All articles by Alistair King
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FeaturesSlab happy
The inventors of SmartSlab describe it as an all-in-one, load-bearing, moving-image display slab. It’s also the only system that provides animated displays while retaining all the features associated with external cladding.
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FeaturesDo you dig?
In the fourth of our series examining renewable energy technologies, Alistair King talks us through ground-source heat pumps, which provide developers with a Part L-friendly way of keeping buildings warm or cool using the ground beneath our feet
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FeaturesMight as well try and catch the wind
Micro-turbines may be the height of fashion, but are they any good? In the third part of our series on renewable energy sources, Alistair King finds out more
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FeaturesSustainable schoolrooms: Here’s one for the kids
Willmott Dixon’s classroom of the future may sound like something made in the Blue Peter studio – with its strips of waste wood off-cuts and glue – but it’s quick to build, affordable and carbon neutral. Alistair King looks at one they made earlier…
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FeaturesThe burning question
With coal and oil reserves running low, and the pressure on to reduce carbon emissions, you’d have thought the government would be eager to promote combined heat and power. So, why isn’t it? Alistair King reports, in the second article of a series on green energy
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FeaturesCamouflaged solar roofing: The power slate
Solar panels may be admirable, but they’re definitely ugly. Now two suppliers have launched products that look like simple roof slates.
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NewsTimber frame body appoints fire safety expert
UK Timber Frame Association appointment seeks to reassure construction industry following Colindale fire
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FeaturesGreat leaps forward
Taking a break from Blair, here are Alistair King’s top 10 technological developments
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FeaturesShop lighting: A LED balloon?
They’re easy to maintain, last ages and don’t cook the food. So will LEDs knock fluorescent tubes off their pedestal in shop design? ‘That’s a laugh,’ detractors tell Alistair King
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News
‘Grave concerns’ over cement shortage
Precast concrete firms blast cement manufacturers for shortage as production facilities are forced to close
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FeaturesAdjustable-depth pools: Out of the deep
A swimming pool contractor found itself in uncharted waters when it came up with a raisable floor system. Now all it had to do was find a suitable material
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NewsBurger fat to power 60,000 homes
Agri-Energy reveals plans for a £50m plant in Wales that will convert cooking oil and crops into electricity and bio-diesel
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NewsBuilders' tea hits the shelves of Asda
A percentage of profits from Make Mine a Builders tea will go towards a new charity foundation formed by the FMB
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NewsNHBC offers help for builders struggling with Code
Courses on the Code for Sustainable Homes courses will be aimed at developers and builders
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NewsPlanning to be scrapped for domestic renewables
Government proposes removing planning barriers to domestic wind turbines and PVs except in extreme circumstances
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NewsSix feared dead in Beijing Olympic tunnel collapse
Subway being built for the 2008 Olympics collapses and buries construction workers
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Mass market green boilers to go European
Biomass boilers could satisfy up to 40% of the UK's electricity demands
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NewsRenewables grants slammed despite £6m budget boost
The 'shambolic' low carbon building programme is suspended by the DTI as renewable firms call for further increase in investment
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NewsJoint venture to provide 870 HIPs assessors
www.energy-assessors.com claims it can provide a third of the domestic energy assessments required by Home Information Packs
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News
Trade body investigates UK cement market
High prices and supply shortages prompt British Aggregates Association investigation