Soft Landings is the BSRIA-led process designed to assist the construction industry and its clients deliver better buildings. This presentation shows the latest best practice in building handover including lessons learned from project using Soft Landings

1. Roderic Bunn
Lessons from Soft Landings
Roderic Bunn BSRIA
Alasdair Donn Willmott Dixon

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• What motivated Soft Landings – a dip into the causes of performance gaps
• Where Government Soft Landings fits in
• Budgeting and tendering for Soft Landings
• An introduction to Soft Landings– its basic structure + introductory workshop
• Soft Landings the process: a chronological approach
• Stage 1 Inception and briefing
• Stage 2 Design and construction + reality-checking workshop
• Stage 3 Pre-handover
• Stage 4 Initial aftercare
• Stage 5 Long term aftercare and post-occupancy evaluations
What’s in the course
Philosophy
n (plural ‘philosophies’)
1. The study of the theoretical basis of a particular
branch of knowledge or experience (‘the philosophy
of science’)
2. A theory or attitude that acts as a guiding
principle for behaviour

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Soft Landings
Challenges and
opportunities
A small change in the way project teams do things
A big change in the way everyone thinks, behaves and interacts
•Practical completion becomes an extended handover process
•The project team does not disband at PC, but takes on aftercare duties
•Success is judged on operational outcomes, not the design specifications
•The whole project team – not just a few individuals – take custody of building performance

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• A more professional approach that says we have to change the way we do things if we’re
going to deliver better buildings
• Intended to foster greater mutual understanding between clients, project managers,
designers, builders and occupiers about project objectives
• Intended to reduce tensions and frustrations that occur during initial occupancy
• Aims to ensure clients and occupiers get the best out of their building
Involves greater investment in using performance feedback in briefing and design, more
attention in construction management, problem diagnosis and treatment, and monitoring,
and (systematic) post-occupancy evaluation
Soft Landings is not just a set of procedures
… it’s more a way of thinking

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So what have we been learning so far?

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The built environment experts
“There are known knowns; there are things we
know we know. We also know there are known
unknowns; that is to say we know there are some
things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – there are
things we do not know, we don't know.”
Donald Rumsfeld
Former United States Secretary of Defense

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“Old chestnuts” – known unknowns?*
Automatic lighting systems, sliding doors,
window actuators, BMS, taps, legionella,
manholes, boiler specs, labelling of switches,
daylight linking, biomass boilers, specifying large
panes of glass that cost lots of money to replace,
posh carpet designs, ventilation systems, longer
hours of use.
But knowing these old chestnuts is not enough
– what about the unknown unknowns?
*Courtesy Mike Chater – Hampshire County Council

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SOUTHBANK CENTRE: FESTIVAL WING
HESTON LEISURE CENTRE
Image: Studio
E
The importance of end-user consultation Flush out some unknown unknowns!

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The importance of operational performance risk registers

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Essex County Council aiming to ensure that the end user experience and building
performance post handover matches the intended design criteria of the new facilities.
The Smarte East Performance Indicators are driving improvement in handovers and defect
clearance as well as:
• End users being able to manage and operate their building more effectively
• Reduction in wasted time and effort to resolve outstanding defects/issues
• Reduced energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions
• Improved environmental conditions
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Greater clarity on maintenance/service requirements
The importance of improving handover routines

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But we’ve got a long way to go…..

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Clients are spending money on metering that doesn’t work
• Meters not fully commissioned, faulty meters not on snagging lists
• No calibration against loads – CT ratios often inappropriate, leading to multiplication
of reported values, perhaps by x10 or x20
• No reconciliation against fiscal meters (meters in error are difficult to identify)
• Meters often miss-labelled on distribution boards
• PV export meters not recording properly
• Most heat meters show zero, or some other unbelievable values
• Miss-matched sub-meter to BMS clock-cycles
• BMS energy monitoring software may not be specified or installed
• Poor BMS graphics

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Grizzly bears are waking up early this year due to climate change
In one corner ‘Government Soft
Landings’ and its outcome metrics
…In the other corner Eric Pickles
abolishing DECs…
How does this make any sense?
It’s a strange world where Rumsfeld is right and Pickles is wrong…

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The client has to want it You have to want to do it
Everyone in a project team has to
THE SOFT LANDINGS SAFETY NET

17. ECOBUILD
Soft Landings Case Studies
Alasdair Donn
Willmott Dixon Energy Services

18. Soft Landings Framework - Stages 4/5
Measure/improve performance against expectations

19. Oakfield
Primary School

25. Soft Landings Framework - Stages 2-4
Design & build for operability/maintainability/performance
Measure performance against expectations

26. Keynsham Civic Centre/Offices PV
220 kWp system with 327 W
high-yield panels
Standing-seam roof, fixed
arrays on 4 office roof zones
Flat roof, ballasted inverters
with sun/snow screens

27. Keynsham Civic Centre/Offices PV
30 kWp system with
327 W high-yield
panels
Flat roof, ballasted
panel-mount system
on 3 roof zones

28. PV Performance Monitoring

29. 8% above cumulative target to date
20% above cumulative target from mid-November onwards
Projected annual output ~200 MW/h
Projected annual savings ~£45k

30. Thank for listening to
Lessons from Soft Landings
roderic.bunn@bsria.co.uk
alasdair.donn@willmottdixon.co.uk