All Features articles – Page 216
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FeaturesWhat to specify: Housing
This week, we go through the keyhole at some of the UK’s most genteel new residences, including a Buckinghamshire country house with timber leaded windows and a rapidly rendered home in Poundbury
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FeaturesSustainability: Facilities efficiency
As construction becomes ever more energy efficient, attention is turning to facilities management to deliver greater carbon and cost savings. Phil Birch of Sweett Group examines how the purchasing and management of cleaning and catering operations can reduce a building’s environmental impact
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FeaturesFair payment charter: Cheque’s in the post
Few issues are more contentious in construction than payment practices. So will a new fair payment charter that asks contractors to commit to shorter payment times actually work - or merely add to the pile of previous failed attempts to reform the industry?
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FeaturesThis week in ... 1914
We look back 100 years to 1914 when The Builder magazine was … Looking back 50 years to 1864
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FeaturesSketch of the week: Roma football stadium
Thanks to Dan Meis of architect Woods Bagot for his sketch of the week
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FeaturesRebuilding after Japan's tsunami
Three years on from its devastating earthquake and tsunami, Japan is, for the first time, signalling that it needs help rebuilding homes and communities. For UK construction firms willing to dig in, this could mean new opportunities
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FeaturesBuilding Awards Small Project of the Year: Maggie's cancer centre, Aberdeen
With its streamlined, organic form enhancing its welcoming ethos, the latest Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre in Aberdeen, designed by Snøhetta, is a worthy winner of this year’s Small Project of the Year Building Award
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FeaturesPutting the wind up construction
Ofgem’s announcement last week that the six big energy firms face a competition inquiry has spooked the market and alarmed construction firms relying on new energy generation capacity. But are things really as bleak as they seem?
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FeaturesBuilding intelligence: Q4 2013
Data from Experian Economics shows that while construction activity levelled off in Q4 2013, for the year as a whole, activity was on the rise, with growth forecast in the private housing and infrastructure sectors
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FeaturesTracker: February 2014
Construction activity continued to increase in February and was up four points on the previous month. This represents 18 months of sustained positivity. Experian Economics reports
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FeaturesSketch of the week: A locomotive shed
Thanks to Simon Smith of Smith and Wallwork for sending in his sketch of the week
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FeaturesVideo: Make's recycled pop-up cinema
Watch how architect Make designed and built a recycled cinema at Ecobuild this year
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FeaturesTax changes for temporary site workers
In a radical move that seems bound to increase labour costs, the government is clamping down on temporary site workers claiming to be self-employed. And as if that wasn’t bad enough news for construction companies using this kind of labour, they’ve only got two weeks to prepare for the change ...
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FeaturesWhole-life carbon: Overheating
As the latest update to Part L is implemented, Juan J Lafuente of Sturgis Carbon Profiling reports on the findings of a two-year research programme into building performance - which suggest that improvements to airtightness standards could actually lead to higher carbon emissions in the UK
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FeaturesThis week in ... 1939
Over 70 years ago The Builder drew attention to that rare breed: a woman architect. Oh how times have changed …
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FeaturesCreating the Design Museum's new home
The iconic Commonwealth Institute needed a new tenant - and the iconic Design Museum needed a new home. But adapting a fragile and low-spec sixties building to house a visitor attraction meant using some serious technical know-how
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FeaturesWhat to specify: Refurbishment
Renewing existing buildings from top to bottom is easier with innovative products to suit a range of projects, from cost-effective acoustic ceiling tiles to slip-resistant flooring
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FeaturesBuilding 17: Refurbishing Cromford Mill
The historic but neglected Victorian factory buildings at Cromford Mill in Derbyshire were overdue a refurb. But decontaminating the timber from chemicals used in industrial dyeing proved a test of modern ingenuity
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FeaturesMaking steady progress
As Barbour ABI launches its latest monthly Economic Construction Market Review, Michael Dall presents highlights, including sector and regional statistics with a focus on the residential sector
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FeaturesSketch of the week: Roman columns
Thanks to Bryan Avery of Avery Associates Architects for sending in his sketch of the week