All Features articles – Page 379

  • Features

    Why did the lights go out on Hills electrical?

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Earlier this month, one of the best known and best respected subcontractors in Britain was sold for the price of a cup of coffee. Eleanor Goodman and Sarah Richardson report on what went wrong

  • Features

    White cab man

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Brendan Kerr is not your typical demolition contractor. Instead, on the way to becoming one of the UK’s top entrepreneurs, he has turned the ‘deconstruction’ business into a respectable profession – and one that’s central to the City’s most glamorous developments.

  • View from the 70th storey of the Al Mas Tower of the Sheikh Zayed Highway
    Features

    The Middle East green building challenge

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Special report: Now that the ruler of Dubai wants the city to be at the forefront of sustainable design, how will developers respond? Katie Puckett went to the United Arab Emirates to find out if the region really can have it all. With sustainable case studies.

  • Features

    The best online content

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Building.co.uk’s mix of breaking news, probing views, expert analysis and dedicated web channels has made it the most popular construction website in the country. Here’s why …

  • Features

    Life behind bars

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Few things are more certain to cause public and political panic than the idea that our prisons are full. Trouble is, they are. So the Ministry of Justice is set on building another 20,000 places by 2014, which is great news for contractors that can work at lightning speed. Here, ...

  • Features

    Top 45 surveyors websites: Measuring up

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    In the third of his series on construction industry websites, Martin Hornagold turns his attention to surveyors and again finds that they are failing basic tests

  • Features

    International costs: 2008

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    As inflation cools in western Europe and the US, it’s roaring away in eastern Europe. Gardiner & Theobald surveys the world and tells us what it sees

  • Spiritel can now offer construction teams on-site hosted communications systems.
    Features

    Sound with vision: Spiritel

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Spiritel was founded in 1989 as a specialist supplier and installer of voice and data systems with particular focus on the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors.

  • Features

    Rapid site surveys

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Infoterra has launched the GeoStore service to enable property developers and designers to carry out initial and rapid site surveys from their desks.

  • Features

    Where next?

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Britain’s regional builders have suddenly become irresistibly attractive purchases for major contractors across Europe. Tom Bill finds out why.

  • Features

    Rugged laptops

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Panasonic has launched a range of lightweight, portable laptops specifically designed for the construction industry.

  • The bulging external envelope remains untouched, except for a new entrance canopy
    Features

    The incredible hull

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Ralph Erskine’s Ark is one of London’s most striking landmarks, but it has lain dormant for most of its short existence. Now developer Landid and an architect called DN-A have enacted an extraordinary genetic mutation. Martin Spring saw the result

  • Features

    Online guidance

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    The RICS has teamed up with content management system provider, Jadu, to relaunch isurv.

  • Features

    Face recognition

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    The world's largest casino, the Venetian in Macao, has installed 13 Vision Access 3D face readers to authenticate up to 12,000 employees as they come through the building’s main entrance at the start of a shift.

  • IES software  uses daylight calculations to simulate natural light levels
    Features

    Integrated Environmental Solutions: Get with the program

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Integrated Environmental Solutions was set up in 1994 but its roots go back to the seventies energy crisis when Don McLean, its founder and current managing director, started his PhD in the detailed computer simulation of renewable energy devices.

  • Features

    Interview with Jon Emery of Hammerson

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Hammerson doesn’t like cosy relationships and obliging suppliers. It wants designers and builders who will kick back, come up with alternative suggestions and generally keep its creative juices flowing.

  • Features

    Tracking devices

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Wavetrend Technologies has launched Global Eyes, a tracking system that monitors people and assets using a range of communication technologies to give real-time visibility and intelligence on their location, condition and status.

  • Features

    Structural design software

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Bentley has released version 11.3 of the RAM Structural System – its modelling, analysis and design software for structural engineers.

  • The 1,800m2 nanoscience centre at the University of Cambridge
    Features

    Cost model: Laboratories

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Laboratories are probably the most demanding buildings that it is possible to build. Here, Simon Rawlinson of Davis Langdon examines the factors that their designers have to take into account, from the need to attract world-class talent to energy efficiency

  • The Cardiff opera house, which caused a huge row when it was abandoned in 1995
    Features

    Zaha's challenge

    2008-02-22T00:00:00Z

    The abandonment of Zaha Hadid’s Architecture Foundation HQ in London was a disappointment for design connoisseurs, but what does it tell us about the ambition of the British construction industry?