More Focus – Page 516
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Signed, sealed and delivered
Architects and specifiers rejoice! A new international standard for sealant specification means goodbye to hours spent searching for the right product.
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Becoming unattached
BT claims its new cordless workstations will halve companies' space requirements and slash their overheads – Laing says they have cut one of its firms' rental costs 40%. Here's how they work.
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Cost study: National Agriculture Centre
In common with many farmers, the Royal Agricultural Society sees diversification as the key to increased competitiveness. The society hopes that the new exhibition hall at its National Agriculture Centre in Warwickshire will allow it to attract general trade shows and give the nearby Birmingham National Exhibition Centre a run ...
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Fighting fit
Exercise can alleviate stress and improve work performance. Impress your boss by making it this new year's resolution.
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Appointments
ContractorsGraham Carr, former managing director of Willmott Dixon's sister company E Turner & Sons, has been appointed managing director of the firm's Birmingham-based construction operation.Birmingham construction company Buxton has appointed Stuart Handley and Mick Bates site managers.Construction and development company The Rydon Group has made the following promotions. Bob Bond ...
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Your £250,000 green tax bill
Do the government's green initiatives sound like so much hot air to you? In fact, the climate change levy, due in April, looks set to make a big difference to the whole of the construction market.
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Wessex man
Rab Bennetts' headquarters for Wessex Water set a new mark for low-energy buildings, but how can this standard become standard practice? Well, actually, it's perfectly simple …
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The green century
With the failure to agree a deal in The Hague, the EU is set to take the lead on climate change. For European construction, it looks like everything is about to go green.
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The all-powerful
Everything about the Maitreya Buddha being built in northern India is impressive. It costs £100m, is three times the height of the Statue of Liberty and is designed to last 1000 years. Oh, and it's sustainable, too.
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These buildings are rubbish
Literally. Doncaster's Earth Centre is made of used radiators, old cement and reclaimed timber – and it's the cutting edge of design.
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Green gauges
Building visited Sainsbury's eco-store in Greenwich and asked members of the public how green they were.
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Managing Green Issues
Managing Green IssuesTom CurtinMacmillan£18.99205 pagesIf you subscribe to the belief that people-carriers are "gas-guzzling fecundity symbols", you probably won't like this book's cynical appraisal of both the protagonists and critics of the environmental debate. The problem with debasing environmental issues by relabelling them as marketing campaigns is that they still ...
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Building for a Sustainable Future: Construction without Depletion
Building for a Sustainable Future: Construction without DepletionInstitution of Structural EngineersSETO£3096 pagesThis is a concise listing of all the quantifiable design and analysis tools the engineering profession must start using to minimise their collective environmental impact. The book is worth buying just for the embodied energy tables in the appendix. ...
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Sustainable Architecture – European Directives and Building Design
Sustainable Architecture – European Directives and Building DesignBrian EdwardsArchitectural Press£35277 pagesThis is the book that explains to the building industry why construction really needs rethinking. It is ideal for all those efficiency-oriented Eganites who want to work out what the next agenda is, and where the carrots and sticks are ...
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A Green Vitruvius: Principles and Practice of Sustainable Architectural Design
A Green Vitruvius: Principles and Practice of Sustainable Architectural Designprepared for the European CommissionJames & James£25145 pagesA worthwhile and easy-to-use listing of the complex design methodologies that should be considered by any architect working towards more sustainable building solutions. I suspect the real problem is that there are just too ...
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The New Autonomous House
The New Autonomous HouseBrenda and Robert ValeThames & Hudson£18.95256 pagesThis book summarises the achievement of the Vales, the UK's best practitioners of sustainable architecture, and shows how homes could approach self-sufficiency even on urban plots. Brenda and Robert Vale illustrate what is possible today with a rare mixture of practicality ...
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Energy and Environment in Architecture – A Technical Design Guide
Energy and Environment in Architecture – A Technical Design GuideNick Baker and Koen SteemersE&FN Spon£37.50224 pagesThe low-energy strategies explained in the first half of this book illustrate how simple design decisions can save energy. The second half shows how each design tool can be quantified from first principles using a ...
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The clean machine
The fuel cell is a reliable, sustainable and efficient source of energy. So far, it hasn't been economically viable, but a project in Surrey suggests things may be about to change.