Name: Ivan Anthony Fluin MCIOB
Employer: Kier Southern
Project: Sunrise Senior Living, Chorleywood
Contract: JCT 98
Hard work, sheer determination and natural ability have brought Ivan Fluin a long way from hod carrier to project manager. Those qualities have been equally beneficial to his projects, with his completion of this one a fortnight early a particularly impressive achievement given the client already had a finely honed template for building upmarket residential care homes.
Having worked together on many previous schemes, the client team knew its product inside out and had well-documented procedures for all work elements. Ivan rapidly established himself as part of the close-knit group.
Resolved to master the client ethos and identify its project expectations, Ivan immersed himself in its previous projects. He videoed various schemes and took many reference photographs, which proved invaluable in the later stages of the project.
Armed with this research and his broad experience of construction techniques, Ivan had the confidence to challenge the well-established design. He value-engineered the packages, introducing new materials and construction methods.
One such success was thin-bed blockwork for internal walls, which allowed whole floors to be completed and protected far more quickly and reduced materials wastage. And his introduction of bathroom pods guaranteed quality and cut the number of skilled workers required onsite.
He handed over model rooms five weeks early by procuring the key subcontractor and supplier packages as soon as possible. Ivan benchmarked their performance on the rooms to address areas of potential weakness in the programme and the trades themselves. The lessons learned were vital in the successful delivery of the entire project two weeks earlier than programme.
As well as maintaining his career-long respect for peers and colleagues, Ivan showed a sensitivity to local residents that aligned well with the client’s business model of siting schemes in established residential areas. He firmly controlled parking for site workers, prioritised the access needs of two houses landlocked by the site, and introduced non-displacement piling to greatly reduce the amount of waste removed from the site as well as the noise generated.
Ivan’s success is clear. He delivered the quality expected in a shorter time than scheduled, laying the foundations for a strong, long-term relationship with the client.