KSA studio | Meet the team

BMT: There are such big plans for development in the Kingdom, now you are there can you see these plans coming to fruition?

Joseph Corcoran: “There are huge challenges with the volume of work in Saudi. It’s unprecedented – even in comparison to the boom years of Dubai. There are over 5,000 ongoing projects in Saudi, and approximately 5,000 in the pipeline ready for award. So what we see now is likely to double in the next 12 months. The challenges that volume of work brings is that people and materials must keep up. You need skilled people and you need supply chain. If you don’t have those, you can’t do the projects. That is the challenge they have right now.”
 

^{Saudi Arabia's Development Plan - Courtesy of Knight Frank}

BMT: What do see as the key opportunities for BSBG in Saudi?

Bart Leclercq: “I think they are limitless, in terms of design, lead consultancy and post-contract. We are making a huge impression already with developers here, and many of them seem aware of the qualities we have. We have now moved into our Riyadh office in Moon Tower, and it’s a fantastic central location.

“In terms of construction supervision, we are regarded as one of a few practices that can really push home that level of quality here in the Kingdom. Developers have seen the quality we have overseen, when you look at Bluewaters Residences, The Opus, The Beach and ICD Brookfield Place - these are world-renowned projects we have delivered. The service we provide is world-class, and our post-contract team is going to make a huge contribution.”

 Joseph Corcoran: “There are some top tier contractors here, able to deliver these fast-track projects to the quality the clients expect. For our part, we are setting the bar in terms of quality and safety. When we first arrived, we worked hard to get HSE and QA/QC up to speed, and for me these important components have noticeably improved. It’s a learning curve as it’s such a new thing.” 

James Finch: “We’ve made a huge commitment to the market here, deploying some of our best resources to the Kingdom for these projects. I have seen the BSBG team grow substantially since I arrived, and we were very pleased to see Senior Architectural Technologist Christian Liebenberg also arrive from the office in Vietnam. We are all working together from our office in Moon Tower, and from the site offices. I see only positive things for BSBG in KSA, and it’s very exciting for us to be the first staff here, paving the way so that others may follow.”