All Features articles – Page 635
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Features
Cost model: Value for money
How can the project team identify the client’s needs at the start of a job? This cost model examines the techniques that can help firms define client requirements and develop solutions that add value to a project
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Features
The effect on non-domestic construction
Is the end of the transparent building nigh? Designs such as Foster and Partners scheme for the glazed fencing mask, also known as the Greater London Authority headquarters, could become a thing of the past if performance standards to avoid solar heating are introduced. The changes in the regulations aim ...
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Features
Clean living
The Peabody Trust's zero-energy BedZED project in south London is a model for sustainable communities, as well as a useful guide to how designers can meet revisions to the Building Regulations.
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Coming to blows
All contractors, large and small, get into disputes at one time or another. This multimillion-pound struggle shows how overconfidence and haste can get even the biggest into a pickle.
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Appointments
Contractors Construction contractor Snape has promoted Robert Bath to commercial director. Construction contractor Allen has promoted Neville Colvin to regional director for the Midlands and the South-west.Northern contractor Totty Construction has appointed Mark Peatfield construction director. Clugston Group, the Scunthorpe-based construction, property development and distribution services company, has appointed John ...
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Features
It’s a small world
Christian Spencer-Davies makes a living building diminutive versions of architects’ visions. It’s a life of long hours, difficult customers and little or no recognition. Why does he do it?
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Features
It’s payback time
The payment mechanisms in most subcontracts do not meet the standards set by the Construction Act. Here’s an argument to prove that, and a warning to contractors if they don’t take it on board.
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Features
Let’s be cynical …
Partnership agreements are getting legal teeth. This may sound like a good idea in theory, but it is bound to cause confusion and undermine the worthy aims of the partnership ideal in practice.
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Features
The real story
Malcolm Clarke says construction isn t all big boys and cowboys. The NFB boss wants to tell clients and government about the smaller firms that make up 85% of the industry.
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Features
How much of what?
When you send your builder a notice saying you aren t going to pay the full amount asked for, do you have to say what you re withholding the money from? Well, it depends on the contract
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Features
Green for life
Envest, the BRE s new software program, gives architects instant estimates for the environmental impact of their designs. How well does it work?
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Features
How the roof is supported by the existing structures
Spanning the British Museum s central Great Court and encircling the grade I-listed Reading Room with a delicate steel and glass roof was an immense challenge for the project s engineer, Buro Happold. Not only did the weight of the roof have to be carried by the surrounding listed buildings ...
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Features
Cost study: Day centres and sheltered housing
How much should a PFI care home cost? This study looks at where the money went on a £2.19m design-and-build contract for two day centres and sheltered housing for 50 elderly people in west London. Compiled by ECD Architects and Head Projects
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Why clients need carrots
Incentives to get a job done on time usually rely more on punishment than reward, but a little hard-nosed calculation might persuade clients that profit is the better motivator.
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Features
The ties that bind
Does making a partnering agreement contractually binding contradict the whole idea of partnering? Not necessarily: it can demonstrate both parties commitment to the process.
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Features
The big softie
In the drive to maximise profits and increase global competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions, companies often lose sight of soft issues an oversight that can cripple the whole project.
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Features
Is the act bankrupting us?
Despite healthy orders, insolvencies seem to be on the increase. Are firms pushing the self-destruct button to avoid paying when they lose adjudications? And if they are, what can you do to get your money?
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Features
Why can’t they win at home?
Architects Zaha Hadid, Alsop & Störmer, Branson Coates and David Chipperfield were chosen to represent British design excellence at last week s Venice Biennale. So, why aren t they landing more major projects in the UK?
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Features
‘I have worked in construction all my life and now I have given my life to it’
While more and more companies are paying attention to site safety, there has been precious little headway in on-site health and workers are paying the price.