-insulated pipe sales to grow at nearly 5.8 % between 2021 and 2031 2021 TOP MEP CONTRACTORS The Middle East’s most trusted list of the Top MEP Contractors hails fi rms that have made positive strides, implemented best practices, and raised industry standards LET’S TALK MEP: PREFABRICATION Leading stakeholders pushing the envelope for MEP prefabrication address the need to move past antiquated mindsets, models, and methods of construction 10 INTERVIEW Consistent’s Sagar Kulkarni on the need for better products and maintenance 30 SITE VISIT How Samana Hills lowered its carbon footprint with “seamless coordination” 26 38 EXPO EXCLUSIVE Walking through the Malaysia Pavilion: Expo 2020’s fi rst net-zero initiative 224 MEP Middle East | May 2021www.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 Group Editor: Carla Sertin EDITORIAL Editor: Anup Oommen Tel: +971 4 444 3448 E-mail: anup.oommen@itp.com ADVERTISING Group Sales Manager: Anup Nagpurkar Tel: +971 4 444 3573 E-mail: anup.nagpurkar@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: Aasiya Jagadeesh, Ajith Narendra, Fritz John Asuro PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Group Production & Distribution Director: Kyle Smith Production Manager: Basel Al Kassem Production Coordinator: Mahendra Pawar Senior Image Editor: Emmalyn Robles CIRCULATION Distribution & Warehouse Manager : Praveen Nair 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. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the reader’s particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review. WHY, OH WHY, ARE WE RESISTANT TO CHANGE? Anup Oommen Editor, MEP Middle East anup.oommen@itp.com Time and again I’ve been told that the Middle East construction industr y – including the MEP sector – is lagging behind global standards in terms of its adoption of technology, best practises, installation and commissioning of top quality products, with delayed deliver y deadlines and cost overruns becoming the norm rather than the exception. While the technology – including Revit, 3D modelling, ClashMEP, HoloLens, BIM, AR, VR, XR – as well as innovations such as EDITORÊS LETTER Published by and © 2021 ITP MEDIA GROUP FZ-LLC. prefabrication, offsite manufacturing, 3D printing, predictive analysis, digital twins, BIM-to-fi eld robotics, and connected workfl ows are becoming ubiquitous globally, the will to implement these solutions at scale in the GCC region still seems to be lacking. The obvious answer to the “Why?” of the matter has been the writing on the wall – the industr y is struggling due to a score of reasons, including but not limited to low-price competitive tendering, “laughably” low profi t margins, delayed payments, unresolved claims, and more, which are all refl ective of a fragmented industr y wherein each stakeholder is watching out for itself rather than considering the overall lifecycle of a project. Yet, stopping – or even slowing down – this tumble down the metaphorical “rabbit hole” is not entirely impossible, if key stakeholders within the industr y choose to look at the long-term repercussions that their current decisions are likely to have. Simply put, the time has come to unlearn old habits. Comfortable and time-honoured go-to solutions may not necessarily be the best to ensure the sur vival of the industr y. It’s not like the industr y has not done this before! We were able to make this shift – past our comfort zones – when we needed to invest time, effort, and money to move from purely depending on pen-and-paper blueprints or conventional hand-drawings to incorporating computer-aided designing (CAD) technologies back in the ‘70s. Thirty years have passed, and wouldn’t you agree that it’s a bit of a shame if we’re still holding on to a bygone era while the world passes us by? An industr y analyst tells me that this is similar to moving from a landline telephone to a fi rst-generation black-and-white mobile phone, but being unwilling to make the most of the latest opportunities and conveniences of the latest smartphone because we don’t want to invest our money, our time, or our effort into such a change. The real question therefore is: Is “change” inconvenient or merely a refl ection of our stubborn refusal to learn and grow? This is not a comment on any specifi c stakeholder, but rather a refl ection of the whole industr y. Yes, it’s true that the “smaller” stakeholders need a “give-us-a-break” incentive – possibly ease of operations or better margins – but that also means that “bigger” stakeholders higher up the supply chain need to enable this change. In addition, rather than “taxing the poor”, it would help if tech companies could open their eyes to the current situation and offer their innovative tech solutions at slightly more affordable prices. All in all, the time has come to challenge our innate cognitive bias, which tends to draw our attention to immediate threats and causes us to underestimate the long-term challenges that threaten our existence. The power to turn the industr y around is in our hands – but as Uncle Ben told Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility”!www.sescouae.com | info@sescouae.com 6 MEP Middle East | May 2021 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY Prevention is better than cure – the age-old adage counsels, but unfortunately, there are still stakeholders within the MEP industry that seem to overlook the “prevention” because it could burden their individual role on the project or due to the fact that they aren’t held accountable for the “cure” when it’s needed. Rather than addressing challenges at the pre-concept and MEP planning and design stages, it has almost become the norm for the industry to opt for “value engineering” at the late stages, despite the additional cost and time it requires – not to mention the energy consumption and other effi ciencies on the project that could have otherwise been reduced. MEP Middle East spoke exclusively to a number of the top MEP contractors and consultants leading by example in the region, who shared their unfettered views on the need for “integrated planning” as well as the need to incorporate the latest technologies on every project. While planning is essential to construction, experts have pointed to how conventional planning models are becoming fragmented and futile. The director of MEP at AECOM, Cathy Christer says: “It is essential in design to plan ahead and to strategise what could happen, what could change, what we know, and what we do not know. The ‘thinking’ – and that’s the fun part of design, in my opinion – is how the design can adapt and evolve to suit the evolution of design and information fl ow.” The current conventional, sequential models of design and planning – which are unfortunately still being adopted by many stakeholders in the industry – are defi nitely convenient, but also repetitive. Such models also contain redundancies, cause clashes, retain construction confl icts, necessitate expensive fi xes, lead to wasted materials, cause delays, with traditional 2D drawings often reinforcing “siloed, self-centred, and superseded” methods of construction on projects. Integrated planning aims to address all of these concerns by necessitating a fundamental change in the design planning process – calling for a more collaborative practice, early participation of all the stakeholders, with a constant comprehensive view of the overall lifecycle of the project in order to regularly monitor and verify the practicality and achievability of the project’s milestones and design. “Integrated planning could ensure that all key stakeholders are working towards the same goal in full knowledge of each other’s actions. The client, building occupier, design team, and the contractor need to be involved in contributing to the decision-making process for the project,” the MEP team at China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC Middle East) tells MEP Middle East. “Early planning and early involvement of participants enables overlapping of design as well as design verifi cation processes. Although, the time of each activity is not necessarily reduced considerably, the overall time can be drastically decreased.” Industry stakeholders have agreed that the time has come to add “integrated planning” as an essential digitised tool, because it can tie together all the key aspects of MEP while co-ordinating with the civil, mechanical, and building products teams to ensure optimal solutions. Listing out a set of hurdles that could easily be scaled through digitised and integrated planning, the managing director at Al-Futtaim Engineering and STRATEGIC THINKERS Leading industry veterans evaluate the need to address “integrated planning” as a digitised tool, as well as the untapped potential of people & processes spurred by the adoption of technologyMay 2021 | MEP Middle East 7 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY Technologies (AFET), Murali S, adds: “We have noticed the over-sizing of MEP equipment, as well as the oversizing or under-sizing of spatial requirements for various MEP plant rooms in the concept stages of design. “Moreover, in certain projects, lifecycle costs are not taken into consideration; there’s a lack of awareness of the various authority requirements such as that of SIRA, Civil Defense, DEWA, and ADWEA; there’s a lack of co-ordination between various MEP disciplines; and the commercial aspects are often not taken into consideration at the concept stage leading to inappropriate or over-budgeting.” The need for better integrated spatial planning and primary services availability has also been echoed by other leading veterans in the industry. The senior estimation and procurement manager at ALEMCO, Robert McDonnell, says: “Space planning for plant rooms and risers at concept stage ensure that the MEP contractor does not have to redesign the tender to fi t the MEP installation into the building. A carefully planned and coordinated design will allow the MEP contractor to spend more time on their engineering and procurement role rather than rushing to fi nish an incomplete tender design.” AECOM’s Cathy Christer adds: “If spatial planning and primary services availability