All Features articles – Page 347
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Features
Data cabling
As comms rooms become more densely populated with hardware and cabling, restricted airflows can result in more cooling requirements, more power consumption and rising costs.
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FeaturesServer cabinets
Panduit has launched the Net Access server cabinet (pictured). The cabinet is the result of a collaboration with IBM, and the company claims it provides improved performance in terms of cable management, cooling efficiency and grounding over previous generation server cabinets.
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FeaturesThe tracker: Bottoming out?
The indications are that there’s still a way to go before we’re out of the woods, but there are small signs of improvement, reports Experian Business Strategies
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FeaturesBuilding pathology: BMS systems
Building management systems give occupants control of M&E equipment at the touch of a button, but their complexity can cause problems
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FeaturesBailey’s cream: Strathclyde HQ
When M&E specialist NG Bailey set out to build its new headquarters in Strathclyde, it wanted to show what it could do to a standard spec office. Its control over the project enabled it to bring in a building of the finest green credentials
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FeaturesThe alternatives: Secure schools
Schools have to provide secure access systems, both to keep unwanted visitors out and to keep pupils in. Stephen Kennett looks at three ideas – from the simple to the really clever
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FeaturesHappily ever after
The Gus Report: Newhall in Harlow set out to marry quality design with quality of life. So how has it done? Continuing his series of visits to important housing developments, Gus Alexander celebrates something approximating nuptial bliss
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FeaturesLifecycle costs: New standard for whole-life costing for buildings
A new standard has been published that allows whole-life costing for buildings to be compared for the first time. Joe Martin of the BCIS explains how it works and applies it to a notional school project
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FeaturesBSF special: the painful upbringing of Building Schools for the Future
The troubled past of the government’s £45bn school building programme has been well documented, but there seem to be signs that it is growing into a more mature and productive client. Kicking off our schools special, Thomas Lane charts its progress. Illustrations by Max Schindler
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FeaturesBSF special: 'a plate glass window palace doesn¹t make a good school' - Chris Woodhead, former chief inspector for schools, interviewed
Former chief inspector for schools Chris Woodhead carries a big stick (he’s broken his ankle) but you wonder if he’d rather use it to thwack all those dunces who don’t get the difference between a good school and a bit of architectural frippery. Emily Wright learns more
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FeaturesBSF special: Six of the best - a review of the latest Building Schools for the Future
Design watchdog Cabe has given Building Schools for the Future designs a bit of a thrashing to date. But what of the latest crop? Martin Spring takes an exclusive look at six newly completed BSF schools – all but two designed by different architects
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FeaturesCost analysis: Sustainable schools
The government’s target is to make schools zero carbon by 2016. Sean Lockie and Ian Butterss of Faithful + Gould and BRE’s Anna Surgenor look at the costs involved in upping their green grades
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FeaturesBrislington Enterprise College: Light and airy or a prison?
The pupils of Brislington Enterprise College give their verdict on Bristol’s £34m Building Schools for the Future project. Photography by Neill Menneer
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FeaturesFlatpack schools: St Agnes primary school, Manchester
No need for wishful thinking: using solid timber panels as a construction material will bring speed and sustainability to the government’s school building programme. Stephen Kennett looks at a down-to-earth solution
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FeaturesCambridgeshire's trash palace
The Fenland pavilion made out of unwanted doors, windows, gates ... and stained glass windows
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FeaturesFirst impressions: Projects by Jean Nouvel and Westfield
Another ‘First Impression’ panellist, this time Graeme Jacquet, graduate from Oxford Brookes University, comments on five new schemes
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FeaturesThe delivery man: Robert Napier, new chair of the Homes and Communities Agency
Can Robert Napier build 240,000 homes a year and run the new government agency in the toughest housing market since the seventies?
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FeaturesEscape to victory: how SMEs can work abroad
While many of the big consultants dodge the downturn by picking up business overseas, their smaller rivals may be feeling a little imprisoned in the UK. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Thom Gibbs unearths some escape routes that work, and some that don’t
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FeaturesSun, sea and salt extraction
A British inventor, architect and services engineer have devised a system that could produce food, fresh water and energy solely through the use of solar power.
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FeaturesA year in the life of the borrowers: the credit crunch one year on
Twelve months on from Northern Rock, Tom Bill looks back at how an unprecedented series of events unfolded, leaving most construction firms residing in the pockets of their clients and bank managers …