Under construction
Ministers prepare to relax Olympic marketing rules
Action taken after frustration over ‘No Marketing Rights Protocol’
Cornerstone moves forward with eco-village plan
Tim Byles’ new firm agree deals with Plymouth council for zero-carbon village scheme
Hometrack reports 'strongest demand' since start of downturn
Latest housing market-trends survey says lack of supply is a ‘clear opportunity’ to the building industry
Shard spire appears in Yorkshire field
Mace and Severfield Rowen erect Shard’s steel spire on airfield to test construction processes
Trade association seeks six-figure chief executive
Construction Products Association is advertising for April 2012
Construction activity stalled
Survey of purchasing managers reveals lowest level of construction activity for 19 months
Kier profits up despite public sector workload fall
Construction, development and services group announces 24% rise in pre-tax profit and improved construction margins
Mace targets new work to beat tough market in 2013
Firm defies market gloom with 17% turnover rise and targets three or four big wins
Top of the class: Passivhaus school design
A primary school in Exeter won’t win any architectural awards, but is earning gold stars in zero-carbon and Passivhaus design. Thomas Lane swots up on how to deliver a low-energy building on a budget
MoD touts £2.5bn of army construction work
Announcements include shortlisting of Babcock, Carillion and Kier for £1.5bn housing job
All government projects to use BIM within five years
Construction chief Paul Morrell dismissed other ’unambitious’ plans at the London KBB conference
Morrell: firms should run buildings
Government’s construction adviser calls for construction companies to operate the buildings they work on
How Balfour Beatty drained its site using state-of-the-art 'blotting paper'
The contractor used 55,000 strips of permeable polyseter to enable work on a saturated site to start in months rather than years
The Shard: A record high
Renzo Piano’s skyscraper takes the Canary Wharf Tower’s title as London’s tallest building
Laboratory of Molecular Biology: Master of science
The Medical Research Council’s new chromosome-shaped lab in Cambridge is an example of how attention to detail and planning can deliver complex buildings on time and to budget
Junk Jellyfish theatre emerges on Bankside
Theatre designer Martin Kaltwasser struggles with buiding bureaucrats to deliver this pop-up recycled theatre in Southwark
2012 countdown: Jonathan Edwards and the Olympic village
Don’t worry. Jonathan Edwards hasn’t fallen on hard times since winning gold at Sydney in 2000. Rather, Locog is using his expert knowledge to help with the delivery of the £1bn Olympic village, right down to the fixtures and fittings
2012 countdown: The aquatics centre
Since the aquatics centre’s 160m-long roof was lowered into place last year, work on the Zaha Hadid-designed venue has continued to power ahead
Bankside: Have you met the Tate’s new neighbours?
Once snubbed as the poor relation of the trendy South Bank, Bankside has been transformed over the past decade by ambitious design. Now, finally, the residential sector is moving in
Double crossing: Heneghan Peng’s Olympic bridge
Heneghan Peng’s 54m-wide central bridge at the Olympic park, which was lowered into place last week, has been ingeniously designed to form two narrower walkways after the Games have finished. Stephen Kennett explains how it all works
Media City, Salford: This is the BBC
Developer Peel Holdings and Bovis Lend Lease enjoy a high level of trust – which is just as well, because when they took on the Beeb’s new studios at MediaCity in Salford, there was a fair degree of risk involved – and getting the project in before the pips was only part of it
Crazy angles, soaring steel: Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou opera house
As the Chinese city of Guangzhou races to build a new district in time for the 2010 Asian Games, the designs of two British architects enter the spotlight. Thomas Lane charts the trials, tribulations and triumphs of Zaha Hadid’s opera house and Wilkinson Eyre’s West Tower
Liverpool One on-site: Welcome to paradise
How do you co-ordinate a £1bn budget, 40 buildings, 22 architects and 90 consultants to deliver the most ambitious regeneration scheme Liverpool has ever seen? Thomas Lane went to ask the man who has to do it
St Pancras Midland Grand Hotel: A hotel to remember
The Midland Grand Hotel used to be a vast, obsolete luxury liner moored alongside St Pancras station. Then it was an office, then a ruin, and in a few years it will become something truly splendid.
