All Features articles – Page 342

  • Rod Macdonald
    Features

    Our man in Riyadh: Buro Happold’s boss moves to Saudi

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    With a stream of UK companies looking for work in Saudi Arabia, Buro Happold decided it had do something to maintain its position as top dog. So it sent its chairman, Rod Macdonald, to go and live there. Emily Wright spoke to him two weeks after he arrived

  • Features

    What it costs: Suspended ceilings

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    The many choices when specifying a suspended ceiling for a hospital are made more difficult by the regulations on cleaning and acoustics. Peter Mayer of BLP Insurance takes a look

  • Medium-sized contractors being squeezed
    Features

    Stuck in the middle: it’s a hard life for medium-sized contractors

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    When you’re too big to be small, and too small to be big, life can be very inconvenient – as Britain’s medium-sized contractors are finding out. Roxane McMeeken reports on their predicament

  • This page and left: Sheppard Robson’s £11m lab block for Cranfield university in Bedfordshire
    Features

    Cost model: Universities

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Universities are vital in maintaining the UK’s place in the knowledge economy and have been major building clients over the past 10 years. How will higher education clients approach tougher times? Simon Rawlinson and Laurence Brett of Davis Langdon look at emerging trends in the sector

  • Hygienic wall covering
    Features

    Hygienic wall covering

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Construction Specialities has launched Acrovyn Hydroclad, a wall covering developed for use in hygienically sensitive locations such as operating theatres, hospital kitchens and laboratories

  • Mental health care facility
    Features

    No cuckoo’s nest: mental healthcare markets

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    The Department of Health is encouraging mental health trusts to invest in well-designed, user-friendly facilities for their patients. Emily Wright looks at the construction opportunities in this specialist market

  • Features

    Hospital furniture

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    David Bailey Furniture Systems was specified by architect Watkins Gray International when it required fitted furniture for a series of refurbishment projects at Great Ormond Street Hospital

  • Secondary glazing
    Features

    Secondary glazing

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Selectaglaze has installed secondary glazing in a 16-bed critical care ward at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, west London

  • Kaohsiung sadium, Taiwan
    Features

    Made in Taiwan

    2009-06-19T00:00:00Z

    This nation’s manufacturing prowess has reached new heights with the stunning solar-panelled roof of Toyo Ito’s stadium for the World Games

  • Features

    Working for the Colonel: opportunities in Libya

    2009-06-12T00:45:00Z

    Forty years of isolation has left Libya desperate for reconstruction and rolling in money. So it’s spending billions on national renewal, and if you’re clever you’ll help it out. Oh, it helps if you like coffee

  • New Acropolis museum
    Features

    A hard act to follow: the New Acropolis

    2009-06-12T00:00:00Z

    This is the New Acropolis museum, and it’s located a two-minute stroll from the most famous building in the world. So how did the architect handle that brief?

  • Features

    Hell’s clients: whatever happened to frameworks?

    2009-06-12T00:00:00Z

    Frameworks were one of Egan’s famous win–win deals: suppliers would get lots of work and clients would get their loyalty. But now clients don’t need fidelity, so it seems they’re ripping up the rules. Joey Gardiner looks at what that means for the industry

  • Features

    The tracker: Still falling...

    2009-06-12T00:00:00Z

    After the rate of decline slowed in March, activity accelerated again (slightly) in April. Goods news is thin on the ground, but things might just pick up in June and July, says Experian Business Strategies

  • 10m-tall ringmaster puppet with 11m-long arms
    Features

    Could it be magic? Take That's stage set

    2009-06-12T00:00:00Z

    Well, with its giant mechanical elephant, big top and 10m-high puppet ringmaster, Take That’s new show is certainly surreal. But who designs and builds this sort of stuff? Thomas Lane went behind the scenes at the fastest-selling show in UK pop history

  • Features

    Neighbours: Lovell and Tarmac on reaching code level four or above

    2009-06-05T00:00:00Z

    The house on the left aims to meet code level four, but next door they’ve got even loftier pretensions. Stephen Kennett reports on goings-on at a site in Nottingham

  • Features

    Council houses: return to a golden age?

    2009-06-05T00:00:00Z

    It’s not a lot, but the government has made £100m available for councils to start building homes again. So is this the start of a glorious return to a golden age?

  • Spanish firm Vicens + Ramos is a reclusive practice, but this iconic/iconoclastic church in Madrid is hard to miss.
    Features

    Exploding church, invisible architect: Iglesia de Santa Monica

    2009-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Spanish firm Vicens + Ramos is a reclusive practice, but this iconic/iconoclastic church in Madrid is hard to miss

  • Design
    Features

    Automated design: checking the regs

    2009-06-05T00:00:00Z

    So you’ve squeezed every last minute and penny out of the construction process. But what about all the frustrating to-ing and fro-ing with the drawings? Stephen Kennett meets a man who thinks he has an answer to that

  • The man sitting on the chair is George, and he has been rebuilding his house for 15 years. He also wants to redesign his body, by way of a sex change. All was going well, then there was a knock on the door...
    Features

    In control: building inspectors

    2009-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Forget Britain’s Got Talent, last week a Channel 4 documentary finally gave the unsung world of building control its moment in the limelight. Emily Wright finds out what the inspectors involved, and the rest of the industry, thought of it...

  • The Belgrade office market has shown rapid growth in the past five years
    Features

    Country focus: Serbia

    2009-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Serbia’s construction industry may not be racking up 20% growth any more, but it’s still hitting 9.5% and shows little sign of slipping into recession. Sasa Trajkovic of EC Harris marks your card