More Technical Case Studies – Page 6

  • ITER
    Features

    France's nuclear fusion reactor: The hottest and coldest place on earth

    2012-03-23T00:00:00Z

    Building goes on the trail of the ITER - a £12.5bn multinational project that might just save the world …

  • Exhibition Road
    Features

    Best supporting acts: The ICE awards

    2012-03-09T00:00:00Z

    Beneath Londoners’ feet, on their roads and in their stations, the city is undergoing arguably its biggest transformation since the Victorian age. The ICE awards, held last week, celebrated the cream of this current wave of infrastructure projects. Thomas Lane rounds up the winners

  • Marks and Spencer
    Features

    Sustainable supermarket: M&S's new Cheshire Oaks store

    2012-02-03T00:00:00Z

    At this enormous store in Chester, M&S is putting its Plan A sustainability programme to the test. And from the zero-waste policy to the innovative use of natural materials, all the evidence suggests that this is one plan A that is actually working … Building reports

  • Specifier
    Features

    Cladding the Dorchester extension: The rich kid next door

    2012-01-27T00:00:00Z

    When you’re building a hotel for the young and fabulously wealthy, bronze cladding may not sound excessive, but it was still proving beyond the means of the team behind the Dorchester’s new extension project - until they discovered a spray-applied alternative … Building reports

  • Farringdon station
    Features

    Farringdon station overhaul: Boring? If only!

    2011-12-09T00:00:00Z

    London’s Farringdon station has been given an overhaul and is ready for more passengers, bigger trains and Crossrail. But it hasn’t been an easy ride - and digging a 140m tunnel by hand was the least of it. By Thomas Lane. Photography by Colin Streater

  • Hydropower
    Features

    Hydropower: Water works

    2011-12-02T00:00:00Z

    With all the controversy over solar, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that hydropower produces a thousand times more electricity. Building investigates a power source that could light up the industry

  • Floating House
    Features

    Flood-proof house: Home and dry

    2011-11-11T00:00:00Z

    Would you build a house on the Norfolk Broads, one of the most flood-prone areas of the UK? LSI Architects did and its sophisticated design meant getting the project through planning was plain sailing.

  • projects
    Features

    Tall building design: Is it safe?

    2011-09-02T00:00:00Z

    Ten years ago the world watched two of New York’s most iconic towers come crashing to the ground. Since then the industry has changed the way tall buildings are built in an attempt to make them terror proof. Building takes a look

  • Montgomery Passivhaus School
    Features

    Top of the class: Passivhaus school design

    2011-08-12T00:00:00Z

    A primary school in Exeter won’t win any architectural awards, but is earning gold stars in zero-carbon and Passivhaus design. Thomas Lane swots up on how to deliver a low-energy building on a budget

  • 1,000 tonnes of reinforcement steel have been used in the raft foundation
    Features

    The Shard: Foot of the mountain

    2010-04-30T00:00:00Z

    The Shard had already climbed to 21 storeys by the time 700 truckloads of concrete were poured to create its foundation. So what was stopping it from falling down?

  • Features

    Strata tower: Southwark’s sore thumb

    2010-04-09T00:00:00Z

    The Strata tower sticks out 150m above south London’s downtrodden Elephant and Castle. But, rather than being a symbol of aspiration, the building is turning away from the very area it’s meant to be giving a lift

  • Changing the angle of one side of a roof “turret” had a knock-on effect on the rest of the roof design; a parametric model helped streamline the process of making changes
    Features

    Worcester Library and History Centre's roof

    2010-01-15T00:00:00Z

    The Worcester Library and History Centre’s geometrically complex roof needed to bring light into the building as well as get air out. Luckily, a powerful parametric model came to the rescue, as Stephen Kennett discovered

  • The main 400-seat auditorium. A similar natural ventilation strategy serves the adjacent studio theatre
    Features

    How cool is that? Hull Truck Theatre's passive-ventilated venue

    2009-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Hull Truck Theatre’s new performance space uses a passive ventilation system that relies on a warm audience reaction – fortunately, that has never been in short supply

  • Features

    Brentwood Community Hospital: Operation sunlight

    2009-03-13T00:00:00Z

    Sheppard Robson’s redevelopment of a PFI hospital in Essex aimed to maximise views for patients. But how did it square this rather pricey ambition with the need to keep costs down?