More Focus – Page 219
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FeaturesBraving the cold: Mike Farley on coaxing Persimmon back to health
Mike Farley had barely got his feet under the desk as Persimmon chief executive when the recession struck, leaving the company with a plummeting share price and soaring debts. Here he tells Tom Bill about his plans to reverse those processes
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FeaturesCost model: Land remediation
Plenty of sites will need land remediation when the housing market recovers, and the slow market at the moment provides an opportunity to use innovative, sustainable techniques. Duncan Sanders and Derek Vernon of Davis Langdon take a look at the commercial drivers
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FeaturesThe factory: Haworth Tompkins' Royal College of Arts building
The painters are in at the industrial Sackler Building – and they’re inspired
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FeaturesThe amazing five-week apprenticeship (for cowboys)
Firms that offer fast-track plumbing and electrical courses for £5,000 a go create ‘tradesmen’ who are a menace to everyone they deal with. Sophie Griffiths posed as a trainee to find out what they promise – and what they actually deliver
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FeaturesFatal refurb: addressing refurbishment’s poor safety record
Refurbishment is an increasingly popular alternative to new build, but what can be done about its particularly poor safety record?
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FeaturesBuilding pathology: Photovoltaic panels
Photovoltaic panels can be great energy providers, as long as an eye is kept on potential problems with power output and deficiencies. Peter Mayer of BLP Insurance explains what to look out for
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FeaturesLasting impressions: why they won Sustainable Project of the Year
What set the two winners of Building’s Sustainable Project of the Year awards apart from the rest of the crowd? Stephen Kennett asked the judges to explain their verdict
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FeaturesRome improvements: Hadid's Maxxi museum
Zaha Hadid’s long-awaited Maxxi art museum has given the Eternal City a bit of a shake-up
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FeaturesI’ll be watching you: Serious Fraud Office
Richard Alderman is boss of the Serious Fraud Office, and he has the construction industry in his sights. Roxane McMeeken finds out how worried you should be
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FeaturesAll’s well that ends well: Stratford-upon-Avon theatre
Ripping the guts out of the RSC’s Stratford-upon-Avon theatre and building a new auditorium in the existing one was Bennetts Associates’ bold remedy to the many poetic injustices being done to the Bard
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FeaturesCountry focus: Russia
Russia has been badly hit by recession, and there are not many signs of recovery, says Pavel Vishnaykov of EC Harris Still, the 2014 Winter Olympics provide a glimmer of hope …
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Making energy from waste
Energy-savvy countries treat their waste as a resource, and the UK is beginning to cotton on. But the path is not easy for the waste-to-energy pioneers
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FeaturesNew world orders: Construction’s latest global hotspots
A startling report is forecasting a big shift in the world demand for construction by 2020. So dig out the guide books and maps for Nigeria, India and eastern Europe
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FeaturesObject lessons: Foster's Berkshire academy
Foster’s latest academy in Berkshire is based around the idea of learning through museum exhibits – which makes for some unusual interior decor
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FeaturesImagine the world in 2020: climate change
The year’s 2020, and, having left Building for reasons far too shocking to go into here, former assistant editor Thomas Lane talks us through a day in his life as an engineer in a world that’s slowly coming to terms with climate change …
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FeaturesCoffee with a dragon: Theo Paphitis talks construction
Theo Paphitis, millionaire, TV personality and dispenser of tough truths has one or two things to tell the construction industry about failure, self-knowledge and Prince Charles …
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FeaturesRobo cop: BLP’s digital project police
Insurer BLP has come up with a digital system for policing building projects and spotting problems before they happen
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Features
The tracker recovery on hold
Signs of recovery over the summer have been tempered by a slowdown in activity and a pessimistic outlook on employment, according to the latest figures from Experian Business Strategies
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FeaturesA world awaits us: The Copenhagen conference building boom
A deal on carbon reduction targets in next month’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen could create a boom for UK consultants working overseas
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FeaturesAcoustics: The sound of silence
A study at an Essex secondary school revealed a significant boost to pupil concentration when acoustics were improved