can be well understood and integrated into the multi-disciplinary design from the earliest stage of a project, it could be a critical design element for the future progress and success of the designs. “From an MEP perspective, mapping out the incoming services, primary rooms, the horizontal and vertical distribution routes, and the constraints imposed by other disciplines is essential.” Furthermore, there is a growing need for buildings to address their contribution to climate change and monitor their carbon footprint and energy effi ciencies. The associate director of Sustainability at AESG, Lindsey Malcolm, says: “The MEP industry needs to concentrate on life cycle impacts while pushing for net- positive performance. This requires much closer integration of the design team at the earliest stages of projects to ensure impacts and opportunities are fully understood and explored in a robust manner. “This is the biggest challenge for our industry right now, as engineering and environmental analysis are still often engaged at a stage that is too late in the design process.” Tackling another key hurdle at the pre-concept stage – in terms of realistic expectations and costs – the general manager at BK Gulf, Basheer Massad, says: “Many projects go through the full design stages, and then are stopped at infancy stage of tendering due to the unrealistic budget expectations. Therefore, early contractor engagement through a formal process at the pre-concept stage would benefi t clients in optimising their vision with realistic cost model.” To catalyse growth in the industry and spur the adoption of improved integrated planning, some industry experts have suggested the need to optimise processes with technological advancements, while others have highlighted the benefi ts of people – an upskilled and more knowledgeable workforce. It’s surprising that globally available digital technologies and capabilities such as parametric and computational design, performance simulation, BIM, digital twins, building data analytics, among others – which help bring stakeholders together to “arrive at the most optimised effi cient building design” – have not yet completely replaced either spreadsheets or 2D designs. “Integrated planning could ensure that all key stakeholders are working towards the same goal in full knowledge of each other’s actions”8 MEP Middle East | May 2021 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY Such stagnation could tether the whole industry – pausing progress – especially given that conventional design strategies can have a dramatic effect on project timelines and costs if not addressed. “Unfortunately, many tenders and projects fall back on the conventional methods that naturally involve a series of handovers: from owner to architects, then to MEP designers, to contractors to occupants. Such a path, which does not invite stakeholders to coordinate from the onset, affects planning processes and fail to account for numerous needs and valuable expertise,” explains Omnia Halawani, the CEO and co-founder of GRFN. “Unfortunately, it is not being embraced throughout the market, which means you can still receive a tender in 2D.” Among other fi rms, James L Williams Middle East has also prioritised BIM, Revit, and Navisworks to collaborate MEP design and works with structural and architectural trades. “Such collaboration tools are important to our business as they allow us to co- ordinate properly and install once, rather than fi nd clashes at site which results in material wastage, time lost, and labour ineffi ciencies,” the JLW Middle East engineering team told MEP Middle East. “As we utilise off-site prefabrication more on our projects, these tools allow us to digitally perfect each of our MEP service modules in our REVIT models. “This further allows us to perfectly position each module at site using our laser Robotic Stations and laser setting out technology, all of which are aimed to accelerate construction and increase quality and effi ciencies during the construction project.” Experts have also called for the need to look past BIM as a particular software, but rather implement it as a process that could maximise its potential within the industry. “The benefi ts of implementing BIM are beyond any doubts. However, those benefi ts are overshadowed by some professionals who turn BIM from a process that supports construction into an aim of its own,” BK Gulf’s Basheer Massad says. “Such a narrow-minded approach alienates a wide spectrum of projects participants and makes BIM a role for the “super-techies” driving computers in the offi ce. The full benefi t of BIM can only be realised when implemented through cross- functional teams and throughout project life cycle.” The impact of incorporating a technological innovation at such scale, where it becomes part of every-day operations across multiple projects, cannot be understated. GRFN’s Omnia Halawani says: “BIM has proven to be an essential and infl uential advancement to the industry. “While it is not deployed everywhere, it is being increasingly adopted on major construction