Persimmon sees profit rise 55% to £148m
But housebuilder also reports 2% drop in selling prices and fall in revenue
Orbit becomes UK's highest sculpture
Topping out of ArcelorMittal Orbit attended by Arup and Ushida Findlay Architects who worked up Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond’s design
Scottish construction confidence takes a dive
Scottish Building Federation blames SNP spending review
The ArcelorMittal Orbit: Twist and shout
The ArcelorMittal Orbit in the Olympic park is being built to ‘arouse the curiosity and wonder of Londoners’. And the most curious thing of all is how this spiralling confusion of red steel actually stands up
'Nanny state' stopping UK rebuild of Libya
Industry blames FCO travel advice for risking £1.5bn trade as other European countries move in
Birmingham library: Going in circles
The first section of the striking facade for the Mecanoo-designed £189m Birmingham library was fitted into place on Wednesday.
The Shard: London's tallest building
Londoners have hardly been able to believe their eyes as the capital’s tallest building has shot up in front of them at dizzying speed. Building braves icy winds to report on an engineering triumph
Arup to move into Indonesia as market grows
Move will make firm the second top ten UK consultant to enter the growing market
The Corinthia Hotel: Luxury living
The former Metropole Hotel site is nearly completed. Ardmore is nearing completion on the £100m redevelopment of the former Metropole Hotel site at Northumberland Avenue in London.
Lambeth Accord gets green light
Henley Halebrown Rorrison Architects has received planning consent for Lambeth Accord
D-Day beckons for OFT appeal
Dozens of firms successfully appealed against OFT claims
Hubble bubble: the ArcelorMittal Orbit
The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a third of its way to becoming London’s tallest sculpture
Blackfriars station: Pulling out the stops
Blackfriars station is being rebuilt on a bridge right over the River Thames. With a four-lane road to the north, live railway lines on all sides and the river below, it’s not the easiest site on which to deliver a complex project. So how was it done? Thomas Lane buys a platform ticket
Heat, Dust and opportunity in Iraq: Back to Basra
Improved security and oil-funded mega projects make Iraq a land of rising opportunity for British companies starved of contracts at home. That’s not to say working there is a picnic … Building reports from the country’s biggest construction site
Topping out of £7m conference centre
Consarc’s timber frame design will house incubator spaces for start-up companies working on environmental construction
Marathon effort: piling on the complex Glasgow sports arena site
How the team tackled difficult conditions on the site of the 2014 Commonwealth Games centrepiece
2012 countdown: The velodrome
The plan with the velodrome was to make it as lean as a racing bike, says Chris Wise, one of its designers
2012 countdown: The stadium
One year from now, the 80,000-seat Olympic stadium has to be ready. Will it make it?
Support act: Cannon Place
Finding somewhere to lay the foundations for an office block above London’s Cannon Street station proved so difficult, the engineers had to call on the structural principles of the Forth Bridge to get the job done
The Shard: Foot of the mountain
The Shard had already climbed to 21 storeys by the time 700 truckloads of concrete were poured to create its foundation. So what was stopping it from falling down?
Zaha's Museum of Transport: The battle of the oil can
Zaha Hadid’s Museum of Transport in Glasgow was designed with gothic zinc-clad ridges and 100m-plus roof spans. They looked great on a computer screen, but led to memorable rows with the project team
Education project of the month: North Road primary school, Darlington
Its sloping green roof makes this innovative new building seem to be emerging from the earth
Glamorous address: Candy & Candy's One Hyde Park
Candy & Candy’s One Hyde Park is coming along quite nicely, thank you. Which is just as well, because when you’re spending £100m on an apartment, you do rather want the builders out of the way before you move in
St Pancras Midland Grand Hotel: A hotel to remember
The Midland Grand Hotel used to be a vast, obsolete luxury liner moored alongside St Pancras station. Then it was an office, then a ruin, and in a few years it will become something truly splendid.
