Celebrating 5 Years of Stravibase

Behind my role, I’m also a wife and a mum to two teenage boys, whom I adore, but who also challenge me every day in many different ways.

I also really love to travel, and I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of it over the years. When my husband and I first got married, we moved to Dubai for work and spent a couple of years there. After that, we lived in Singapore, then Slovenia, then back in the UK, and later in Dubai again.

Because of both work and living abroad, travel has become a big part of my life. It’s something that truly makes me happy, and I hope to spend even more time discovering new places and seeing more of the world in the future.

Alongside that, I also have a strong interest in health and wellness. I try to keep myself reasonably fit and healthy, and that’s something that is important to me as well.

I think one of the biggest changes for me has been managing the UK and Ireland. I started my career as an acoustic consultant, and that was my background for most of my professional life. So, when I joined CDM Stravitec, it was already a major change for me: moving from acoustic consultancy, where we design solutions and prepare specifications, to working for a company that actually produces those acoustic bearings, springs, and other acoustic solutions.

We supply acoustical solutions to the UK and many other parts of the world. In my case, that means the UK and Ireland, where we not only deliver the solutions but also install them on site. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my role has been making that transition from a consultancy background to one focused on supply, installation, and subcontracting to main contractors. That is probably my biggest personal lesson.

As a company in the UK and Ireland — and probably globally as well — we have had to navigate many external factors over the last few years. Things like Covid, the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and, in the UK specifically, the Building Safety Act introduced following the Grenfell tragedy, have had a major impact on the construction market and on pricing.

All of this has shown us how important it is to remain adaptable and agile in order to succeed. So, for me, those are the two main lessons.

Personally, I love our branding, actually. I love the colours, I love the brightness of it, the cheerful side of it as well.

I joined CDM Stravitec in 2021. So at that point, the rebranding had just happened. So I didn't really experience so much of the original branding.

But my experience was that I guess it was probably more internal focused, like the product names, the solution names were internally focused, so everybody understood internally what they were. But now with the branding that we have, I think it's really, really clear exactly what solutions we're talking about and what works for different projects.

For example, if I were to say a Stravigym XP solution, we know the “Stravi” comes from the CDM Stravitec, “gym” is a gym solution. Everybody knows that it's a gym product that we're talking about. And then the XP stands for Xtreme Performance.

It's really easy to be able to explain that to clients and really clear to clients once it's been explained to them as well. So yeah, one of our core values is obviously partnership. And we have a strong focus on communicating clearly.

Again, Stravibase, “Stravi” is from CDM Stravitec, and then “base” is building base isolation.

In London, the Tube network runs beneath much of the city, and many buildings are constructed either above new stations or directly over existing underground lines. Stravibase solutions are designed to minimise noise re-radiating from the rails, travelling up through the ground and into the buildings above.

I was at an Institute of Acoustics conference last week in a hotel near Oxford Circus, in a conference room on the basement level. Every time the Tube passed underneath the building, we could hear the rumble in the room. It was really noticeable and very obvious. That is exactly the kind of challenge Stravibase is designed to address: minimising structure-borne noise transfer from Tube trains and preventing it from re-radiating inside buildings.

London’s tube network makes building base isolation especially relevant in the UK market. We are involved in a large number of projects where buildings are constructed above existing underground lines, as well as in developments linked to new stations, such as those on the Elizabeth line, including over-station projects.
This is already very common in London, but it may become even more relevant in the future as underground networks are considered in other cities. I recently heard that Manchester is looking at a tube network, and I believe Dublin is exploring similar plans as well. As these networks develop, and as more buildings are constructed nearby or above them, the need for effective isolation solutions is likely to grow.

I would also highlight the wider railway and tram infrastructure across the UK and Ireland. In cities such as Manchester, for example, tram networks run through heavily populated areas, and there is also an extensive railway network across both markets. In many cases, buildings located immediately adjacent to these lines also require isolation.

So, overall, building isolation is highly relevant to the UK and Irish market.

It is not so much a question of misunderstandings, but rather the fact that not everyone involved in a building isolation project always has direct experience with this type of work. For example, a developer may never have worked on a building that needed to be isolated before, and structural engineers have not always been involved in projects requiring structural vibration isolation.

In some cases, we may be one of the few parties in the project team with extensive experience in both the design and construction of building isolation projects. That includes not only understanding the design requirements, but also having practical experience on site during installation.

For us, it is therefore essential to communicate clearly and in straightforward terms, so that everyone on the design team is aligned and understands what needs to be done. This is key to avoiding mistakes and preventing delays that can arise when expectations or requirements are not fully understood.

So, it is less about correcting misunderstandings and more about ensuring that everyone involved understands exactly what building isolation means, what it requires, and the many intricacies these projects involve. Quite often, it is not only the main structure that must be considered: facades may need isolating, lift shafts may also require isolation, and other parts of the building that are in contact with the ground need to be carefully assessed alongside the full building isolation strategy.