Postgraduate students visit major Lendlease housing regeneration project

Students of MSc Construction Economics and Management and Project and Enterprise Management visited Lendlease’s major housing regeneration project at Elephant and Castle. The group was accompanied by Professor Andrew Edkins.

The £1bn project is operated by Lendlease, an international property developer and asset management company, and has a timescale of over ten years. It will provide London with the first new public park since the early twentieth centry.

The visit, which took place in early February, offered students a fascinating insight into issues of health and safety, welfare and Building Information Modelling (BIM).

Keith Lovell, the project’s Construction Operations Director, spoke to the students about the logistical challenges of operating in the middle of a complicated road system and near a residential area. He was joined by School alumnus Emma McCreery-Breen, who noted that Lendlease wanted to use this project to showcase the company’s high health and safety standards. She also emphasised the importance placed on their staff’s welfare, supported through good quality office space and a canteen serving healthy food.

Tolga Adinir, the project’s BIM Manager, gave a live demonstration to demonstrate how BIM can support projects’ design stages and construction phases. This highlighted the advantage of BIM in making construction cheaper, faster and safer.