More Focus – Page 232
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FeaturesThe UK's £34bn rail programme: people, get ready...
…there’s a train a-coming. Well, not a train so much as a £34bn programme to upgrade the UK’s rail network. Emily Wright looks at what the money will be spent on, and how you can get on board
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FeaturesAnother expenses row: public reactions to Part L plans
The government is pondering a plan to force people to spend money on insulating their homes. So what do the public make of that?
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FeaturesAuschwitz: telling the SS I was a builder saved my life
Sixty-five years after he entered Auschwitz, Albert Veissid tells Ben King the extraordinary tale of how his fictitious construction skills helped him survive
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FeaturesSleeping beauty awakes: the St Pancras Midland Grand hotel
The fairy-tale castle that is the Midland Grand hotel has been asleep for a very long time. Now the arrival of the Eurostar has roused it, and it is once again to become the most stylish address in London
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FeaturesSpecialist cost update
In the first of a new series, the Sense Cost Consultancy team examines the toll the recession is taking on prices in three sectors: substructure, superstructure and cladding
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FeaturesTubular belge: Buro Happold's steel shopping centre
Buro Happold’s roof for Liège’s new shopping centre takes the form of a 400m-long steel snake, which undulates to dramatically different heights. Stephen Kennett finds out how it was done
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FeaturesRooflights
Roofglaze has installed more than 3,280m2 of glass monopitch skylights at Wolverton Park, a redevelopment of the former railway works at Milton Keynes
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Plastic gutters
Hunter Plastics has launched Ovation, a guttering system that offers a top-hung alternative to traditional bracket systems
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Insulated roof panels
Kingspan’s KS1000 RW trapezoidal insulated roof and wall panel is now available in a width of 2m
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Green roofs
Grass Concrete has launched a system that can be laid over new or existing flat roof membranes to create a green roof
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Mineral wool insulation
Knauf Insulation has launched an environmentally friendly mineral wool insulation with lower embodied energy. Using its patented “Ecose Technology”, the insulation has a distinctive natural brown colour – rather than yellow – as a result of a new sustainable binder made from renewable materials rather than oil-based chemicals
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FeaturesIn XS: Highlights from from XS Extreme
Some highlights from XS Extreme, a book showcasing perception-defying architecture, from the wilds of Chile to, er, Lincolnshire
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FeaturesThe big swoop: Impact of US consultants on UK firms
US consultants are huge, they’re rich and they’re looking to cut themselves a big slice of the UK market, but what does that mean for UK firms …
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FeaturesJust how bad are Dubai's labour camps?
Under UAE law, workers’ camps must be clean, well lit and provide 40ft2 of living space for each resident. They are also denounced as among the most inhumane in the world. Roxane McMeeken went there to find out why
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FeaturesTrustMark: a £22k tale of horror
This is the story of a man who gave a TrustMark-registered firm £22k to renovate his home. What he got for his money was two weeks’ worth of work, three years of hell and a wrecked house. But how did the builder keep its reassuring logo?
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FeaturesSchool acoustics: Can you hear me at the back?
Teachers are being drowned out, education is suffering, and yet acoustics in schools seem to be getting worse, not better. Stephen Kennett reports on a rules review that could change the way we build
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FeaturesChange of route
It might lack something in glamour, but right now the public sector is proving to be one of the few hotspots in a barren landscape. No wonder many construction professionals are pulling in for an extended stay
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The tracker: Deceleration
The industry is still declining, but the rate has slowed, and the activity index is at an eight-month high. This may be the first step, says Experian Business Strategies, on the path to recovery
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FeaturesFirst Impressions: Schemes by Herzog & de Meuron and Zaha
Postgraduate architecture student from the Royal College of Art comments on five schemes
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FeaturesHandmade tiles
Specialist tile maker Craven Dunnill Jackfield has played a key role in the restoration of the tiled hall floor at Keble college, Oxford.