Apprentice Centre Project Brief
About:
Apprentice Centre Project Brief
Ideas for Site and Buildings
The following assumptions are listed here without a briefing by the client, they need verification & development.
Whilst the buildings are the backdrop for some very important work, they can:
- support the ambitions of the project
- or hinder its success.
The briefing process must be entirely engaged with the actors in the Apprentice Centre to ensure:
- it facilitates all the ambitions of their apprentice development programmes
- but is also flexible enough to change over time as needs evolve and grow.
The buildings are mere containers for the very important activities of the Apprentice Centre, whose primary function is help a small percentage of the population that for many reasons have lacked appropriate:
- Parental, guardian or foster care, support and guidance
- peer support rather than peer pressure
- educational guidance or training opportunities
- institutional housing provision and/or suffered because of it
this population may be:
- experientially deprived
- they may have
- physical disabilities or limitations
- mental difficulties or boundaries
- social and emotional limitations
but they all need support and help in their:
- development of social skills leading to learning skills and ultimately to employment skills
- to enable them to
- to engage meaningfully with their peers
- invite the adult world into theirs
- and when ready, to re-enter the adult world that
- Initially failed them, or left them behind
- may have suffered the brunt of their frustrations
- and to help them begin to take an active role
- and gain independence and autonomy within in it.
The buildings need to nurture the centres ambitions and inspire Centre actors, Apprentices and visitors alike
PROJECT AMBITIONS:
- To facilitate:
- emotional grounding and development
- development of social skills
- provision of training and/or education
- to a range of skill levels to suit individuals
- and as diverse a range of activities as the Apprentices can master.
Initially the Apprentice Centre will focus on the Construction Industry and in particular:
- waste minimisation through segregation for reuse, resale for reuse or recycling
- reclaimed for reuse materials and product management
- resource or materials efficiency
with the view to help constructors or construction waste handlers:
- Reduce ‘surplus to requirements’ or waste on site going to landfill
- Reduce packaging waste going to landfill, and maximise packaging returned to producers
- Encourage and adopt segregation to facilitate reuse and recycling
- Returning ‘surplus goods’ to seller to resell
- Engage with first steps toward WEEE recycling infrastructure
- Supplying ‘materials exchange’ sector for resale or gifting to charities
- Supply ‘construction reclaim’ materials to those that are engaged in reclaimed construction
- Advising labourers in ‘behaviour change’ matters
- In the ideal world they may be able to advise designers on ‘design to reduce waste’
- Recover site canteen waste to soil improvement nutrients or energy
- Recover site green waste to manufacturer mulch, topsoil from compost & subsoil and sell ‘wild turf’.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT:
There are many related areas that the project can expand into at later dates, but initially the training is to provide dedicated, focused and competent workers that can become ‘Waste Champions’ and support the profitability of any constructor or waste handling contractors as part of the bigger building supply chain.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES:
There are numerous agencies, providing skills training programmes, industry campaigns, targets or ambitions that can be adopted or aligned with: e.g.:
- Sector Skills Council Construction Skills
- WAMITAB NVQs & GNVQs
- Project NoWaste ½WtLf (Half waste to Landfill)
There are numerous examples of successful training centres to learn from:
- SmartLIFE & Hive in Cambridge
- Compass in Kent.
- Build4 Demonstration Centre near Dover
- Brighton Timber Recycling Project and 20-50 more across the UK
- Ferry Project Wisbech
The most important outcome for the Apprentice is to qualify with:
- a ‘skills passport’ that opens gates at the construction sites recruitment office
- and helps secures them a job
- where the employer is more than happy with the new recruits, dedicated ‘waste champions’,
- compared with the unskilled and uninterested labourer normally available.