projects.” “The experience of the managers, engineers, and super visors lead to the deliver y of top quality projects” “In many cases, design issues are only discovered late in the process when changes become more expensive. If developers are to adopt a mindset that addresses this, the market will progress at a much faster pace. Developers remain the main driver of how the design and build team will operate and coordinate.” There’s no doubt that improved technology, if embraced by all and utilised correctly, can have major benefi ts in terms of time and cost savings for MEP contractors. “Although the cost of implementing the software can be high, the long-term benefi ts are obvious,” ALEMCO’s Robert McDonnell explains. “We have introduced many innovative software upgrades focusing on material management, site progress management, photo software, and crane time. ALEMCO – which leads MEP Middle East’s 2021 Top MEP Contractors rankings – now only works in BIM, no longer utilising 2D drawings. Referring to the impact that this has had on the business, Robert McDonnell adds: “Our services clash rate has dropped dramatically and our procurement quantities have increased in accuracy. May 2021 | MEP Middle East 9 www.mepmiddleeast.com COVER STORY Halawani adds: “The challenge with BIM and advancing technologies varies widely. Engineers who adopt BIM as a daily engineering tool – as it should be – would not face issues with the widespread use of the technology. That would be a struggle to others who treat it as an add-on.” The MEP divisional manager at Khansaheb, David Duffy, says: “Planning is key to the success of any project. However, despite programmes being locked into the contract, there are contractors who continue to fail by not planning in the short-term. “The introduction of technologies such as Primavera, BIM, Revit are good tools if used correctly, however, it is the experience of the managers, engineers, and supervisors that lead to the delivery of top quality, on-time projects.” Meanwhile, the growing dependence on technology has also highlighted the value of skilled employees with the experience, knowledge – and as some industry experts say “the common sense that’s not so common anymore” – within the industry. The associate director at Cundall, Issam Hammad, says: “BIM and Revit can be integrated with other softwares to enhance deliverables and speed up the design process. This can help teams collaborate, innovate, and connect with clients in more productive ways. “However, the level of understanding among construction professionals varies; not everyone understands how these tools can be utilised for the benefi ts of the project or the client. Therefore, planning projects to use these tools will result in different outcomes across construction teams in the industry. Until everyone has a common understanding of how the tools can be used, more upskilling is needed.” AFET’s Murali S adds: “As of now, even with high adoption rates, these technologies are being used sub-optimally. I believe in the next two years the industry will further develop, and we shall put into full use all the new technologies available.” AECOM’s Cathy Christer even goes so far as to say: “In our team we have “Strategic Thinkers” who can plan out a building from scratch – even through a sketch – which can go on to form the strategy for the development of services within the building.” “BIM and Revit technologies are wonderful to represent 3D designs at a certain stage of evolution and to translate this into a virtual reality experience, but I think that there is nothing yet that can match the pace of a multidisciplinary design team session, collaboration, thinking, and sketching.” Stitching together the viewpoints of tech- driven processes and skilled, experienced people, AESG’s Lindsey Malcom says: “Technology is advancing at a rapid pace and as specialist consultants riding this digital wave, it is this seamless interplay that drives high-performing engineering solutions. For us to see this advancement and quick uptake in the industry, we need to reset our perspectives and mindsets. From an engineering context, I believe the industry needs to accelerate our design approach at the same pace as the development of technologies.” Malcom adds: “There would be a far greater outcome and benefi t to all stakeholders if we are engaged in that development process in the most effective manner possible. “There is certainly greater potential that can be leveraged from these tools, and this would support a more integrated design approach and the shift to a whole-life perspective throughout the design-build- operate phase.” All in all, if the industry needs to lift itself out of the doldrums – characterised by constant echoes of “delayed projects” and “cost overruns” – it will need to take the advice of these veterans to push for integrated planning and improved adoption of integrated technologies. “Space planning for plant rooms and risers at concept stage ensure that the MEP contractor does not have to redesign the tender to fi t the MEP installation into the building”Next >