Avoid Comparing and Start Conserving

New Zealand is regarded as a young country and seen, by many, as having a very small amount of heritage buildings worthy of conservation. This may be true when comparing New Zealand to Europe but in my opinion, the comparison is unnecessary. I agree that we are a young country when it comes to built heritage but so were countries such as Greece and Italy 1000's of years ago.

Many people regard New Zealand's efforts in conservation as pointless or futile because they compare our countries heritage with that of older countries. My advice, study those other countries, their successes and failures in conservation but avoid the comparison. They might already have their abundance of historic buildings but we are in the privileged position to be creating, what will eventually be, our historic buildings and doing so with a breadth of knowledge from what has gone before.

Our built environment impacts on us all whether it is a newly built glass skyscraper in the city centre or a two hundred year old solid stone museum. Conservation is many things to many people and whilst there are some guiding principles that most practitioners in the arena adhere to, the most important aspect of conservation is conserving the social value of a building.

The fact is that the age of a building is irrelevant. We conserve buildings because they have meaning. A building should not have to wait until it achieves a certain age before it is deemed worthy of conservation. The Sky Tower in Auckland's Central Business District is a modern landmark building. Whilst it is not considered a heritage building now, it will, no doubt, be seen as one in 100 years time.

For some the beauty or worth of a building is in its history, for others its function, architectural merit or how high it towers above the buildings around it. A building doesn't even have to be whole or even functional to be of worth. There are ruins of buildings the world over and many are the focus of targeted conservation to preserve what remains.

Replicas of lost buildings can also be of value. The Old Town in Warsaw, Poland, was bombed during the WWII. A replica was built after the war and is visited by thousands of tourists every year whom marvel at the beauty and character of the Old Town.

It is argued in some conservation circles that good conservation has to be honest and that replicas are not honest. The fact that Warsaw's Old Town is not the original does not detract from it's worth as the rebuilding of the town is simply a layer of its history and for many this adds to the social value.

With so many of Canterbury's historic buildings destroyed in the 2010 and 2011 quakes, rebuilding in the image of what was lost may be an option. As with most decisions of this type, there will be advocates and those who oppose such an approach. Ultimately, the approach adopted should be one that will have the greatest benefit to society and the debate over the future of Christchurch's historic buildings is set to continue in the months ahead.

The buildings in New Zealand, at this moment in time, will become our historic buildings in the future. As a country we are still in our infancy. Our built environment reflects this and in time it will reflect a country with a more established history. If we stop comparing our nation with others and accept we are a young country and have a limited historic building stock we can focus on the job at hand - conserving what we do have and laying the foundations for the future where our history will be reflected in the buildings we conserve today.

Victoria Richardson BSc (Hons) MRICS
Ignite Building Consultancy Ltd

The City that Shakes

I am lucky. I am lucky for many reasons; the greatest of those reasons being my survival of the Christchurch earthquake on 22nd February 2011 and having the privilege to know the city before the earthquake.

When I first started working in Christchurch in October 2010, I was inspired by the city; the layout; the gardens and parks and the buildings. At evenings and weekends I would go for walks to admire specific areas and take photographs to show my friends and family and I quickly got to know my way round. One of the things that struck me about the city was the resilience of the people. When I first arrived there were around 15 aftershocks per day which served as a constant reminder of the September earthquake. The people of Canterbury are strong and determined though and continued about their business with dignity.

My job as a Building Surveyor is never boring (with the exception of completing timesheets) and as somebody who enjoys nothing more than analysing building defects, there was plenty to keep me busy in Canterbury. During my time in Canterbury so far I have inspected churches, university buildings, commercial offices, industrial, hotels, and schools - all presenting varying levels of damage. I have now documented and recommended repairs on thousands of cracks along with other defects and have earned the unfortunate nick-name of ‘Earthquake Girl’.

Inspecting buildings in an active seismic zone can be frustrating, with Mother Nature seemingly waiting for a final report to be issued before sending another aftershock and requiring the building to be re-inspected. Along with the frustrations there is the humorous aspect to my job; discovering random graffiti in a roof void and discovering construction details that defy logic and often the laws of gravity. One of the reasons I love being a Building Surveyor is that I get to crawl around in the parts of buildings that few people ever get to see – or at least that’s what I thought. Whilst carrying out one particular post-earthquake inspection I discovered a series of illustrations within a redundant clock tower. The artist, whilst gifted with a black marker pen, clearly had some issues with scale as I do not think their illustrations were anatomically correct.