PLACES TO SEE & EXPERIENCE RECYCLING IN ACTION
TEACHING THEORY IN PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS
- Site Waste Management Plans workshops
- Site layout for waste separation, reuse, recycling and recovery materials storage, lorry access
- Waste identification, European Waste Catalogue (EWC) coding
- Waste Transfer Notes, Packaging Return Note & Hazardous Waste Notes completion
- Waste Champion’s role and responsibility
- Waste Tool box talks and dissemination activity
- Learning spaces overlooking practical working spaces
SCOPE
- Waste Hierarchy
- Waste types from inert to hazardous and segregation regimes
- Construction, Alteration and Demolition soft strip and waste
- Excavation and landscape arisings and reuse
- WEEE waste and its infrastructure
- Packaging waste and return to producer procedures
- Waste minimisation activity
- Waste segregation & management methods
- Waste recording, trend monitoring, setting targets, monitoring, data updates, reporting and rewarding
PRACTICAL TRAINING
- Waste equipment:
- 2 and 4 wheel bins, sacks and skip types: gates, lids, locks and apertures,
- Vehicle types: Roll On R Off, Front End Loader, Rear E L, Skip Luger, Compactors,
- Concrete crushes and aggregate makers, wood mulchers or composting
- Static compactors, materials bulk reducers, balers,
- Sack holding frames, cutters, conveyors, chutes, trommels, etc.
- Waste container separation colour coding and labelling
- Waste monitoring methods, checklists, records, handheld computers and software
OUTREACH TO INDUSTRY
- Engaging with resource efficiency agencies: Envirowise, WRAP, NISP, CRWP, BRE, RecoVinyl, Salvo,
- Familiarity with website content: EA, NetRegs, CIRIA, SMARTWaste, Aggregain, HazRed, GreenSpec,
- Development of supply and demand chain partners for materials and recyclate resale
- Website searching for materials exchange, construction reclaim, architectural salvage sites and businesses
- Skills passport and its upkeep
- Job opportunities, activities, roles and responsibilities
- CV and letter writing, job interview techniques and practice, employer interviews at the Centre.
Apprentice Centre Project Brief
Response to Site and Context:
- Base on an A4 Black and White aerial photograph of the site in context and no further information
Assumptions:
- Based on sun shadows (but not time reference) the site may have the main road to the south +/- 90 degrees
- Based on the size of cars and other vehicles
- frontage to the main road is about 60 m
- depth of the bulk of the site is 100 m
- Prevailing wind assumed to be from south west.
Site Boundary & Context:
- East: Secondary road and business premises beyond
- South: Main road to town centre (direction east or west unknown, assume east)
- residential or commercial premises opposite, demolished building site opposite
- South west: tertiary road currently not in use buried under car parking, commercial premises opposite
- West: green space with mature trees
- North west: Industrial site, secondary road and industrial site opposite
- North east: Private house, Office or Public house and mature garden with mature trees
- Adjacent buildings assumed to 2-3 domestic or commercial storeys or single storey industrial
- Many adjacent spaces are currently used for site level car parking
- Solar access is good to the east, south and some interruption on the south west,
- Mature deciduous trees to west and north east
Response to Context
Public front to south
- A shop window for the public to see the activity of the Apprentice Centre
- An entrance to the site with access to central communal space and activities
Communal heart
- Opportunity to invite public in to meet Apprentices & for Apprentices to meet business & public
- Food and drink are a common requirement for all and one route to community activity
- Routes from backs, paths cross the communal heart, drawn to the public front and the city centre
- Alternative routes through the site can provide confrontation avoidance routes
Private backs to north
- Quiet backs for rest and relaxation: Allotment, communal garden and communal composting
- Homes away from traffic noise
Green Spaces to east and west
- Link east to west to reinforce the green corridor for biodiversity and residents alike
- Provide picnic space, outdoor sun bathing, communal garden, allotments, composting, sculpture park
- Water running though with wild ponds, natural swimming ponds and reed beds.
Buildings and Spaces
Residential spaces
- Mixture of accommodation to suit the apprentices capability related to independence
- Sheltered housing model for high dependency on support
- Co-operative Social Housing model for less dependency
- Independent living for ready to move back into society
Nurturing and People Recycling
- Womb like spaces to cradle individuals, avoiding square corners and flat ceilings
- Avoid hard and noisy spaces
- Many size spaces for different size groups for ‘talk don’t walk’ sessions
Workshop space
- Single storey one room spaces at perimeter of the site
- Flush threshold and sliding door to external working space
- Equipment on fork-lift base or drop down wheels, permitting outdoor working
Training and Workshop space
- Upper floor training rooms/meeting rooms, balcony overlooking the workshop spaces
- Observation and critique of practical work related to theory
- Weather sheltering eaves
Food and Drink
- Communal food and drink for all meals of the day for those that need it
- A place for the public to be welcomed in, for the public to be ‘trained to accept’ the Apprentices
Administration
- Office spaces, meeting rooms/training rooms.
