ABOUT US
A multi-disciplinary technical consultancy
Brand Consulting Engineers Ltd is a multi-disciplinary technical consultancy specialising in civil, structural and infrastructure engineering providing professional advice to its clients.
Our key objective is to understand our client’s aspirations, and develop bespoke co-ordinated solutions through working with the client and team members. We provide a personal service, focused on delivery of the client’s needs. This is achieved through a strong technical base, innovative solutions, co-ordination with other disciplines, and recognition of programme and budgetary constraints.
Our client focus approach creates true quality and best value from our technical advice, design skills and creative solutions.
Brand Consulting Engineers Ltd has evolved from the original practice of Fredrick J Brand, founded in 1950. The practice currently has offices in Chelmsford, Upminster and London to provide a comprehensive consultancy service throughout Southern England. The practice also has an associated company; Ross & Partners, also based in London.
Brand Consulting has considerable experience in the design of building structures and infrastructure works including residential property, office buildings, shopping centres, retail parks, industrial buildings, education facilities, roads, bridges and drainage. A significant proportion of the work undertaken is for contractors working for clients on Design Build projects.
The Practice has been commissioned directly or indirectly on a large number of mixed residential projects throughout Greater London and the Home Counties on projects ranging in value up to around £900m.
Brand Consulting Engineers Ltd. operates a Quality Assurance office management system and achieved ISO 9001 accreditation in February 2008. The Practice has a comprehensive library of software both for design and production of the drawings and electronic interchange of information and drawings.
Director
Julian P. Brown
Technical Directors
Gareth J. Webber. MEng, CEng, MICE
Derek W. Roast.
Associates
Neil Brockman.
INNOVATION
Brand Consulting Engineers Ltd. is a firm that care for the built environment, its quality and sustainability, and we have a broad understanding of the art of the possible. We believe in the predictive power of engineering and use this to bring together steel, concrete, stone, brick, timber, iron, aluminium and structural glass – a palate of materials whose potential we know how to exploit.
The practice has a reputation for imaginative and innovative design solutions to both straightforward and complex structural problems. At scheme design stage an ‘option appraisal’ is undertaken to identify and evaluate alternative solutions before deciding on the most appropriate. This activity is carried out in conjunction with the other design team members in order that the potential benefits/drawbacks are properly considered.
This process may include:
- Interrogation of the design to integrate the structure with the building fabric and servicing
- Incorporation of creative design solutions to achieve the architectural requirements of each project
- Development of initial options taking into account layout, plans, ground conditions, topography
- Development of integrated Sustainable Urban Drainage (iSuDs) networks, to achieve authority sustainability targets.
- Review and ‘interrogation’ of design solutions at key stages
- Collaboration with the architect to identify how the building fabric and structure can be co-ordinated/combined (eg bracing, cladding, floor screed/structure etc.)
- Use of the structure for other functions, including service and distribution (eg heating / cooling, conduit routes etc.)
- Provision of ‘soft zones’ in the structure to accommodate future modifications
- Provision for natural ventilation, solar screening etc.
VALUE ENGINEERING STRATEGY
A value engineering exercise will be implemented on the Project and will be developed from the following requirements:
All key members of the Design Team and other relevant Professionals will be involved in the value engineering exercise that will be carried out during development of the Design Proposals.
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
All project work is carried out in accordance with the Group’s Quality Manual. These include Management of Projects, Administration and Continuous Improvement.
At the commencement of each project the relevant key staff are identified and assigned to the team. These include the Project Director, Project Manager, design team members plus technical support and technical review team.
A key input is the project programme. From this an activity based chart is developed which may be used to establish and monitor resources, progress, information flow etc. The plan also includes organisation and interface charts, technical input statements, checking strategy, ‘change’ control, client satisfaction and project review.