International construction services company – ISG – delivered almost 90 different structures, the most significant number of fit-out works by a single firm. This included 62 country and thematic pavilions, 10 Best of the Best restaurants, seven Local Gems restaurants, and two Food Halls. This was in addition to the Expo 2020 Media Centre, the Expo Monitoring and Control Centre, North and South Viewing Platforms, and Service Pavilions.
Scope of work
The company designed and delivered – from shell and core – 10 bespoke restaurants to house a variety of international brands with high-end kitchens to represent fine-dining restaurants at Expo 2020 Dubai. The firm designed each outlet keeping in mind the brand concept and theme of the cuisine as well as its respective culture, tradition, and branding.
ISG’s scope of work for each of the 10 restaurants included bespoke joinery, MEP, AV, security, complete kitchen fit-out, a range of floor finishes, and a mix of traditional and contemporary finishes. “For Expo 2020 Dubai, ISG delivered 10 Best of the Best restaurants, taking the design from concept to construction issue drawings in six weeks and delivering all 10 spaces within 10 weeks,” says Steve Ramsden, managing director (Southeast Asia & Middle East), ISG. “This ability to fast-track the design, build and commissioning process ranks as one of our greatest achievements in the UAE and significantly raises the bar on the market’s expectations of top tier fit-out contractors.”
The firm began construction of these bespoke restaurants from the detailed design phase, omitting shop drawings and the design development phase – which is usually provided by installers, manufacturers, or suppliers after approval from consultants – to fast-track the project. Additionally, ISG conducted collective workshops on and off-site with all the involved parties to overcome coordination issues.
Ramsden points out that they engaged directly with consultants who had the resources and the capability to create a fully coordinated construction issue design pack of information from concept. “This was specific to the 10 Best of the Best restaurants and eliminated the requirement for a detailed design phase and streamlined the entire process,” he adds.
Mitigating risks
In terms of logistics, ISG mitigated risk by engaging in daily meetings with stakeholders and maximised productivity by arranging the delivery of required materials at night. In addition, the company created a detailed delivery program to work alongside the contract delivery program, which encouraged all departments – procurement, design, and operations – to align and work collaboratively.
Ramsden adds: “We intelligently designed the projects around material availability, first locally and then internationally, factoring in freight challenges at the height of the pandemic. Of course, we had to rely on our established network to streamline delivery and factor in custom clearance of the materials we had to procure from overseas.”
He reiterates that a lot of preplanning was involved since they knew they would be dealing with an unusually high volume of mission-critical work. “We had to develop a sound understanding of the scope and break it down to smaller work packages,” Ramsden notes.
ISG’s other projects at Expo 2020
The firm had seven teams working on the Expo 2020 Dubai site, managing different workstreams, be it the national pavilions, the F&B outlets, the Expo government offices, the Expo Media centre offices or the studios, across multiple procurement routes.
ISG delivered two Food Hall (FH) projects and seven Local Gems restaurants under design and build contract, taken from the schematic design stage. The FHs were vast, turnkey spaces for two different brands. FH1 had a mix of ‘food hall’ dining as well as high-end dining, for which ISG created a clean, contemporary feel through soft wooden finishes and lots of greenery.
FH2 delves into traditional African cuisine with different themes and finishes displayed through multiple food ‘pods’ throughout the venue. ISG used vibrant aesthetics and bold, contrasting colours, patterns and textures throughout the venue, complemented by the choice of joinery finishes, signage and graphics.
The firm completed the FH projects on time by joining forces with the base build contractor and undergoing rigorous design and coordination meetings, allowing both parties to perform at full capacity without hindering the progress on either project.
HSQE awards and commitment
More importantly, Ramsden notes that HSQE (health, safety, quality and environment) was a central pillar of their business. He says that the HSQE performance was closely monitored, which created a sense of discipline and commitment on site. In response to their excellence, ISG has been commended by the Expo 2020 team for their exceptional HSQE track record on-site, including Best HSQE Manager, in the construction category, at the Taqdeer Awards.
For its work with the individual country pavilion, ISG assigned a 100% dedicated pragmatic in-house design team to each project, as each pavilion had its unique design, typical to that country with exhibition features including artefacts, display cabinets, life-size models, visual displays, interactive features, plants and retail. In addition, the firm extensively used off-site fabrication to ensure the quality and speed of component delivery and mitigate Covid-19 challenges.
“Significant resource allocation planning was key, alongside working collaboratively with our expert and trusted ISG supply chain partners. I would also add that adopting a solution-focused approach was central to unlocking the collective expertise and innovation vital to delivering these mission critical projects,” Ramsden concludes.
