More Focus – Page 293
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FeaturesWould you object to a neighbour's wind turbine overlooking your garden?
An independent think tank says local people should be allowed to approve the installation of domestic renewables. What about if it was your backyard?
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FeaturesCountry focus: Romania
Romania is booming after its recent accession to the EU, with a rapidly growing construction industry and the world’s ‘third most promising’ economy, writes Stuart Powls of EC Harris
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FeaturesGus takes the scenic route
The Formica hell of a service station can ruin a bank holiday jaunt. But fear not: dotted around the motorway exits of Britain are some architectural gems to lift the spirits of even the most jaded driver. Gus Alexander enjoys some truly welcome breaks
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FeaturesUncharted territory
The UK Green Building Council wants to create a road map towards a sustainable environment. Paul King, its chief executive and a man of impeccable green credentials, will be in the driving seat – or should that be bike saddle?
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FeaturesThe building that wasn’t there
LSI Architects’ visitor centre in Cley in the Norfolk marshes works hard not to be noticed
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Features‘People shouldn’t be scared of doing what they like at university’
Don’t have a BSc in construction? Don’t worry. Roma Agrawal’s first degree is in physics, but that hasn’t stopped her becoming one of the main engineers on a £4m project at the tender age of 23. She tells Jo Donnelly how it happened
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Features
An irresistible rise
The unprecedented run of industry growth is unlikely to come to an end any time soon, with orders high and employment prospects healthy. Experian Business Strategies reports
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FeaturesStewart McColl: I want my company back
When SMC Group shares dived from 196p to 16p in just eight months, chief executive Stewart McColl took the rap and left the company he’d founded. But as talks begin on a possible merger between SMC and Aukett, word is out that he could soon be making a comeback.
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FeaturesShould new housing be built on green belt land?
The Social Market Foundation says the government will have to build on the green belt to meet its housing targets.
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FeaturesShould green planning applications be fast-tracked?
Is the government right to seek a rewrite of the renewable energy planning permission rules?
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FeaturesMini cost model: Nursing homes
As people in the UK live longer, demand for residential care and nursing homes is growing – as are our expectations of the standard of living they will provide. Max Wilkes of Davis Langdon looks at how home developers and operators are rising to the challenge
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FeaturesTime for lunch
Lunch is for wimps, right? Who are you kidding? Lunch has come right back into fashion as companies realise that a well-fed workforce is a happy workforce.
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FeaturesAnyone for Hopkins?
With the National Tennis Centre in south-west London, Hopkins Architects has taken a lumbering and guileless building type and instilled in it the grace and finesse of a Roger Federer. Martin Spring admires the architect’s all-round game
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FeaturesYvette Cooper
The government’s effort to get housebuilders to produce more homes has been like a man trying to herd cats by shouting into a megaphone. Now it’s looking for more effective tactics. In her first interview since joining the Cabinet, the housing minister tells Stuart Macdonald what they are.
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Features
What it costs: CHP (combined heat and power systems)
Peter Mayer of Building LifePlans looks at the cost and environmental dividends from combined heat and power systems.With Combined heat and power (CHP) or co-generation systems, heat that might be lost as a by-product of electricity generation is captured for space and water heating. Locally supplied electricity incur lower transmission ...
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FeaturesWater flow control device
Marley Plumbing and Drainage has added Flowloc, a water flow control device, to its Waterloc range.
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FeaturesEasy-to-use building control system
Hager has launched Tebis TX, a building services control system that it says is the simplest on the market.
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FeaturesNG Bailey: Let’s talk about M&E
Cal Bailey of NG Bailey talks us through his ideal M&E project, and then describes one that came pretty close – the Scottish Natural Heritage headquarters.
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FeaturesColt International: The heat is off
Colt International’s Dave Ferrol explains why its smoke control and HVAC products are popular on everything from underground car parks to stately homes.