More Focus – Page 347
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Features
Coping with a cold snap
Can output growth continue as weather conditions worsen and demand takes a hit from rising tender prices? Experian Business Strategies runs down the key points of its contractors’ survey
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Features
Focus on the regions
More ups and downs across the UK, as activity rockets in the East Midlands but plummets in Northern Ireland and East Anglia, and don’t even look at the West Midlands’ order books …
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FeaturesGoodbye, 2005
The year is gone, but not forgotten – or is it? Try our prize quiz to see what you remember …
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FeaturesWhatever happened to …2005
A year can be a long time in construction. From the devastation of the South-east Asian tsumani to the jubilation of the Olympic win, by way of the mindbending confusion of the Building Regulations, Mark Leftly charts the history of the good, bad and the straightforwardly weird
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FeaturesWaiting for Balfour
Ten days ago it all looked so simple: Carillion had pulled off a spectacular deal by agreeing the friendly takeover of Mowlem, its similarly sized rival. Then the UK’s biggest contractor intervened …
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FeaturesIn the shadow of the heron
Stephen Stone had just taken up the top job at Crest Nicholson when rumours began to circulate that Gerald Ronson’s Heron International was hatching a second takeover bid.
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FeaturesAfter the wobble
Ahhh, Christmas … Time for old chums to get together, share memories, slap backs, redistribute blame and generally relive their glory days. For this lot, those days were spent designing, building, redesigning and amending the Millennium Bridge. So here’s your chance to eavesdrop on Arup, Foster and Partners, Sir Robert ...
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FeaturesOpen government
It feels like a million miles from the labyrinthine Holyrood. Lord Rogers’ Welsh assembly is all about transparency: in fact, it’s mostly a canopy open to Cardiff Bay
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FeaturesBreaking amec
In the late 1980s, Amec pioneered the concept of the one-stop shop for construction services. Now, with its French services business up for grabs and the rest of the company set to be split in two and possibly sold, the sharks have started circling …
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FeaturesCost model: Mixed-use city-centre schemes
Mixed use is increasingly the name of the game for town-centre developers. But can uses such as retail and residential really mix? Simon Rawlinson of Davis Langdon examines the practicalities and costs of mixed-use city-centre schemes
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FeaturesThis season’s trends
It may sound paradoxical, but falling consumer spending is triggering a retail boom, as shop owners employ upgraded design and the latest thinking from the States to stimulate shoppers’ spending reflex.
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FeaturesZaha’s strange logic
It’s the disorientating combination of counter-intuitive form and formal rigour that gives Zaha Hadid’s Wolfsburg Science Centre its architectural kick. Here’s the thinking behind it …
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FeaturesJust the job: Gemma Clark in the Antartica
Structural engineer Gemma Clark explains why her winter is going to be even chillier than ours …
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FeaturesCharm offensive
Despite his continuing war with the Labour party, the Daily Telegraph and the US Senate, George Galloway has opened a new front against Tower Hamlets council. Building reports on the leader of Respect’s struggle to persuade tenants to fight their council’s housing policy
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FeaturesJoin the queue
The anticipated sale of Westbury to rival Persimmon may improve the housebuilding sector’s standing in the City, but it could also lead to the loss of hundreds of jobs – if Persimmon’s track record is anything to go by.
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Features
Costs: Industrial doors
Industrial doors have to resist heavy traffic and hard treatment. Peter Mayer of Building LifePlans outlines the options and whole-life costs