All articles by Marcus Fairs – Page 3
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FeaturesWalk of art
Glass artist Alexander Beleschenko has turned a featureless underground passage into a festival of light and colour
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FeaturesWhat the talking toilet has to tell us
The long wait is over. Intelligent objects, the smart design tools that are set to revolutionise the way buildings are constructed and operated, have materialised in the UK – in the rather unexpected form of communicating airport loos.
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FeaturesMan the maker
John Hall over there, sitting on the roof he’s making, is a craftsman in an industry that is being told over and over again that technology holds the only key to the future. So Building spoke to the descendants of the people who built the cathedrals and asked them to ...
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FeaturesTake me to the river
After leaving Whitby Bird, founding partner turned developer Bryn Bird has created his first project – a glamorous waterfront live–work complex built on top of Brunel's Rotherhithe Tunnel and nestled beside the Thames
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FeaturesElizabeth Whatmore
After all the shake-ups, reshuffles and departures, the Construction Directorate's new multi-tasked minder is determined to take the industry forward – by encouraging it to stand on its own two feet.
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FeaturesGreat lakes
Poetry and progress find architectural expression in the four magical island pavilions that form the centrepiece of Switzerland's Expo.02
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News
Housing Forum: Build new towns
Housing Forum chief executive David Crewe has urged the government to start building new towns again as a way of solving the housing crisis.
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FeaturesAn inspector calls
Wherever there's an on-site safety breach, Mike Cosman is detective, prosecutor and grand inquisitor rolled into one. Marcus Fairs talks to the new head of operations within the Health and Safety Executive's construction division.
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FeaturesSolving the housing crisis
The time-bomb that ticked away behind the mundane statistics of new starts and planning permissions has exploded: the South-east’s housing crisis is now at the top of the political, and news, agenda. So Marcus Fairs asked 10 experts how we can tackle it.
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News
Egan and HSE clash over supply team rules
A row has erupted between the Health and Safety Executive and members of the strategic forum over proposals to use safety legislation to force construction teams to put supply chains in position from an early planning stage.
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FeaturesSound bytes
If TV execs ever want a charismatic consultant to style as an IT doctor, they might call on Microsoft's Mark Dodds. He's studied how major industries have adopted and adapted IT, and he spoke to Marcus Fairs about how construction is faring.
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FeaturesAnnette Fisher
This time next month, the RIBA could have a black woman as president, which would certainly be a change for an institution – and an industry – still dominated by white men. So, asks Marcus Fairs, who is Annette Fisher?
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News
Feilden Clegg Bradley axed from Bristol courts project
"Unlucky" architect taken off £180m scheme after change of site cuts the number of practices required.
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FeaturesMaking waves
Architect Niall McLaughlin's radical, curvy seaside bandstand was designed using cutting-edge software borrowed from the product design industry and built using traditional joinery.
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FeaturesAlastair Mellon
Just 37 years old and with no previous IT experience, the managing director of construction portal Asite is changing the way the industry thinks about e-procurement. Marcus Fairs found out what makes him tick – and blush.
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FeaturesMaking history
Manufacturer Yorkon and architect Cartwright Pickard showed at Murray Grove that modular prefab could be turned into landmark design. Now the team has taken the lessons learned there and proved it can make money as well. Marcus Fairs reports from a revolution in the making
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Features
Was it worth it?
Three years late and more than £20m over budget, Stephen Hodder's Clissold Leisure Centre became notorious as the pool that sank Hackney. Marcus Fairs asked residents whether they felt it was money well spent
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FeaturesAction stations
The British Army is about as tough as clients get: complex, demanding, and heavily armed. Victoria Madine looks at how contractors can get a piece of its rapidly increasing capital budget, and on pages 45-46 Marcus Fairs interviews a general who's also a construction guru