Bicycle Race! (ding ding, ding ding)

On Wednesday, we had an opportunity to truly meet our purpose of making life better, as we waved 101 bikes onto a shipping crate, heading for a plane, heading for the Gambia. Confused? Allow us to elaborate...

_space group has been working with Catcote Special Business and Enterprise College, in Hartlepool, since 2008, when we met them as one of five student companies we invited into Spaceworks for a series of business and enterprise workshops as part of the Young Enterprise North East Company programme. The students and teachers got a lot out of their time with us, were able to use our advice to enhance their business, and even saw one of their students go on to win an award from Young Enterprise North East later that year.

Ever since then, we've kept in touch with one another, and when we saw their latest venture, bike reconditioning business 1.2. Free Bikes, at the Young Enterprise North East annual trade fair in February, we couldn't resist working with them again. We suggested that if they were able to recondition 101 bikes, then we would sponsor the bikes to be sent to Africa, complete with Catcote/_space group pink stickers on them.

The team rose to the challenge and Wednesday saw the re-named 1.2. Free Bikes 4 Africa, putting the finishing touches to their fleet of bikes at Hullavington airfield in Wiltshire. The six students and two teachers involved were able to sticker and examine each of the 101 bikes, ensuring that they safely joined 262 other bikes and an assortment of school equipment heading for the Gambia, courtesy of charity Jole Rider.

We all felt that watching the lorry transporting a crate containing hundreds of bikes and pieces of equipment that would eventually make life better for hundreds of children who aren't lucky enough to be born with the same advantages that we are was a privilige. For Catcote's part, they are even more eager to get on with the job and recondition more bikes, which they hope will go to Africa. With agreements in place from a number of companies in Teesside, including Hartlepool Police, we don't think they'll be short of offers. From _space group's point of view, this is why we exist - it is great to know that the _space effect is being felt worldwide, and that we can help to create sustainable communities not only in the UK, but across the world.

The team (from left to right): Paul Snowden, 16, Kirsty Robertson, 16, Terence Elner, 17, Christopher Gleeson, 17, Scott Bates, 16 and Tiffany Partington, 16.

Row, Row Row Your Boat...

_space group has a proud tradition of participating in the range of events laid on by the construction industry, from corporate golf days to networking breakfasts. None however, has caused more of a stir than the relatively new phenomenon of Dragon Boat Racing. In it's first year, our brave North West office, situated in the heart of Manchester, decided to try their hands at it.

The _space group team was raring to go...

More than 30 teams from across the North West Construction industry took part in the challenge, which was held on a rainy day in June, at Salford Quays. _space group's team was led by the indomidable Nigel Pilkington, Associate Director, and although the team was two 'men' (being a 50/50 male/female split) down, everyone put in a lot of effort and _space group gave it 100% in each of their heats.

The team takes their places...

After completing our first heat at a time of 68.65, the team felt it had done very well...until finding out that this unfortunatly ranked us fairly low on the scoreboard. In point of fact, it ranked us last.

Spirits were lifted after two fellow teams capsized, and it looked like, after some last minute coaching just before our second heat, the team was set to improve on its time. At a time of 68.92 however, this proved not to be the case and this helped to propel the team to an overall ranking of last!

What we took away from this event was that, although we work together as a team every day, and we like to set the pace in everything we do when working on a project, there are some times when 10 rugby players will win out over a team of eight, less than fit, _space people. To this end, we are planning on hiring some incredibly active architects who act as fly halves in their spare time!

We've had a ball

_space group's Directors get ready for one of the 'must attend' nights of the year in Newcastle.

Friday 14 May saw the fourth annual charity ball we've thrown in Newcastle, and we're happy to report that we raised £20,250 for this year's chosen charity, Children North East.

The Think Pink ball, which is supported by _space foundation, is turning into one of the 'must attend' nights of the year in Newcastle, and this year was no different, as over 200 members of the construction industry turned out for a night of fun and frolics in the name of raising money for a good cause.

