All articles by Thomas Lane – Page 32
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FeaturesExplosive situations
Discovering old war rooms, tackling six-metre-thick concrete walls, blowing up buildings in the middle of London and racing against time … Well, at least this project wasn’t dull
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FeaturesWhat’s unusual about this site?
Answer: it demonstrates that, using the much-maligned construction management method, you can deliver a large building early and within budget with minimum waste and safety risks – and have enough time and money left over to put up another one. We went to see this impossible truth for ourselves
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FeaturesUrgently required: 8000 surveyors
The job: to carry out home condition reports for house sellers. The candidate: ideally a surveyor, but possibly a construction professional looking for a change. Experience preferred, but all applications will be considered (we’re desperate).
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FeaturesThe Berlaymonster’s back!
Nearly five years late and three times over budget, the European commission’s headquarters is back in business. We took a trip to Brussels to admire the £509m refurbishment and find out what originally set the project spinning out of control – and for once, nobody is blaming the eurocrats …
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FeaturesVague visions Vegas
Kerrching! The prospect of supercasinos cropping up across the land is putting pound signs in the eyes of construction firms. We talk to key players to find out how good the odds are of winning that jackpot – and to discover the rules of the game …
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FeaturesPeak performance
The Health and Safety Laboratory provides technical back-up for the Health and Safety Executive, a remit that includes exploding trucks full of fireworks and body piercing. And it now has a £56m PFI base in Derbyshire to work out of. We found out what it does – and how it ...
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FeaturesShip in a bubble
The Cutty Sark has been decaying in a dry dock at Greenwich for 50 years. But now architect Grimshaw has designed a cocoon to protect the record-breaking clipper during restoration.
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FeaturesAn inside job
Breaking into the former NatWest HQ was the easy part. Ripping the heart out of it to create state-of-the-art offices while preserving the listed facade, banking hall and directors’ suites, and shifting 1000 lorry-loads of rubble without disturbing the heavyweight neighbour – well, that needed something like a plan … ...
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News
Multiplex hires Aussie IT firm
Contractor Multiplex has hired a fellow Australian firm to put its two biggest UK projects – Wembley national stadium and the White City retail scheme – on line.
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NewsSpotlight falls on role of crane in fatal accident
Reports from Dubai indicate that crane lost control and caused critical damage to wall reinforcement
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Features
Not an ivory tower …
… so much as a giant titanium egg, which Napier University has cooked up to attract students away from Edinburgh’s other universities – with a little help from Building Design Partnership.
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FeaturesMillau Viaduct: C’est magnifique!
Foster and Partners’ Viaduc de Millau in southern France is the highest, longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and it opens in December. We admire the view, talks to the engineer and meets some enthusiastic locals.
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News
Revenue probes IT provider BIW
The Inland Revenue is investigating IT project services provider BIW Technologies over tax credits it received on research and development
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Features
It’s all water under the (rock steady) bridge
Chris Wise, the man who put the wobble in our walk on the Millennium Bridge, has designed another. But don’t worry, he’s sure that this time you’ll be able to jump up and down to your heart’s content.
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FeaturesRiders in the sky
To be a cyclist in London today requires the kind of spirit usually shown by those piloting experimental aircraft and one-man submarines. But with a little help from prefabrication and cutting-edge plastics, tomorrow might just be different …
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Features
The reinvention of tradition
Britain’s treasured stock of antique Georgian and Victorian housing was all built using single-skin walls. Now it could be about to make a dramatic return.
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News
Experts dismiss report into Paris airport disaster
French government blames concrete deterioration – but structural engineers point to a design oversight
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FeaturesStyle to go - the unique flatpack home
Cartwright Pickard Architects has helped create an off-site flatpack system that promises flexibility and super-quick build time.
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FeaturesA giant leap for a brickie
Behrokh Khoshnevis has seen the future of construction, and it involves robotic arms, multiple nozzles and buildings that can be put up in hours in either Basildon or the Sea of Serenity. The University of Southern California professor tells us about the technology that he believes will be commonplace in ...