This is a landmark moment.

A much bigger impact comes from the place, where it’s done, and bigger still is the culture imbued.. You have to take care of what people hear, what they see and what they feel..This fired our imagination about the creation of a Grand Hotel of Value.

A beautiful, relaxing place to stay for people who want to solve problems together.This could be done over breakfast, while swimming in the pool, formally in a meeting room, on the terrace, in the bar.Collisions of people and ideas in a setting where the mundane can be left in the lobby.. A frivolous thought.

Well may be, but we did not lose sight of what we felt were the opportunities of place-making and culture setting in being an important element in solving some of the big problems in the world of infrastructure.. Zoom forward several years and the moment seemed right.Work and projects in a number of business sectors had demonstrated that there is an imperative to be able to industrialise technologies faster and to do so sustainably and cost effectively.

There are proven approaches to doing this, the problem seems to be the adoption of these approaches.. Our first attempt at the Grand Hotel of Value, was in fact more of a reception.

Key client organisations in the pharmaceutical industry came together under the umbrella of Accelerate Pharma to be part of the thinking to address the opportunities.. With a great location, opposite the Watson Crick Institute, a light and vista filled room, with good food and an open and relaxed agenda and pace, this approach to cross-company, cross-sector collaboration was started..Many structural elements, such as steel beams or concrete prefabricated floor slabs, have a life expectancy which far outlasts a building’s lifespan.

By knowing these products are going to waste through the demolition of existing buildings, designers can incorporate these components into their design from the outset, using fewer new natural resources and raw materials..Instead of breaking components into smaller pieces and recycling the individual materials, reusing a component in its primary form has a higher value for sustainable construction.

It results in fewer modifications, and less manufacturing and construction.This uses fewer materials, less energy and minimises environmental impacts.