This year, the focus of Children North East's fundraising effort has been the WEYES project. WEYES (West End Youth Enquiry Service) was set up by Children North East for young people aged 11 - 25 to offer advice, information and support on a number of issues, from employment and training, to education, health and relationships. While a valuable project, the WEYES building was in need of TLC, in the form of renovation and extension, and _space group has stepped in, agreeing to renovate and extend the building, so that young people in Newcastle have a great space that they can visit when they’re in need of some advice. While we're supplying our services for free, there are other costs associated with a project like this and the Think Pink ball has gone a long way to helping to pay those costs.

We'd really like to thank everyone who came last Friday, and supported Children North East and the WEYES project. We hope you had as enjoyable an evening as we did, and we look forward to seeing you all again for this event next year.

On site at Constructionarium 2010

_space group Associate Technical Advisor, David Savage, at Constructionarium 2010

_space group feels strongly about aiding the development of students preparing to join the industries in which we work, and investing in future skills. One of the ways we help is via Constructionarium - a five day working field course based at former air base RAF Bircham Newton, King's Lynn, designed to provide a practical experience of construction for students.

Several universities send groups of students to Constructionarium to understand what it's like to work on site and help them to prepare for the construction industry. _space group has been acting as technical advisors for students from Northumbria University taking part in the project this year. David Savage, our Associate Technical Director, spent last week at the Constructionarium site with the Northumbria University students, advising them on their four projects - 1:10 scale versions of the Swiss re building (better known as "The Gherkin"), the canopy roof and access shaft for Naples Airport Underground Station, the Barcelona tower, and a scaled down version of the Millennium Galleries project in Sheffield. Below is a short diary he kept on the construction of each project.

Project 1 - The Swiss re building/"The Gherkin"

Day one, Monday 26 April:

The students dug an excavation hole to the underside of the foundation level. They installed formwork for the core base and started to assemble the diagrids that give the building its distinctive shape. These will be added into place later on in the week, in large sections, rather than individually.

Day two, Tuesday 27 April:

Flexible plastic formers have been used to form a run for the concrete base and despite a substantial amount of timber propping, these formers have been found to not be strong enough and has led to the first concrete pour for the base of the structure becoming deformed. The students have also had to contend with a lack of concrete, and schedule an urgent delivery for the morning.

Day three, Wednesday 28 April:

The second concrete pour has been completed, and due to the deformation caused by the plastic formers, the dimensions have been checked and re-checked to ensure that the foundation could support the diagrid baseplates. The results were positive and the students have been able to mark out the baseplate positions for the diagrid structures to be fitted to the foundations.

Day four, Thursday 29 April:

Despite experiencing more problems with broken drill bits, the students have been able to hoist the upper floor diagrids into place and bolt them to the base frame. They used a scaffold and crane to achive this and worked until 6.30, past the end of their working day, to ensure they were on schedule to complete the next day.

Day five, Friday 30 April:

The project was completed at approx. 3.30 pm. Despite some problems, the students have worked hard to pick themselves up and get on with the job.

All the students celebrate successful completion of "The Gherkin"

Project 2 - Millennium Galleries

Day one, Monday 26 April:

The students have prepared excavations for foundations and formwork of the structure.

Day two, Tuesday 27 April:

Concrete for the structure has been cast and the students have completed construction of the shutters. They've also tied lifting hoops to the reinforcing cages so that they can avoid the risk of the hoops pulling out - a problem last year's students experienced.

Day three, Wednesday 28 April:

The students have prepared the shuttering for the roof section, in preparation for casting the roof in one piece.

Day four, Thursday 29 April:

Pre-cast walls end walls have been lifted into place. The students have had to break out part of the foundation to accommodate one of the walls as a result of the foundation former moving slightly on day two.

Day five, Friday 30 April:

Project completed mid-afternoon.

Project 3 - Naples Airport Underground Roof

Day one, Monday 26 April:

The first set of precast rings are in place and the excavations for the ring beam completed. The structure's timber ribs have all had baseplates fitted.

Day two, Tuesday 27 April:

Precast rings have been placed and sunk. The students have also placed reinforcement and column formers into the structure.

