Professor Dejan Mumovic, Deputy Director of UCL IEDE judges Teambuild 2016

This year's competition challenged teams with a rapidly-developing scenario based on a high-quality healthcare and biomedical research facility. The result was a series of outstanding proposals from 9 inspiring teams, demonstrating true excellence in communication: and finally, triumph for "Lighterman", a team from Eckersley O'Callaghan, Hawkins\Brown, Hoare Lea, Kier Construction and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff.

That winning team, excelling against a strong field, was formed of individuals from companies across the spectrum of the construction industry. Every competitor selected after a rigorous pre-Qualification stage, had less than six years' experience in industry; the scenarios were designed to test them to their limits. In this pressurised, fast-paced environment, the competitors demonstrated excellent team-working and collaboration skills. The winning team, named after a pub which hosted some of their preparatory meetings, were awarded a cash prize of £2,000, sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Constructors.

Teambuild 2016 challenged teams to plan, design and present hypothetical proposals based around the New Papworth Hospital; and exciting development on Cambridge Biomedical Campus, currently underway on site. Skanska and HOK were generous enough to provide the teams with real site information to form the basis of their hypothetical scenarios, giving an added sense of realism to the proceedings.

Nine teams, representing twenty-four top construction industry companies, made it through to the hotly-contested finals, and impressed throughout with their professionalism, enthusiasm and dedication. Their performance was evaluated by fourteen senior industry figures, each representing a construction institution. This year the panel included Richard Brindley (Mast of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects), Ian Mason (Master of the Worshipful Company of Constructors), Patricia Bessey (PM Worshipful Company of Constructors), and Professor Dejan Mumovic (FCIBSE).

The diversity of the judging panel was reflected in the institutional membership and employers of members of the winning team: Miles Christoforides (IStructE, Eckersley O'Callaghan); Claire Hicks (WSP | Parson Brinckerhoff), (Ahmad Khattab (ICE, WSP | Parson Brinckerhoff); Richard Laplanche (CIOB, Kier Construction); Conor Maguire (ARB, Hawkins\Brown); and Matthew Vice(CIBSE, Hoare Lea).

Professor Dejan Mumovic CEng FCIBSE, Professor of Building Performance Analysis, Deputy Director of UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering said, "the need to provide an integrated design solution requires the whole design team to know the overall process by which a building is to be constructed. Teambuild provides an unparalleled opportunity for young professionals to gain skills which are essential to the UK construction industry."

The Procurement Strategy Prize of £1,500, awarded by the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects, was awarded by Master Richard Brindley to We Built That a team from Bam Construction, Eckersley O'Callaghan and HTA Design, which included members of the BCU, CIBSE, IStrucE, RIBA and RTPI.

The Winners of the Judges Prize of £1,250, awarded for the team which showed the greatest improvement over the weekend were Optima, a team from Buro Happold, Jestico + Whiles and Wates including members from ARB, CIBSE, CIBSE, IET and RICS.

The Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) sponsored a prize for Excellence in Construction. This prize of £1000 was awarded to Omnia, a team from AECOM, Eckersley O'Callaghan, Hawkins\Bronw, Mayer Brown and Sweco UK, comprising team member from RIBA, ICE, CIBSE, the Law Society of England/Wales and CNI (Italy). CCS Ambassador, John Sayers, presented a special award for innovation in the use of construction site hoardings, suggesting graphic treatments to promote jobs in the built environment, and seeking to narrow the construction skills deficit.

Teambuild is a registered Charity, providing education and training in the construction industry. This endeavour has been supported for four years by the LCCI Commercial Education Trust, who this year awarded an individual prize for Leadership. The prize of £500 was awarded to Yuebi Yang, a Civil Engineer from AECOM.

The objectives of Teambuild focus on developing skills in leadership, communication and coordination beyond the sum of the of the individual's skill. The competition helps identify the way teams must work together in the construction industry by challenging them with scenarios common to construction projects across the UK.

The overall standard of the event was extremely high, and all eleven finalist teams should be congratulated on an immense achievement. Further details of each of the finalist teams is published on our website. A special thank you to Skanska and HOK, who were our site sponsors this year and enabled us to use this wonderful location as the basis for our questions.

Teambuild is an annual competition held in November of each year. Entries for the 2017 competition will open in June.