Different Activities, Places and Buildings:
The proposed buildings are likely to contain housing, recreation spaces, training facilities with numerous supporting activities.
The housing may need to be offer many types for experience as the individuals grow in their capability:
- fully supported sheltered accommodation
- cooperative social housing
- independent living
For every one of the supporting activities there is an opportunity for another training programme and Apprentice scheme as the Centre develops
- Food, drink, café, restaurant
- Office administration
- Facilities management
- Estate maintenance
Special Places to Catch Up on life that passed you by
- A place where all manners of experiential deprivation can be put to right:
- The recreation, learning, interaction and sharing spaces may be as diverse as:
- outdoor relaxation space
- formal team sport fields, pitches or courts, multi-functional spaces, kick-about spaces
- a beach or sandpit
- allotments or garden
- a pond, stream, waterfall or fountain
- outdoor covered cinema/theatre/music amphitheatre
- gallery/landscape for art/sculpture
- shop, food, drink, café, restaurant, picnic space
Separate Activities
- ‘Living over the shop (LOTS)’ is not a desirable arrangement, the act of preparing for a days work, working to a timetable, securing and leaving the home space and travelling to work, even if it is only 100 meters, are important transitions that prepare the Apprentice for the world of real employment.
- Finishing a normal day’s work to travel home and then having time for a full and rich social life is equally important to personal development, the social life can be a mixture of site based activity with peers and can extend to trips to the nearby town centre, supervised or chaperoned as necessary.
Indoor/Outdoor Spaces:
- The premises probably does not want to be a large industrial shed without window and access to sunlight, fresh air; with pockets of activity scattered around the large floor plate, but probably smaller spaces with defined activities.
- Indoor work spaces and outdoor workspace related to each other and connected by sliding doors and flush thresholds so one can facilitate the other.
- Spaces need to include, relate to and mimic construction sites, both inside and outside conditions so there are no surprises on building sites.
Recycled and/or Green Building and Street Furniture:
These could be designed to maximise the exposition of materials with recycled content to show the remainder of a ‘closed loop’ after the segregation and recycling.
The nature of the activities could embrace and allow:
- Apprentices to become ‘Recycling Champions’ and ‘Green Champions’ for materials:
- Reclaimed for Reuse
- Segregated for Recycling materials
- Green materials
- Energy and water saving services
they could include:
- an exhibition building or space
- made of and exhibiting materials with recycled content,
- supplied free by the manufacturers
- promoted to the local construction sector.
The products used and exhibited could and should include products with other environmental or green characteristics.
Apprentice Centre Project Brief
Brief for the Image
- It could show attractive buildings, set in an attractive landscape, a residential and learning environment with leisure space and activities.
- Showing a design of a building that has not come from a briefing and design process is akin to ‘speculative developer’ approach to selling land with buildings for short term profit with no interest in the long term impact on the users.
- If is shows anything it needs to show the Apprentices and their activities at eye level and show how many activities relate to each other and how the people interact with each other to form a coherent whole of interdependence and mutual support.
- The image needs to show the site its surrounding context and the proposed buildings and its activities
- The image does not want to show the buildings as an aerial view, ‘letting agent style’ showing how big the industrial units are, but if it shows an aerial view it can focus on the grouping of the buildings, the places created between them, the activities in each of the spaces, their relationships and the relationship of the inside and outside spaces.
- Lots of places to sit and ‘talk, don’t walk’ in many different size groups and different context.
- No ‘cotton wool’ because the mild irritations need to be confronted to help prepare to cope with life’s challenges.
Text and Thumbnail Images in the main Illustration:
- To show the viewer and potential participants/funder the breadth of offering to see that the project has great potential is worthwhile for investing their own CSR time, effort and money into.
