Industry reacts to Election announcement

Construction industry bodies have reacted to the news that Theresa May plans to call a general election on 8 June. Mark Farmer, author of the government-commissioned Farmer Review of the UK’s skills shortage and CEO of Cast Consultancy, said: “Whatever... View Article

Plan early for the finish

Richard Besant is Sales Director at Powdertech (Corby) Ltd, the architectural metal finishing company. Powdertech was established in 1988 and is a leading industry supplier. Over the next few months Richard will share his views on current metal finishing issues.... View Article

Viewpoint – Nigel Ostime from Hawkins/Brown

Nigel Ostime from Hawkins\Brown gives his views on the barriers to quality in the planning and procurement process, and how they could be broken down. Architects will tell you there is intrin- sic value in good design. Quality is delivered... View Article

Editor’s Comment – April

The launch of Herzog & de Meuron’s major new 58-storey apartment block in Canary Wharf, One Park Drive, was somewhat overshadowed by some fairly stark words on Brexit from Sir George Iacobescu, chairman of developer Canary Wharf Group. Speaking after... View Article

Design for life

The concept of creating ‘generative spaces’ is leading to a significant evolution in the approach to healthcare design, according to Heather Fennimore of ergonomic design specialist Humanscale. Here she explains the thinking behind the idea. In 2003 forward-thinking American architect... View Article

What’s in a label?

While BREEAM has made significant progress in many areas of the built environment, it is struggling to have the same impact in healthcare. So is a new approach needed to incentivise sustainable design? Mott MacDonald’s UK healthcare lead Gordon Hudson... View Article

Aluminium veteran shares a lifetime of experience

Wayne Maycock is a well-known figure in the industry, which he has worked in for the past 30 years. Following a life-changing accident, the UK Commercial Sales Manager at aluminium systems company Reynaers is raising money for a new prosthetic... View Article

Ask the architects – Brexit

Brexit raises a host of questions and issues for UK architectural practices, not least on the future for their EU-national employees. Norman Hayden asked a selection of key players for their thoughts as the UK heads into a new phase.... View Article

Editor’s comment – March

It may have been a battleground since time immemorial, but recently the territory between architects and ‘heritage’ groups has seen some fierce exchanges. Added to this however have been  unusually heated words directed by architects against their peers. Never one to... View Article

Going for the ‘gold standard’

How ‘zero compromise’ do architects need to be when designing envelopes to the Passivhaus standard and are aesthetic, and other compromises necessary? Sarah Johnson reports on the challenges involved. The Passivhaus standard is often seen as the ‘gold standard’ for... View Article

The mother of invention: metal comes of age

Lee Davies from CA Group discusses what is claimed to be ground-breaking technology that enables metal buildings to compete with brick when it comes to fire protection. Over the past few years, demands on the construction industry have resulted in... View Article

Greening the envelope

Senior landscape architect at Arup, Sally Armour discusses weaving health and resilience into our cities through green building envelopes. Increasingly, the human population is becoming more urbanised – and by the end of the century it is estimated that 7... View Article

RIBA responds to Government’s Housing White Paper

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has responded to the UK Government’s Housing White Paper published 7th February 2017. Speaking today, RIBA President Elect Ben Derbyshire said: “I welcome the recognition given to good design and many of the practical and... View Article