NOVEMBER 2025CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM8INVISIBLE BUILDERS: WHY ACCESSIBILITY AND WELLBEING SHOULD BE THE HEART OF THE CONSTRUCTION SITE CULTUREBy Deniz Kayimbasioglu, Senior Design Manager, OverburyDeniz Kayimbasioglu is a Senior Design Manager at Overbury, bringing an architec-tural background and over seven years of experience as an Architectural Assistant and Interior Designer. At Overbury, Deniz oversees design management for major projects, ensuring high standards and effective collaboration between design teams, contractors, and clients, while also focusing on innovative site set-ups and design integrity.While delivering incredible, awe-inspiring schemes of architectural and interior design practices, what we often see is that the environments construction operatives work in are far from the final products they achieve through blood, sweat and tears.There are stringent regulations that architects must adhere to while designing inclusive and wellbeing-oriented workplaces such as Approved Document M. But there is a big blind spot when it comes to providing similar accommodations to the construction workers ­ with regulations of temporary site set ups primarily focusing on accessibility as a safety issue rather than also focusing on dignity. I am not denying the existence of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015; however, this is purely around safe access and egress of the workers and is solely concentrating on safety rather than inclusive design. There is no requirement that mandates a site set-up to make allowances for disabilities. There is arguably the Equality Act 2010 to refer to, however, where an invisible disability is concerned, this will require the employee to come forward putting the onus and the pressure of revealing themselves on to the employee.I do not think the industry has taken full stock of the impact an aging population will have on the available skilled workforce. The retirement age is now 68 in the UK with speculations growing that it might be increased to 74. Many skilled workers are having to retire early due to the physical strain construction work puts on them. Considering the highly physically demanding nature of the work done in construction it is not unreasonable to expect that physical health of construction workers might be affected. A report by CITB called Fuller Working Lives in Construction dated October 2018 states that a staggering 46 percent of men aged 50 to 54 said to have left construction due to ill health - looking for less strenuous employment or potentially having to retire at least 14 years before their pension payments kick in.Deniz KayimbasiogluIN MYOPINION
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