All Features articles – Page 659
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Features
Just the job
Whitby Bird & Partners' building physicist Duncan Price tells Nancy Cavill about low-energy design, Tanzanian solar cookers and white-water canoeing.
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Features
Splitting headache
Cracks are showing in the glazed roof of the National Centre for Glass. Whether it's down to builders, skateboarders, stones or the weather, restoring the centre to its former transparent glory will be costly.
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Features
It's a hard life
Laing has a tough job on its hands creating the International Centre for Life. A steel frame that flexes to cope with the earth's elements is topped by the complex curves of an asymmetric roof.
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Features
The family
Privately owned Sir Robert McAlpine is the social and political apex of contracting, yet next to nothing is known about its internal life. Building investigates
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Features
Jonathon Porritt takes construction's side
The green campaigner is to speak at next Monday's Construction Confederation conference on eco-aware building and what he will say may come as a surprise.
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Features
Partnering comes unstuck
Not so long ago, partnering was being hailed as the answer to construction's contractual problems. But it is doomed to failure unless the industry and its clients take on board the practical philosophy it embodies.
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Features
Appointments
Contractors Tony Walton has been appointed managing director of Oxfordshire-based Western Counties Construction. Dallast Wiltshier has appointed Dave Muncaster regional construction director in the South-west. David Pinch has joined the South-west division as regional estimating director and Simon Rider has been made regional finance director. Colin ...
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Features
Adjudication so far
An adjudicator gives his impressions and reflections on how well the process is working in the cases he has been involved with.
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Features
When overseas …
Specifying outside the UK can be fraught with difficulties for British consultants. Local codes and standards apply and only the translated document will stand up in court.
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Features
Urban spacemen
One bright young practice resisted the lure of London to bring loft living to Birmingham. Now its gamble is beginning to pay off.
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Features
Motown revival
There has always been more to Coventry than car plants. Now the city council and architect MacCormac Jamieson Pritchard are using its thousand-year history to stimulate the regeneration of the city centre.
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Features
What Morrison means
The QC who represented Morrison in the case of Macob Civil Engineering vs Morrison Construction Ltd dissects the implications of this important judicial pronouncement for the future of the system of adjudication.
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Features
Nissan: a model manufacturer
The construction industry taskforce, which advised Sir John Egan on Rethinking Construction, held up Japanese car manufacturer Nissan as a role model after visiting its Sunderland factory in January 1998. What impressed the Nissan pilgrims was how the firm managed its suppliers to reduce costs and improve design. ...
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Features
Heart transplant
Britain's second city has long been characterised by drab concrete blocks and shabby brick buildings. Now developers have joined forces to give Birmingham a smart new image.
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Features
The front man
Marco Goldschmied will take over as the new president of the RIBA in June. His plans are many and varied, but at the centre is one core goal to promote the profile of architecture.
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Features
Mace stake for sale as founder quits
After 10 years heading up Mace, Ian Macpherson is putting construction behind him and his 34% share up for sale – but only to the right buyer.
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Features
Is this evolution?
The recently granted power that allows courts to impose Alternative Dispute Resolution on litigants seems to be missing the point.
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Features
What's going on inside the dome?
Designers are changing, the budget is tight and the decision-making process is best described as "fluid". But there's no moving this deadline. So, will the 14 Millennium Dome zones come together on time?
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Features
Package deal
Bentley Systems' new product is not your average CAD program. It is made up of several applications and has been written in Java, programming language of the Internet. But how will these changes affect the user?
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Features
Private and confidential
Expert witnesses from opposing sides may be ordered to meet before the trial to discuss their opinions on the dispute. But they shouldn't then be asked to reveal what was said.