More news – Page 4548
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News
Peterhouse to expand
Construction-to-services group Peterhouse says it wants to attract investment by acquiring a listed company, probably a services-based firm, in the next nine months.Chairman David Jackson said Peterhouse must increase its market capitalisation from £56m to £100m-150m because many investors were not interested in smaller companies.Peterhouse Group, which floated on the ...
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News
Mowlem hints that SBG sale will fund FM growth
Disposal of scaffolding business could raise £105m for facilities management acquisition, say analysts.
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News
Cardiff stadium is Laing’s ‘catalyst for change’
Laing has called in consultant KPMG to rebrand its construction division in the wake of the Cardiff Millennium Stadium project, which helped wipe £5m off its half-year pre-tax construction profit.This loss was in addition to a £26m provision on the Cardiff project last year, which put Laing £24.4m in the ...
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News
Bovis Homes interim profit jumps 20%
Profit rises to £20.3m but chief Harris attacks interest rate rise.
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Features
One up at half time
Coventry City has a mountain to climb – a £122m stadium, a controversial site and Cardiff’s example of what can go wrong still fresh in the memory. The good news is that, so far, it’s all working out.
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Features
High noon?
Nick Raynsford is now faced with the crucial decision on how tough to make the quality mark, the centrepiece of his anti-cowboy plan. What factors will he be taking into account?
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Features
Alun Michael
As "prime minister" of Wales, Alun Michael holds the purse strings for development in the country. But will the man once called "Tony Blair's poodle" boost or curtail it?
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Comment
Make it legal
First person homeowners want a national approach to the cowboy problem that has the force of law. A new bill would give it to them.
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Comment
Give it another go
Why abandon buildings when they go out of fashion? With a little imagination, we could recycle the space.
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Features
Moonbase Walsall
The surreal lunar landscape may look like something out of Space 1999, but it is actually a roof of somewhere far more down to earth – a bus station in Walsall.
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Features
Replenishing the earth's resources
Planted roofs are still a rarity in the UK, unlike in Germany, where planning permission for developments on greenfield sites is granted only if the building’s roof and landscaping can provide greenery equivalent to the square meterage lost under concrete.The UK market for eco-roofs is a fraction of the size ...
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Features
Fluid dynamics
The arching, fluid lines engineered by Buro Happold at Stuttgart Station give the impression that its concrete roof is flowing down to the platforms like molten lava. This is liquid architecture.
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Features
Top priorities
We could put men on the moon but couldn't make roofs that installers didn't fall through, says Brendan Dowd, who wants everyone to take more care of each other.
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Features
Keeping the racket down
Acoustic designers could be costing clients money by over-specifying acoustic solutions. Now, software has been developed that tracks how sound moves through a building and how to stop it.
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Features
Spectacular comeback
A £26m cost overrun, a redesign and a row have wreaked havoc at the flagship venue for the Rugby World Cup. But they are all behind it now – just two weeks before the first match.
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Features
How did it go £26m over budget?
The main reason Laing lost so much money on the redevelopment of Cardiff Arms Park was that it guaranteed a maximum price on a design that was undergoing change. The original design had masts raking out at 45° at the four corners of the stadium, but a row between Millennium ...
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Features
Justice at the speed of light
The new payment rules are getting disputes worked out in only 28 days – none of that hanging around waiting for the other chap to go bust. But the courts can move even faster.
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Features
The trouble with GMP
Just as the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman, parties to a guaranteed maximum price contract should realise that price is not really guaranteed or maximum. If they don’t, they could be in trouble …
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Features
Entering extra time
A client makes a change to its building, so the contractor wants more time to build it. Believe it or not, the law was vague on how the extra time should be assessed. Now it may be clearer.
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Features
Cost study: National Energy Centre in Milton Keynes
Low-energy buildings usually mean high capital costs. But not the National Energy Centre in Milton Keynes; it was built for nearly £200/m2 below the average unit cost for headquarters buildings. Compiled by Weston Williamson, Ove Arup & Partners, and Davis Langdon & Everest