All Features articles – Page 559
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FeaturesThe Fight for survival
Who needs competitors when your friends in the insurance industry can put you out of business with a single phone call? Matthew Richards reports on construction's increasingly untenable position – and how it can find a way out
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FeaturesSoho fabulous
Lifschutz Davidson's swanky revamp of 20 Soho Square should appeal to the area's media types – and, like the Ab Fab girls, it has squeezed a lot into a small space …
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FeaturesMidnight express
Heathrow Airport is so busy that it could only spare a two-hour window in which to move a 330-tonne link-bridge two miles across runways and into its intended slot. Andy Pearson joined a night-time convoy with one question on its mind: will it fit?
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FeaturesCubic feat
Architect SpacelabUK has designed a stark, geometrically pure house that sits on the Cambridgeshire countryside like a square drawn on a very flat line …
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FeaturesConcrete recast
With prefabrication coming back into style, a radically revised production system could finally free precast concrete housing of its negative associations.
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FeaturesPenalty clauses
Signing up with a football club client? Watch out for prima donna chairmen and financial trick shots. Phil Clark reports from the sidelines on the pitfalls of building a stadium.
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Plaudits for audits
Post-Enron, is the annual audit worth it? Yes, if it's used as a business-wide health check
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Don't ask, don't get
It's that crucial moment in an interview when you get your chance to ask something … Victoria Madine suggests 10 questions that are bound to impress
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Features
Five ways to tackle Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) affects one in 10 people during the winter months. Good lighting at work can help counter the symptoms of SAD – which include headaches and depression – and can increase employee productivity all round.Discuss the problem Ask staff, or consult an expert, to identify workspaces that ...
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Features
Industry to urge DTI to crack down on labour agencies
Frustrated construction leaders will demand an end to unscrupulous working practices at high-profile summit.
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Features
Galliford Try's construction chief quits
Deputy chief executive Marsh leaves as firm issues profit warning.
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Features
Just the job
Louise Frostick, senior designer at Inspace Complete, tells Victoria Madine about the highs and lows of working for a fledgling interior design company
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FeaturesHouse of horrors
Converting an 18th-century mansion into a luxury hotel is almost bound to be a hairy encounter with the past. But when centuries' worth of slapdash extensions and interventions have taken their toll on the building's structure, then even a crack in the wall can spook you …
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FeaturesPeter Gershon
Hired to overhaul government procurement, Peter Gershon is a huge fan of the PFI. But, as Marcus Fairs found, the chief executive of the Office of Government Commerce is uncomfortable singing its praises.
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Tender price forecast: Remaining immune
The UK stock market slumped in May and then launched itself on a rollercoaster ride. But this hasn’t affected building tender prices or new orders, which on the whole are continuing their inexorable rise. Davis Langdon & Everest explains why, and what will happen next
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FeaturesAn urban renaissance has arrived at paddington and it's wearing bicycle clips
For centuries Paddington has been paralysed by high-speed transport, and many are the developers who've looked at it and despaired. Now adroit planning, distinguished architecture and the humble bicycle are delivering a model regeneration.
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Crackdown: Construction takes on the labour agencies
For years, dodgy labour agencies have been bringing illegal immigrants on site, avoiding tax and even terrorising the contractors they are supposed to be helping. Tom Broughton reports on an industry that has had enough – and is gearing up to fight back
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FeaturesA special relationship
Reebok was so set on making its flagship UK sports club the mirror image of its US chain that it insisted its fit-out contractor use American workers and materials. Cue much head scratching, jargon translation and getting used to strange building practices – like no tea breaks … Thomas Lane ...