The impact of the September earthquake was significant for the people of Canterbury but the level of destruction caused by the February earthquake was beyond comprehension for many of us.

I was inspecting properties in the city centre on 22nd February when the earthquake struck. Myself and a colleague were on a scaffold on Manchester Street and managed to jump through a window once the shaking eased off and eventually made it to safety. I took this photograph a few short minutes before the quake struck and sadly some of the buildings visible are no longer standing.

I may have survived the earthquake but I will not allow it to define me. Christchurch is no different – what will define Christchurch is the will of the Cantabrians; their strength and determination and the inspirational stories of survival. The memories of the earthquakes and thoughts of those who died as a result will always be there but we will learn from our experiences and use this knowledge to build a stronger city. The Christchurch of the future will be different to that which greeted me in October 2010 but I feel confident that it will still be a beautiful city capable of attracting visitors from around the world.

My colleagues and I at IGNITE remain committed to Christchurch and will continue to work as part of the wider inter-professional team to help repair our broken city.

Vic Richardson
Christchurch

2010 - The Influence of the Natural World on Property

As we near the end of 2010, it is interesting to reflect on the events of the past 12 months and their impact on the demand for the services that IBC provides to our clients.

Much of our work has been associated with mother nature - the Christchurch quakes, weathertightness remediation, the effects of sunlight on fascia cladding, land slips and fire damage reports are some examples.

5 years ago, 90% of our building consultancy advice was provided to address issues in a reactive fashion for clients, with the remaining 10% being proactive advice to improve asset value. Now the percentages are 30% / 70%, with an ever increasing demand for advice on asset value and building / development performance improvement.

At the recent Property Council Conference in Christchurch, delegates heard how the next year or two will continue to be tough on developers looking to create workable projects with a reasonable return on investment. There is still concern over the world economic situation, with Ireland struggling for cash and other European nations heading the same way. The uncertainty will no doubt continue. Like mother nature, change is inevitable and adapting to that change is critical.

IBC help deal with change by providing advice that can prevent future problems, and that maintains and enhances asset value; as well as advice that reactively resolves building and property related issues. Next year, new legislation like the new Unit Titles Act will impact on the type of advice that clients are seeking as increased emphasis goes onto building lifecycle planning. The most profitable developments will be those that offer a client a 'whole of life' solution and long term maintenance strategy & sinking fund analysis, not those that go up based on a simple capital budget.

The team at IBC is growing and we are very grateful to our clients, old and new, for their continued support. We are delighted to have secured a partnership arrangement with SPM Assets in New Zealand to help us provide our clients with 'deeper' asset management advice. SPM Assets are market leaders in the asset management space and work throughout Australasia, South Africa and Europe.

It has been a tough and challenging year. We look forward to working with you next year and trust that you will enjoy a relaxing Christmas and New Year break.

No doubt mother nature will have more change in store for us during 2011!

Peter Harris and the IBC team

Image: hinnamsaisuy / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Christchurch Building Condition Reviews

A number of clients have asked us to complete inspections of Christchurch properties as we have a team of experienced building surveyors available to assist as the need arises.

Structural engineers are best placed to advise on the structural integrity of affected buildings. Where their structural integrity has been confirmed as unaffected, IBC are well placed to advise on defects, defect remediation and other non structural related matters, including collateral damage as a result of roof leaks, plant / equipment damage and other building defects.

Please give us a call or email us if you or any of your colleagues need any help.

All the very best to all Cantabrians over the coming weeks as life starts to get back to normal.

Peter Harris
+64 21 607 184

It’s not just about leaks!

The building surveying profession in New Zealand is growing rapidly, largely on the back of the weathertightness issues affecting many of our homes and commercial buildings. Providing expert diagnosis of defects, and specifying and managing remedial work at these properties is just one facet of the specialist skills and expertise you should expect from a Chartered Building Surveyor.

Broadly speaking, you can expect to get value through using a Chartered Building Surveyor in a number of other ways. Of course, each individual will have different strengths and weaknesses, so the all important reference check is crucial when considering who to use to get the appropriate advice. With rapid growth in the profession, there are an awful lot of people out there presenting themselves as experts without the appropriate tools or training.

