Heatherwick’s call to action
Thomas Heatherwick's call to action on humanising construction and buildings https://humanise.org/
The Project Profession
… perhaps 2025 could be the year that this situation begins to change, and that recognition of the value of “the Project Profession” begins to seep into the thinking of procuring bodies throughout the Hong Kong (and wider, regional) construction industry. Clients, employ a project professional to lead your next project, and see the difference it will make!
Lecturing on Risk Management
Mark has spent his Friday nights for the last two months delivering a series of 2-to-3-hour lectures at Hong Kong University, on many aspects of Risk Management in Construction to the students working towards a Masters in Construction Project Management.
Professionalism in Project Management
It was really encouraging to have Prof (Dr) Adam Boddison OBE visit Hong Kong this week, delivering a positive message about the Association for Project Management (finally) pursuing an ambition to be truly global. Since its establishment as a branch in 1991, the GBA Network has been active in promoting professionalism in project management in the region. With a renewed impetus, we look forward to making greater progress towards the recognition that the project profession truly deserves.
Technology versus Behaviour in site safety
We spend a lot of time and resource these days on the promotion of technology on HK’s construction sites. Much of this is geared towards productivity, but increasingly it is focussed on worker safety.
Modular construction
There are many parallels with this NYT article as HK pushes to increase the adoption of MiC, from regulation, through designing beautiful modular homes, to production-at-scale.
West Kowloon Terminus topside
Having been a PM at MTR for the design and construction of the West Kowloon Terminus, the topside development above was at the time somewhat undefined. I was at WKT a couple of weeks ago, and it is great to see the topside development now taking shape. Looking forward to exploring it on completion.
Can designers really influence construction productivity?
Can designers really influence construction productivity?
WKCD Integrated Basement Progress
Having been a PM at MTR for the design and construction of the West Kowloon Terminus basements, it is exciting to see that WKCDA are making progress on the enhanced design for the IB & UR across the undeveloped phases of the site.
Data quality
I had a very interesting discussion over the CNY holiday, with a friend who is not in the construction industry, about data quality and how this is fundamental as we all hurtle towards our AI-enabled futures.
I started to wonder what we could do to change our ways of working to enable easier data capture and collation on construction projects, which seems a long way off for many in our industry, before we can even begin to assure our data quality. That's why we need to make data and data management a key component of our project planning. Now.
Gowan Projects can help you achieve this on your projects. Get in touch and let's discuss how.
PMI Infinity
It has been interesting to take part in the testing of PMIs' Infinity and comparing against ChatGPT in the structured trial. Currently non-PMI members can use PMI Infinity, give it a try at https://infinity.pmi.org/
Professional Project Management
There were some great discussions at and around the ULI Seminar and the Lighthouse Club Conference in January 2024, highlighting the many challenges and opportunities we have ahead. There were also lots of mentions of the need for professionalism in project management, and yet we still have a long way to go to make this a reality in Hong Kong’s construction sector. Without improving our management of projects, the huge volumes of work from the upcoming Government and MTR portfolios, amongst others, will not be delivered as well as they might.
It is encouraging to talk to various heads of government departments and understand their commitment through visits to and training with the UK’s MPA and other organisations. However, as of today, there appear to be only 2 PM’s in Hong Kong holding APM’s ChPP Chartered designation. Can that be right? How can we improve the take up of this outstanding professional standard?
If you would like to know more about how a professional project manager could help improve your project outcomes, contact Gowan Projects to arrange for a chat.
Decarbonise 2024!
As an industry we can and should all contribute to decarbonisation in 2024 and beyond …
Risk Management
I just finished delivering a series of lectures on Risk Management to the MSc students at Hong Kong University …
Gowan Projects launched
As we start 2023, I have launched Gowan Projects, a consultancy that aims to improve your projects by applying my experience and passion for projects.
Talk to me about how we might be able to improve your projects.
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