People Profile: Peter Hegarty on the Building Safety Act changes and the Principal Designer role

Peter Hegarty established and leads Chapman Taylor’s CDM and Building Regulations Principal Designer services for our clients. He is also a lead member of the in-house Technical Group and is responsible for the integration of our ISO 9001 and risk management initiatives within the design process. With 40 years of design experience as an architect on commercial office projects, residential schemes, tenant-side retail, industrial schemes and transport projects, he has particular expertise in the delivery of detailed design solutions for complex developments. Peter talked to us about the building that inspired his love of architecture, his career path, and the value he places on clients of Chapman Taylor’s Principal Designer services.

Tell me about your background and why you chose architecture as a career.

After graduating in a recession, I found short-term work at Shepherd Homes, a Yorkshire-based house-building company, before going to work for Abbey Hanson Rowe (AHR) Architects in London – there was someone I knew who played a major part in that decision to move to London, and I’m happy to say that she became my wife! Following that I worked for one or two medium-sized companies doing architectural work on office, residential, and some retail projects.

I subsequently joined MHM Partnership, doing commercial and some housing association work and later joined the director I had been working with when he set up a new firm in Covent Garden –for some of the time, it was just the two of us. I spent about 12 years there, helping design relatively large office buildings (for such a small practice) or, in the quiet periods, residential jobs, mainly in Kent, where I got a lot of experience doing executive house extensions, listed buildings in the Weald, swimming pools and so on. I learned a lot from him about meeting the required standards of work and the nuts and bolts of practice and construction. Being young, it was pretty hard to go onto the site and get what you wanted done, but I learned how to win people over, using humour and asking them to do things diplomatically. I think I am still doing that!

Where did you work after leaving university?

After graduating in a recession, I found short-term work at Shepherd Homes, a Yorkshire-based house-building company, before working for Abbey Hanson Rowe (AHR) Architects in London. There was someone I knew who played a significant part in that decision to move to London, and I’m happy to say that she became my wife! Following that, I worked for one or two medium-sized companies doing architectural work on office, residential and some retail projects.

I joined MHM Partnership, doing commercial and some housing association work, and later joined the director I had been working with when he set up a new firm in Covent Garden –for some of the time, it was the two of us. I spent about 12 years there, helping design relatively large office buildings (for such a small practice) or, in the quiet periods, residential jobs, mainly in Kent, where I got a lot of experience doing executive house extensions, listed buildings, swimming pools and so on. I learned a lot from him about meeting the required standards of work and the nuts and bolts of practice and construction. Being young, it was pretty hard to go onto the site and get what you wanted done, but I learned how to win people around, using humour and asking them to do things diplomatically.

How did you become more involved in the technical side of the work?

I had always been interested in that side of practice and had plenty of exposure to it in a small company. At this point, we started using CAD and

I learned how to use it from scratch before there were even graphical interfaces and mice. In CGL, my previous practice before Chapman Taylor, I began to take on those technical roles more and more.

I always volunteered for different types of support work, such as risk management in relation to Professional Indemnity Insurance for the firm every year, conducting technical reviews of projects, and instituting the Quality Assurance system there. My architectural projects were for Transport for London (TfL), including at Brixton, Elephant & Castle, and Rickmansworth—I had to become familiar with exacting compliance requirements for those.

When did you join Chapman Taylor, and what role did you take on?

After leaving CGL, I started with Chapman Taylor in April 2015 – they were looking for somebody to join the Technical team and also to take on the role of CDM Principal Designer (a role that came into law that year) while taking on Technical Panel duties and still doing some project work (initially at The Lexicon shopping centre in Bracknell).

The PD role involves working on behalf of clients in the pre-construction phases of a project to take control of and coordinate the work of designers from a health and safety angle – influencing the way in which health and safety-related aspects of work throughout the project are carried out. It involves the safety of workers, end-users, and visitors. What was refreshing was that Chapman Taylor embraced having a Principal Designer capability – some other architectural firms did not.

Larger developers and contractors take their duties in this regard quite seriously now, and our ability to offer them Principal Designer services from an architectural standpoint is a constructive approach. I created the firm’s Principal Designer protocols, which continue to evolve, and am shaping the role in the spirit intended by the Health and Safety Executive, which proposes involvement in the design development of each project throughout the scheme's evolution and bringing a design understanding to it.

I read everything I can about each project and understand it first as an architect, always with a view to safety and compliance. I am lucky to be involved with major projects in the office and small ones as well.