Day three, Wednesday 28 April:

Students have sunk the precast rings to the correct depth, set the scaffold rails and poured concrete to the columns.

Day four, Thursday 29 April:

Baseplate holes have been set out and drilling for fixings carried out. However, some of the columns are out of position and this may be due to the movement of the concrete during its placement yesterday, as the formers were not held at the base.

Day five, Friday 30 April:

The students completed the project by mid-afternoon.

The completed structure

Project 4 - Barcelona Tower

Day one, Monday 26 April:

The project has proceeded well, despite some survey equipment not being available on the first day. The students haven't let these problems delay them and have instead used trigonometry and tape measurements to set out their project.

Day two, Tuesday 27 April:

Central column based and reinforcements were put in place. The students also continued with the pre-fabrication of the external metal structure (started yesterday), which was a complex and very time consuming process.

Day three, Wednesday 28 April:

A scaffold and shuttering were both erected and two seperate pours of concrete were completed. The students also cast the perimeter foundations for the cable ties and provided temporary props for the central column.

Day four, Thursday 29 April:

The scaffold was lifted and the final pour of concrete for the central column cast. The students were also able to add external features - a _space sign and seating, painted "_space pink".

Day five, Friday 30 April:

Shuttering was struck, the scaffold adjusted, main structure lifted into place,tie cables installed and tensioned. By mid afternoon the shuttering was removed and the project completed.

To see more images from the week, check out our flickr uploads - http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Constructionarium. We've also got video footage of the site, which we're currently in the process of editing. We'll be putting this footage up on our youtube channel shortly, so watch this _space for more on Constructionarium.

Political _space

The leaders of the big three - Brown, Cameron and Clegg. But who will be the next PM? Image from www.politics.co.uk

At _space group, we're always keen to engage with the world around us, and when one of our people was offered the chance to get involved in the election from the ground up, she jumped at it.

Danielle Gibson, our Communication Coordinator, got the chance to sit in the audience of a BBC Look North Question Time election special and question Nick Brown (Labour), Sir Alan Beith (Liberal Democrats) and William Hague (Conservative) on their views on the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and what their parties’ plans would be with it after the election.

Danielle said: "It was great to be able to discuss a matter that directly affects me, and _space group, with some of the people who will be charged with decision making in the months to come, and I liked having the chance to get some honest answers from the party representatives.

"Each party representative agreed that education was important, but didn't give any clear indication about their level of commitment to BSF going forward, so whatever party gets handed the keys to number 10, that's something that we'll be watching very closely.”

The TV show, chaired by Look North's Richard Moss, also saw the political candidates questioned on their parties' thoughts on regional jobs, healthcare and transport, with some interesting debates had, particularly with regards to making the A1 North of Morpeth a dual carriageway (all three parties agree that it should be done...but that the money to do it would be hard to come by and that it must be done in stages) and the handling of the Corus closure on Teesside.

Danielle continued: "It was also interesting to hear their different perspectives on jobs in the North East and how people would be affected by the inevitable public sector cuts. As I'm sure you can imagine, Nick Brown and Sir Alan Beith were keen to ensure that government took an active role in ensuring that people who stood to lose their jobs as a direct result of the cuts were helped by the government, while William Hague felt that the government's role was to provide help to the private sector, to make sure they could pick up the slack."

Members of the Green Party, UKIP and the BNP were also offered the chance to give their opinions on these key regional subjects, although, some (notably the BNP representative) managed to show the murky side of their political values.

There are already rumours that Hollywood may come knocking on Danielle's (or "woman in the tartan dress" as she was referred to by Richard Moss on Tuesday) door in the not too distant future. With this, and an extras part in Byker Grove behind her, we're sure she'll be up there amongst Kate Winslet and Judi Dench in no time.

To watch Danielle's starring moment, log onto http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s8qct/Election_2010_The_Look_North_Debate/ , where the debate will be available until May 7.

SPACE GROUP DEEMED OUTSTANDING AT STAFF ENGAGEMENT

_space group celebrate their success.

