More Focus – Page 121
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FeaturesThe sum of their parts: Mergers and acquisitions
There’s no guarantee that mergers will work out for the companies involved - we look at four of construction’s biggest deals
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FeaturesZaha Hadid: Softbridge Project, Oxford
The groves of academe have been buzzing with debate about Zaha Hadid’s Softbridge project, now on site at St Anthony’s college, Oxford. But for Bam’s engineering team constructing its cylindrical form in a desperately constrained site was an education in itself
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FeaturesTracker: June 2014
Positive signs as the construction activity index remains unchanged at 57, while, at the sector level, both non-residential and civil engineering experience boosts. Experian Economics reports
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FeaturesTop 150 contractors and housebuilders 2014
Building’s annual list of the UK’s biggest performers in the construction sector shows that housebuilders have enjoyed the past 12 months most. But many predict the tides are ready to turn for contractors, as Joey Gardiner reports
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FeaturesA sunny outlook
Despite a slight blip in contract activity in June, construction looks stonger compared with last summer. Michael Dall presents highlights of Barbour ABI’s latest monthly Economic Construction Market Review, with a special focus on the residential sector which is largely responsible for driving growth
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FeaturesFrom the archive in ... 2013
As One Brighton marks its fifth birthday, we take a look back to 2013 when it was profiled as a cost-effective model for sustainable living
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FeaturesMaking waves: Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Moving-floor technology may seem the stuff of fictional super-villain lairs, but the leading hydrodynamics laboratory at Plymouth University has employed the technology to support one of the largest energy wave test sites in the world
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FeaturesLead times: April-June 2014
While only a handful of trades showed lengthening lead times, the majority of the sector is anticipating increasing demand within the next six months. Brian Moone of Mace Business School reports
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FeaturesWhat to specify: Flooring
This week’s flooring products cover everything from a range of decorative designs with safe features to thermally-efficient foundations for a student Passivhaus project
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FeaturesHousing Design Awards 2014: Addresses to impress
From radical warehouse conversions to art deco elderly care, this year’s Housing Design Awards show an industry emerging from the recession with a spring in its step and unafraid to experiment
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FeaturesInterview: Peter Amato
As the man in charge of overseeing Chinese developer Dalian Wanda’s £3bn UK development plans, Peter Amato is already becoming the man contractors and consultants most want to know. But you’ll have to learn to keep up …
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FeaturesMarket forecast: Overall improvement
Q2 2014 saw tender prices and overall activity pick up the pace, largely due to the housing sector. While the demand for skilled trades has led to increases in day rates and wages
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FeaturesRogers Stirk Harbour's British Museum
RSHP’s World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre at the British Museum strives both to harmonise with its neoclassical context and set itself in contrast to it. But does it succeed?
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FeaturesOne Brighton: Five years on
One Brighton, the UK’s largest private car-free development, was built as a model for sustainable living. Now, five years on, Ike Ijeh visits to ask whether it has lived up to its green promises
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FeaturesTraining to nowhere
Plenty of young people across the UK are signing up for construction training - the real problem, according to a report out today, is that many are taking courses that simply don’t meet the industry’s needs.
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FeaturesWhat to specify: Cladding
This week’s cladding products range from insulated wall panels for the new Aldi distribution centre in Goldthorpe, Barnsley, to a fibre cement Equitone facade being installed at the Festival Hall in Erl, Austria
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FeaturesZero Carbon Hub report: Performance gap in new homes
The ‘performance gap’ between the design of new homes and their as-built energy use can no longer be ignored. And according to the Zero Carbon Hub, the only answer is to fundamentally shake up the way that the industry works
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FeaturesInfrastructure: Flood management
This year’s extreme weather has highlighted the increasing risk of flooding and the difficulties faced in prioritising investment. EC Harris examines the UK’s approach to flood risk management
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FeaturesHow vital is government as a construction client?
Public sector work has kept much of the construction industry off the critical list for the past six years but with the private sector now in increasingly robust health, how much is government really needed as a client?
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FeaturesTime to act: Debating UK infrastructure policy
As the Institution of Civil Engineers delivers a worrying State of the Nation report on UK infrastructure, Building charts the changes that the sector believes should be prioritised by the next government