Davies Maguire are excited to have become members of The Engineers Reuse Collective, an important new initiative looking to promote reuse of materials and structures in the built environment. Having attended the inaugural event in February and the recent meeting on steel reuse, we look forward to getting more involved and being part of this push to change perspectives and encourage collaboration in the industry.

The steel reuse meeting was particularly eye-opening: it was fascinating to learn about the significant surplus of tubular steel sections resulting from the decline in the offshore oil and gas industry, and the fact that stockists such as Cleveland Steel are currently storing enough tubular sections to supply the UK market with enough columns for a year! The use of unusual or non-standard sections can present challenges, such as the design of connections, but we shouldn’t let this rule out their use.

Deconstruct (UK) Ltd also demonstrated the innovative approach of jacking up an entire floorplate to adjust the floor-to-ceiling height in a refurbishment, thereby avoiding the need to replace steel columns with taller sections. These insights have been shared with our wider team, and we look forward to incorporating them into future projects.