A Chartered Building Surveyor could:

• Advise you on your assets, their remaining useful lives and how much you need to set aside to keep them in good condition and maintain asset values
• Conduct technical due diligence on property purchases, advising on the risks and rewards of buying a particular building
• Provide technical due diligence on property developments that are being acquired – advising on options to mothball or complete half finished developments
• Prepare and drive development plans and feasibility studies for new property developments
• Act as your client representative on projects to oversee and manage delivery to meet time, cost, quality and relationship objectives
• Manage and specify project designs – with a particular bent for refurbishment and repair contracts
• Provide mediation advice on construction contract matters or disputes
• Manage and resolve matters relating to securing code compliance certificates on completed property developments

So whilst leaks are a hot topic throughout our fair land …. there is a lot more to Chartered Building Surveyors than meets the eye..

Going for Gold

As the markets continue to talk up gold and the fact that it may hit $2,000 sometime during 2010, property investors and owners in New Zealand continue to ponder decisions around making an investment in property, despite the alternative potential offered by that shiny metal. New property investment funds are beginning to surface around the place with value propositions to tempt would-be investors.

Enhancing the value of any investment, whether gold or property involves making decisions around risk. These decisions are based on experience, knowledge, information and often, intuition. We seek advice from other people regularly on matters that impact on our perception of the risks of a particular investment.

One of our core services involves providing clients with long term maintenance plans (LTMPs or reserve plans as we like to call them), that provide a basis for understanding the costs associated with maintaining an asset over it's lifetime and enable the creation of appropriate sinking funds. This is a popular service. There are a number of service providers in the market offering a range of advice and options.

Currently the building industry in NZ is dealing with significant shortcomings with it's design and construction processes - the weathertightness issue is touching us all. I worry whether, as an industry, we will learn from these mistakes and come out as better professionals. This concern was echoed last week when I learnt that some service providers are offering Body Corporates long term maintenance plans for a fraction of the cost of others. On a multi unit complex of over 100 apartments (with complex building services, a swimming pool etc), fee quotes ranged from $2,500 to $12,000. Every Body Corporate Committee has a fiduciary duty to the owners, and whilst the Body Corporate in question went through a weighted attribute analysis of the proposals, they are still highly likely to accept the lowest quote. Without getting into detail, and in my humble opinion, $2,500 just doesn't cut it, in terms of providing the right depth and quality of professional advice on a building of the complexity and size in question. In several years time, when reliance on that long term plan becomes important, the Body Corporate may find themselves with a problem..

We all acknowledge that price is important. Sometimes work is 'bought' to secure market position or to keep our people busy. That said, it is a rocky road - offering long term plans at such a low price creates an issue that, in years to come, may yet again question our ability as an industry to get our act together. People are beginning to rely on the LTMP when they purchase apartment units as an indicator on what they will personally have to contribute to the pot. It will not look good of the professions preparing those LTMP's get it wrong!

So, going back to the price of gold - isn't it about time we all started talking quality up? Isn't it about time we started going for the gold standard? It's an old well used phrase, but you do get what you pay for..

What will Santa bring you for 2010?

Christmas and New Year in NZ is always a great time to relax with family and friends – and to reflect on where we're heading.

Planning how our assets and buildings will serve our property needs in 2010 is something all businesses will be focused on as we trundle along the ups and downs of the economic cycle.

Finding better, smarter ways of doing things is now a given in almost every business. IBC has been focusing on simple things that make a difference in this respect; things that save our clients cash.

For example:-

• ‘iReports’ - we now issue reports almost exclusively as electronic files, we do not print them unless the client specifically requires it. The same thing goes for letters of instruction
• Dove-tailing Inspections - we plan our inspections and surveys so that we can attend more sites in one day to reduce travel costs.
• Fewer Emails – everyone is busier doing more with less, so we try to make contact by phone rather than mail or email.
• Partnering – we now have relationships with a number of allied service providers to whom we outsource non-core activity. Many of these providers are sole-operators with exceptional skills. We can continue to provide a one-stop solution and take all the consulting risk, but smaller overheads means we can also keep our fees lower.
• Priorities – unsurprisingly, consultants are being asked to provide advice on issues of compliance, rather than enhancement, as property owners seek to limit costs. (The forward thinkers are beginning to request advice on the latter which is a great sign!)
• Refurbishment - it's now becoming a much stronger strategy to optimize returns. The costs associated with demolishing buildings less than 50 years old and redeveloping a site are often greater.
• The rise of the Building Surveying profession in NZ continues, albeit that most are focused on weather-tight homes … People who can produce good working details are in high demand.

As we move into 2010, we are all hoping that the business environment gives us some slack …

While Santa’s sack may be a little lighter for all of us this year, we’ll certainly be entering the new year smarter and more conscious of where we focus our energy, our time and our hard earned cash!

Image: Ron Bird / FreeDigitalPhotos.net