- The text can include bullet points about the things that the Construction Industry is not good at and that the Apprentices could bring to their future employers:
Teaching Theory in Practical Workshops
- Site Waste Management Plans workshops
- Site layout for waste separation, materials storage, lorry access
- Waste identification, coding and completion
- Waste Transfer Notes, Packaging Return Note & Hazardous Waste Notes
- Waste Champion’s role
- Waste Tool box talks and dissemination activity
Scope
- Waste Hierarchy
- Waste types from inert to hazardous and segregation regimes
- Construction, Alteration and Demolition soft strip and waste
- Excavation and landscape arisings and reuse
- WEEE waste and its infrastructure
- Packaging waste
- Waste minimisation activity
- Waste segregation & management methods
Practical
- Waste equipment:
- bin, 2 and 4 wheel buckets, sack and skip types, lids locks and apertures,
- Vehicle types: Roll On Roll Off, Front End Loader, Rear E L, Skip Lugger, Compactors,
- Static compactors, materials bulk reducers, balers,
- sack holders, cutters, conveyors, chutes, etc.
- Waste container separation colour coding and labelling
- Waste monitoring methods, checklist records and software
Outreach to Industry
- Engaging with resource efficiency agencies
- Development of supply and demand chain partners for materials and recyclate resale
- Web surfing for materials exchange, construction reclaim, architectural salvage, sites & businesses
- Skills passport
- Job opportunities, activities, roles and responsibilities
- Interview techniques and practice
© GBE GBC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan **
19th February 2014 – 17th January 2021
Apprentice Centre Project Brief
See Also:
Examples of Waste Management Approaches:
Site Organisation: Lean and Safe:
Adopt the ‘Project NoWaste Initiative:
- Plot process map – highlight potential problems
- Establish objectives
- Outline expectations to subcontractors, deal with disagreements, assess the SWOT of the relationships
- Set Targets (SMART – specific/measurable/achievable/realistic/timed) and agree rewards
- Carry out activities –
- start with site organisation (5S/5C/CAN DO), then apply general improvement techniques,
- g. theory of constraint/lean operations/six sigma quality
- Spot problems / rank problems / solve problems / implement solution / communicate solution
- Shared previous agreed rewards
Facilitate site teams to improve their organisation and housekeeping
Tie in with Health and Safety programmes
Link to Qualifications and skills development,
REDUCE WASTE BY BETTER SITE ORGANISATION
- Reducing Waste – Reducing Mess
- Reducing Mess – Reducing Hazards
- Reducing Hazards – Improving Health and Safety
Process mapping (at all levels) to assess value adding steps and waste bottlenecks in construction process
REWARDS: can include:
- acknowledgement,
- encouragement,
- opportunities to learn,
- bonus payments,
- specific Corporate Social Responsibility actions
TOOLS:
- SWOT of relationships: regular maintenance of relationships by reviewing:
- Strength (and hence the Opportunities)
- Weaknesses (and hence the Threats) of the relations respectively
SITE ORGANISATION 5S (5C and CAN DO use different acronyms for same actions)
- Sort – Sort out activities that cause wastes (how things are stored, working methods)
- Set – Set construction site in order and simplify systems
- Shine – Clean up and keep workplace clean and clear
- Standardise – Update working practices and keep them simple
- Sustain – make waste management part of continuous improvement.
THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS: 5 STEPS
- identify problem
- local improvement
- impact on surrounding processes
- broader-based improvements
- move onto next problem
LEAN THINKING: 4 STAGES:
- long term vision
- improve processes and procedures
- engage and respect people
- continuous improvement
SIX SIGMA: systematic reduction of variations-process mapping, 5 step process (DMAIC) to address problem:
- Define problem
- Measure impacts
- Analyse problem
- Implement solution
- Control process to maintain high quality.
© GBE GBC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan **
19th February 2014 – 17th January 2021
Apprentice Centre Project Brief
Images:
© GBE GBC GBL NGS ASWS Brian Murphy aka BrianSpecMan **
19th February 2014 – 17th January 2021