National architectural firm _space group has shown that it is ‘outstanding’ at motivating its people after being accredited as one of the top companies in the UK by the company behind the Sunday Times Best projects.

The company, which employs 140 people across its network of offices in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, has become one of just 140 companies in the whole of the UK to be recognised in the 2010 Best Companies Accreditation survey.

_space, which operates across six sectors providing a full range of property related services, has been awarded two stars for displaying ‘outstanding’ levels of staff engagement. _space group is hopeful that based on its Best Companies ranking in 2010, that it may also be awarded a place in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For list this year, with the results announced towards the end of February.

Best Companies Founder and CEO Jonathan Austin said: “We would like to congratulate _space group on their outstanding achievement. An engaged workforce is essential as organisations move out of the recession and into a more stable economic situation. “No doubt many organisations have tackled redundancies and rapid change this year but organisations like _space group that have kept on engaging their staff and making sure they are involved in the business will be in a good position for the future and should be congratulated for their efforts.”

A record 1,086 organisations from the private and public sectors applied for Best Companies Accreditation this year, showing how high a priority staff engagement is. As the name behind The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For lists, Best Companies conducts the largest employee engagement survey in the world having received nearly one million survey responses from more 3,000 different organisations.

_space group chief executive said: “With so many other things going on in the economy it would be easy to take our eye off investing in our talent. However, we are working as hard as ever at sustaining our company culture where our people feel valued. This goes from really simple things like referring to everyone as _space people, rather than staff, all the way through to encouraging people to take part in initiatives such as lunchtime yoga sessions and playing on the company’s pool tables.

“Talent engagement is not a project, it is something we work on all year, every year and we are delighted to have had that recognised by Best Companies.”

Best Companies established the accreditation award scheme to acknowledge excellence in the workplace. Based on staff feedback, it looks at employee engagement as an integral part of a company’s success and growth, and sets a benchmark for other employers. The accreditation scheme follows a Michelin star style system with companies awarded one star for first class, two stars for outstanding and three stars for extraordinary performance.

MIKE MAKES SPACE IN HIS LIFE FOR ALPACAS

Mike Douglas with two of his alpacas at his farm near Hexham, Northumberland.

THE executive chairman of Space Group is turning his thoughts from architecture to alpacas as he takes semi-retirement after spending almost four decades with the top Tyneside firm.

Mike Douglas, who has worked for Newcastle-based Space Group (formerly known as Waring and Netts) since 1972, is stepping down from his role as executive chairman to devote more time to his 88-acre alpaca farm at Fallowfield near Hexham, Northumberland.

From January, Mike will take on a consultancy position as non executive chairman of the business to spend more time developing his alpaca and fleece business with wife Melanie, breeding a top quality herd with world class Australian bloodlines and genetics.

The ultra-fine and soft alpaca fleece produced by Fallowfield Alpacas is processed and turned into yarn, which is then made into a range of products from children’s clothing to duvets and pillows.

Another web-based business, selling high end designer baby and children’s clothes from alpaca, is being planned for launch in autumn 2010.

Mike, who became a partner in 1985 and chairman of Space Group in 2007 when it was incorporated, said: “During my time as an architect I have worked on a wide range of projects including Blyth Community Hospital, Newcastle Hospitals PFI and the recently completed Redcar Community Hospital.

“In 2008, the business successfully rebranded to Space Group and in the last 10 years we have seen controlled organic growth, opening offices in Leeds and Manchester, and completing projects across the UK as part of the strategic drive towards being a national market leader.

“The business is in good shape with a strong brand and culture, led by a talented and focussed team, and I feel the time is now right for me to step back to allow more time to pursue other interests and spend more time with my wife and family.

“As well as the alpacas, I will also be supporting the running of our five star luxury B and B, which has had a successful first year, and will hopefully find enough time between all this to play some tennis and catch a few salmon in the Tyne.”

Space Group chief executive Rob Charlton said: “Mike’s contribution to the business over the last 37 years has been considerable and while we are sad that he is stepping back, we are thrilled he’s agreed to stay on with us in a non-executive capacity, not least so we can keep up with what’s going on at the farm with those alpacas.”