My approach is to attend many workshops and meetings to understand the whole scheme and to contribute and comment where I think there are issues. I write specific reports on particular design aspects, whether the safety of residential roof gardens or railway platform balustrades or the best way to deal with hazardous materials. More recently, I have been closely involved with the changing regulatory regime around fire, both in facades and internally, and all of the other impacts of the Grenfell tragedy.

What projects you have worked on for Chapman Taylor in this role?

I worked on a major refurbishment and extension to Brent Cross shopping centre and have been engaged in a number of cinema projects we carried out for Cineworld, including at Leicester Square and the O2 Arena. The aim is to ensure that none of the projects are memorable for negative reasons.

As well as my role as Principal Designer, I have also undertaken Client’s CDM duties on many projects – clients are bound by regulations to fulfil a number of requirements and aren’t always able to do that by themselves, so they subcontract that to Chapman Taylor (though remaining legally responsible themselves).

What else are you working on at the moment?

I am doing some work for the Crown Estate and some small retail projects in a number of shopping centres. I am also working on medium—and high-rise residential and mixed-use projects, including delivery projects for Contractors, and a number of transport and industrial projects. We are seeing the number of enquiries increasing as the implications of the Building Safety Act are realised. So, there is lots of new work undertaking both the CDM and Building Control PD roles.

I also undertake the Quality Manager role at Chapman Taylor and am closely involved with risk management in the business. We are trying to engage people much more and are working to incorporate more visual content in our technical and compliance literature so that it isn’t just page after page of text. Part of this is utilising our Sharepoint database and Atvero document management system to hold and communicate the information.

As a member of the CT Technical Panel, I undertake audits on the QMS and perform Project Health Checks, looking at all kinds of issues from reviewing construction detailing to using BIM. Our role is to ensure that schemes and layouts are compliant with regulations and good practice. We are now dealing with the changes in regulations and ensuring we can evidence all that will be required for the Building Safety Act gateways, the Golden Thread, our own competence, and the ability to work on High-Risk Buildings (HRBs). I also do CPDs (Continuing professional development tutorials) on health and safety, fire, and quality. These are useful ways of getting the message out and also ensuring that everyone in Chapman Taylor understands the latest developments and requirements. The presentations for these CPDs are joint with the other UK studios (in Bristol and Manchester) so that all three studios are learning the same things. In addition, I talk about health, safety, and well-being issues at the bi-monthly breakfast meetings at the London studio.

Do you ever get annoyed when you see poor or unsafe design/construction elsewhere?

I do, and if I see a building environment that I know is hazardous or a threat to life and limb, I will phone the local building control unit or the HSE.

How do you see your role evolving?

The Building Safety Act vision is a step change in the approach to design and construction and may well be a re-evaluation of the way Design and Build projects are put together. I think this is an opportunity for architects to have a more significant influence on the development of detailed designs in buildings, bringing a more compliance-based approach that will help curtail short-term decision-making and lead to safer, longer-lasting, and more robust and sustainable designs.

We followed the Grenfell Inquiry closely and reviewed our procedures to learn from everything revealed. The gradual development of the Building Safety Act and the associated legislation and guidance have been significant tasks that need to be incorporated into our systems. So, developing a simple approach to the Golden Thread and how this will impact all structural and fire design has been necessary. We are also looking at measures to ensure we consider all parts of the Building Regulations and can evidence this. Increasingly, we are advising clients on adopting standards and processes that will avoid difficulties, as all high-rise residential properties will need to be assessed for registration before occupation is permitted. In the end, I suspect many more building categories will be considered higher risk either legally or because some of our more progressive Clients think it would be prudent.

On a personal level, I have now joined the RIBA Principal Designer Register and am able to undertake projects both at the general project level and for high-risk buildings, covering CDM and building regulations duties. Chapman Taylor has also supported a number of other experienced personnel in following me into training for the Principal Designer Roles.

How have clients and contractors responded to Chapman Taylor’s Principal Designer work?

Having someone there whose role is to keep on top of the health and safety side of a project is important to them—the reputational damage and costs to them would be huge if something went badly wrong as a result of a design or construction mistake, not to mention the human cost to individuals impacted. Having someone with architectural skills helps with the relevance of risks and is an extra eye on the scheme's development.

Clients appreciate what Chapman Taylor does for them in this regard, both in the Principal Designer roles and the Client’s Duties roles, and it helps drive repeat business for us. It is satisfying to know that these aspects of what we offer make a major difference to the standard to which a project is delivered and to Chapman Taylor's reputation as an industry-leading company in the provision of these services.