Building social value at Temple Quarter in Bristol

Image: Claire Smith - courtesy of Buro Happold

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Claire Smith, Partner and South West Market Lead at Buro Happold will be joining our 'Innovation Cities' discussions at Deloitte in Bristol this October.

With over 30 years of structural and multidisciplinary engineering experience, Claire has worked on a wide variety of new build and refurbishment projects, including educational, cultural and leisure buildings. A strong theme of her work is the desire to produce structures that are expressive of the material properties of which they are constructed.

Claire is passionate about sharing the expertise and knowledge gained from her work on international projects with the South West market to benefit local communities. She is currently working on the regeneration of North and South Quays in the centre of Bath and the New Campus for the University of Bristol, regenerating the heart of Bath’s neighbouring city.

Claire is a Chartered civil and structural engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and an Honorary Doctor of the University of Bath. She co-authored the Institution of Structural Engineering’s book Design for Zero (a guide to reducing embodied carbon in building structures), a collaboration between Bath and Cambridge University published in 2021.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, Claire sat on the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) regional recovery task force and the Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Economic Recovery and Renewal board partnerships between the local authority, academia and business to address the challenges of the pandemic. This partnership strategy work continues at the BANES Future Ambition Board and Claire leads the Climate and Nature Theme Group.

Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus

The University of Bristol has stood as a beacon of learning since 1876. Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC), the university’s flagship development in the heart of the city, is set to extend this legacy by establishing a new home for 4,600 students and 650 staff, and transforming a once derelict industrial site into a hub for education and research.

Buro Happold has been involved with the masterplan and regeneration of the site since 2016, with Sir Robert McAlpine appointed as contractor in 2023. Due to open in September 2026 and representing an investment of around £500 million, the flagship TQEC development will also provide dedicated space for around 300 enterprise partners, as well as opening its doors to shared spaces for the wider community. 

Buro Happold describes the collaboration involved on the TQEC project:

Given the long-standing principles of learning and inclusion that TQEC is built on, it’s fitting that the site itself has become a place for education, knowledge exchange and community outreach. Working together, and with the University of Bristol, Buro Happold and Sir Robert McAlpine are undertaking a range of outreach programmes to engage communities and deliver real social value throughout the construction process. 

With skills shortages affecting every area of the construction industry, it’s vital that young people feel involved with the projects taking place across our cities. This means engaging students at the earliest opportunity so they can understand the range of careers on offer in the built environment, and experience the satisfaction that comes in shaping our world. 

Thanks to a partnership with the University of Bristol, Sir Robert McAlpine is working with local secondary school IKB Academy over three years as part of the innovative Design, Engineer, Construct! (DEC) education programme. Sponsored by the Happold Foundation and pursued using Building Bristol (an initiative by Bristol City Council), the DEC is an accredited learning programme for students aged 13-18 that incorporates practical experience and culminates in a GCSE, with options to continue to A or T level. 

“As an industry, we don’t get to the potential workforce at an early enough stage,” says Peter Munn, TQEC Project Director at Sir Robert McAlpine. “This programme means we can get students interested in the sector at Year 10 and help them understand the wide range of careers that the sector supports.” 

As well as gaining expert tuition from the Sir Robert McAlpine team, students from IKB Academy are able to visit the TQEC site for hands-on experience, enjoy sessions delivered by University of Bristol faculty members, and build links with providers across the region who offer varied pathways into further education and careers. 

Apprentices, interns and new graduates from Buro Happold’s Bath office are also invited to TQEC as part of a regular site visit programme. Aiming to educate, upskill and inspire the next generation, young engineers from across structures, civils and building services get the chance to see the project develop, experience different parts of the design and construction process, and gain practical understanding of work flow across disciplines and teams on site. 

“The great thing with a local project like this is that people can return to site a number of times to see it evolve,” says Jane Pengelly, Associate Structural Engineer at Buro Happold, who oversees the site visit programme. “The site is constantly changing, so each visit offers the opportunity to experience completely different elements in the building process – from getting reinforcements in place, to pouring the concrete frame, to the installation of MEP.” 

A number of non-technical teams have also enjoyed site visits. Departments from HR to document control have all been invited to TQEC to experience the work of engineers, and the wider project team, in action. Buro Happold and Sir Robert McAlpine have further worked together to host site visits for interested local groups, including the Bristol ICE early careers network, local built environment charity Design West, and students from the University of Bath and the University of Bristol. 

“I feel strongly that if we can bring people to site we should,” says Jane. “We’ve really appreciated the openness and willingness of Sir Robert McAlpine to open the site, and the opportunity this has given us to work together to give a variety of groups a greater understanding of the construction process, and our built environment.” 

Both Buro Happold and Sir Robert McAlpine recognise the importance of collaboration in successful project outcomes. They also understand that it takes real appreciation and understanding across teams to achieve this. To support a culture that enables open communication to thrive, they embarked on an ‘engineer exchange’ programme at TQEC which saw two building services engineers swap roles.  

Joss Lumby from Sir Robert McAlpine and Lucy Allen from Buro Happold were seconded to each other’s team for three months. Over this time, they were able to share their skills, collaborate with new team members, and experience life on the other side of project design and construction. 

“The experience has been really useful, because it’s given me the opportunity to spend time at a design consultancy,” says Joss. “This has helped me gain an appreciation for all the elements of the design that feed into what I’m delivering on site day-to-day. 

“The most interesting thing I learnt is how different MEP is on site to some of the initial design concepts. What I get the honour of delivering on site might just be one product of a hundred brilliant ideas that are thought of in the early concept stages.” 

Likewise, Lucy found real value in being able to spend more time on site. “I really enjoyed the secondment,” she says. “It’s been very interesting to see the sheer number of trades on site and the coordination required between them, as well as the knock-on impact of one element on another. 

“It will also help with my chartership, both in relation to the QA side of things and health and safety. As part of a weekly walk around on site, I became aware of health and safety concerns both in the areas I’ve been directly supervising, and in other areas on site.” 

By ‘walking in a day’ in each other’s shoes as part of the engineer exchange at TQEC, both Joss and Lucy have been able to gain invaluable insight and understanding into other roles early on in their careers. It’s the first step in fostering open, collaborative and fruitful working partnerships for the future. 

The initiatives run at TQEC by Buro Happold and Sir Robert McAlpine, in partnership with the University of Bristol, demonstrate how education and engagement can be built into projects at every stage. From programmes such as DEC and early career site visits that inspire the next generation, to welcoming non-technical teams and local interest groups on site, we can invite everyone in to play an active role in shaping our built environment.  

On a wider scale, the social value built into TQEC through forging connections between the university and the city, fostering innovation in the heart of the city, and transforming a long-derelict site into a space for social interaction and cultural enrichment, sets a standard for the wider 135-hectare Bristol Temple Quarter development.

As the UK’s largest regeneration project, Bristol Temple Quarter aims to deliver 22,000 new jobs and 10,000 new homes, alongside new public realm, and a £1.6 billion annual boost to the regional economy.