The avant garde residential development by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners has benefited from a US style facade design and procurement process developed by Wintech for the St James Group.

The process involves the development of a fully comprehensive facade design supported by structural calculations and thermal modelling by the facade engineering team before presentation to the market for competitive tendering. The process ensures that fully compliant bids are received, package separation can be implemented in a coordinated manner and overall quality is improved whilst achieving cost savings by the reduction of the risk profile of the project.

The six residential units making up Riverlight will include a collection of restaurants, bars and retail spaces sitting within the regeneration area of Nine Elms, Battersea in the heart of London. Award-winning developer, St James Group – a division of the well-respected Berkeley Group – recognised the special design skills sitting within Wintech to deliver cost advantage in a very competitive market by providing a comprehensive design consultancy service for this ground-breaking project.

The service delivers the procurement team with a full and comprehensive working design supported with a performance specification, package coordination and site monitoring services to ensure the quality of the completed facade.

With the more traditional procurement process much of the design is carried out prior to the appointment of a specialist contractor. This exposes the Client to the risks of misinterpretation of the Architect’s design and specification.  Subsequent problems are not then easy to amend, with viable solutions being limited at the time. There is also the contingent risk associated with the overall frailty of the facade subcontractor community and the need to provide a degree of continuity in the unfortunate event of their business failure. Wintech’s alternative Consultancy Design and the subsequent Consultancy Support during the manufacture and installation phases provide practical solutions that eliminate these risks and costs.