More Comment – Page 483
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CommentPower without responsibility
“This meddling member of the royal family is a black stain on our democracy,” wrote one reader of Building’s website
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CommentWonders & blunders
Jonathan Goring finds Liverpool’s Academy of St Francis of Assisi inspiring, but reckons it was a dark day in Leeds when planning permission was given to Ian Simpson’s Lumiere
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Why you should fear good news
What are journalists looking to provide when it comes to a news story.Well "TRUTH"The story should be Topical, Relevent, Unusual, with a bit of Tension or conflict and, very importantly, it should have Human interest.Now let's think about it......Unusual eh? ...mmm.So if the story you read is going to ...
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Why the "innovative" HCA Norwich City deal could prove very significant indeed
It is not just because I have family in Norwich and support Norwich City that I took a particular interest in the "innovative" deal recently struck between the city council and the Homes and Communities Agency.Nor was it because I have a great deal of respect for the knowledge and ...
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Duff jobs figures pose a threat to construction industry
The official employment figures released today show that the construction industry has lost just 40,000 jobs.That clearly is rubbish.Were the figures accurate and were the construction output figures accurate it would suggest that as the industry has plunged into recession overall labour productivity for the construction sector has fallen by ...
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5 reasons why we might be facing the mother of all construction recessions
It's coming around to the construction forecasting season again and the industry prognosticators will be gathering to discuss the ups and downs of the industry.If I were you, I'd be bracing myself for some pretty savage revisions to what already look like pretty savage forecasts.Peak to trough in the 90's ...
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CommentToo much monkey business
It seems that clients are reverting to the primitive practice of lowest cost single-stage tendering. Trouble is, lowest cost means guaranteed minimum quality
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CommentOne last big push
Pat McFadden, Lord Mandelson’s deputy in the Commons and a Cabinet attendee, has acknowledged that construction’s representation in Whitehall is a joke, and that a chief construction officer is needed
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CommentA beginners' guide to English: Compact contracts
You may think it best to make a contract as verbose as possible to ensure it misses nothing, but in reality it’s best to be brief and to the point
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CommentThe use of weapons: Throwing in brand new arguments
Sounds like a pretty basic question, but what can the assaulted party in an adjudication do in its defence? Can it, for example, throw the kitchen sink at its tormentor?
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I've started so I'll finish: Can you omit all future works?
Cunning developers who want to terminate a contractor’s employment without facing claims are altering contracts to omit all future works. Can they get away with it?
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Frameworks: will they stay or will they go?
Some part of me feels that blogging wasn't invented as a way to discuss the latest movements in construction industry contracts. When Tim Berners-Lee sat down and invented the world wide web, I somehow suspect that the intricacies of single-stage tendering as opposed to long term partnering agreements weren't right ...
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Short and tweet: Su Butcher
Dispatches from the Twitter social networking site: Su Butcher is a practice manager at architect Barefoot and Gilles
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CommentBuilding buys a pint … for Moxon architects
If you ever have a drink with Moxon Architects, wait until you’re about four pints along and mention the city of Helsinki. The chances are that they’ll start acting like Basil Fawlty with a corpse in the laundry basket. Or at least, the men will
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CommentHaving it large
This week resembles nothing so much as a big night out, starting with a booze-up in the new bar, a comical confusion about who’s doing what, a late Currie – and of course the massive bill at the end
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From one Jim to another
I was saddened to read of the death of James Nisbet (5 June, page 14)
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CommentThe world according to Terry …
Thanks to architect Francis Terry, son of Quinlan, for sending us this pictorial explanation of the practice’s views on architectural styles – a useful aide-memoire for anyone following the Chelsea Barracks saga
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Open debate
To state that open-plan schools have not been studied, as suggested in your article “Can you hear me at the back?” (15 May, page 40), is somewhat wide of the mark