Data Center image showing Mechanical and Electrical Engineering by Bryden Wood

Bryden Wood’s core purpose of Design to Value underpins everything we do, including our mechanical and electrical engineering (MEP) design services. It means that we examine every aspect of every project in order to maximize what we deliver for our clients — across a wide range of value drivers. These include cost and how to save money, performance, programme time, worker health and safety, and environmental performance.

With our MEP engineering services, our principal goal is to minimize the amount of intervention required by mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems — which is key to delivering truly efficient and sustainable buildings for all code requirements.

Our MEP engineers work as a core part of our integrated project teams across multiple project types and under differing scopes, depending on our clients’ requirements. We apply detailed mechanical and electrical engineering techniques to evaluate and refine the design, prioritizing sustainability and the environmental concept. We continue into the production engineering phase and, where required, provide detailed information for fabrication and installation.

Throughout the building design process we follow a number of guiding lean construction principles, against which we test all our designs. These include:

  • Optimizing the use of materials with high carbon content to ensure that if they are used, it is always to maximum effect. Our digital design processes allow us to produce a carbon inventory of a project as it develops, leading to the new construction of more sustainable buildings.
  • Creating MEP designs that minimize the use of energy for mechanical and electrical building services, including the provision of heating, cooling, air conditioning, lighting, power and ventilation. We use highly sophisticated analytical tools to quantify precisely the energy use of a building, enabling us to make data-driven decisions on the selection of MEP building systems.
  • Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) and industrialized construction (IC). Wherever we can, we aim to make use of factory prefabrication of building elements, ranging from large primary plant modules, to small subassemblies of MEP systems.

Our Approach to Mechanical & Electrical Engineering

Design to Value requires considerable engagement and a deep understanding of the end user. Our aim is to deliver a mechanical and electrical system that provides exceptional value, performance and reliability.

3D models are the core around which we develop our designs for every project. This helps the client and design team to visualize a project and identify where economies are possible. It also helps ensure coordination between building elements.

We produce an early 3D MEP engineering model to establish a strategic approach, which lasts all the way to the point where the installing contractor adopts it for installation.

Our integrated, multidisciplinary approach to electrical and mechanical engineering gives us a unique insight into the balance between capital cost, performance and long-term operational and facilities management.

Our mechanical and electrical engineers use Building Information Modeling (BIM) to generate and manage data that maps the entire life cycle of the building, from inception, through construction, to end of life and recycling. We create models that contain not only the building geometry, but are data-rich in terms of relations, time, costs and quantities.

The result is a collaborative tool which the whole team can use, including clients and end users. We generate comprehensive and data-driven information, including construction drawings and the automatic scheduling of components.

The Proven Benefits of This Design to Value Approach Include:

  • A significant reduction in risk through improved coordination, control and flow of information throughout the design and build process.
  • Improved accuracy of cost and program planning.
  • Increased productivity and efficiency as a result of managing teams and data centrally.
  • Improved health and safety and worker wellbeing.
  • Reduced rework on site.

With our collaborative, integrated, innovative, efficient and rigorous approach we can take projects from inception to completion. We work on the relatively straightforward and the highly complex, often within the most severe site constraints.

We take enormous pride in the quality of our work and operate best-in-class quality standards throughout our designs and processes. Together with an exceptional team of electrical and mechanical engineers, this ensures we consistently deliver exceptional MEP services and results for our clients, as well as efficient, sustainable buildings that benefit our built environment and our planet.

Read more about how we Maximize Benefits for M&E using DfMA.

Read about how we use DfMA and our integrated approach to maximise returns in Data Center Design.

 

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