All articles by Sonia Soltani – Page 2

  • Archive Titles

    Not so desperate housewives

    2006-07-14T00:00:00Z

    Back in 1986 when few of us had heard of sustainability (let alone Wisteria Lane), Milton Keynes launched a groundbreaking experiment in energy efficiency. Sonia Soltani went back to see how it had fared, and found the residents frantic not so much to save the planet as to enjoy those ...

  • Features

    You don’t have to be MAD to work here …

    2006-07-14T00:00:00Z

    … but it seems to be helping May Gurney, which has cut site accidents almost two-thirds since launching its Making A Difference initiative.

  • The new Wembley Park underground station, complete with creamy, acid-etched Belgian cladding
    Features

    How we work together

    2006-07-07T00:00:00Z

    Or how an architect found its ideal supplier … This week Sonia Soltani tells the tale of Pascall + Watson and Belgian concrete firm Decomo

  • How the City of London would look with Foreign Office Architects’ Trinity Office Complex, just below the Swiss Re tower
    Features

    There’s more than one way to skin an office

    2006-07-07T00:00:00Z

    The latest products and whole-life costs, notes on intelligent facades and the special love between an architect and its concrete supplier. But first, Sonia Soltani on the teams defying skills shortages to install extraordinary facades

  • Instead of stone ashlar, a lush vertical garden cloaks the wing facing the riverfront.
    Features

    Jean de florette

    2006-06-23T00:00:00Z

    Jean Nouvel's museum of ethnic art in Paris, which opens today, tries to find a flowery architectural language to talk of ‘death and oblivion, visions of haunted places and the consciousness of the sacred'. Martin Spring explains how he set about this somewhat unusual task - and assesses his success.

  • Visualisations of the double-decker lifts. Users enter the double-deck car simultaneously from two adjacent floors, having prebooked their journey using their ID card or a touchscreen terminal
    Features

    Express elevation

    2006-06-23T00:00:00Z

    Double-deck lifts - Office workers at Broadgate Tower won't be hanging around waiting in the lobby. They'll be speeding up its 34 storeys in the latest lift innovation.

  • News

    Rogers and Piano lead the pack at London Biennale

    2006-06-16T00:00:00Z

    Architects prepare to herd 60 sheep across Millennium Bridge, as Architecture Week events are held across UK

  • The house performs 40% better than the Part L carbon emission target
    Features

    Housing

    2006-06-16T00:00:00Z

    Contractor Osborne wanted to push the boundaries of sustainability, so it built a demonstration house packed with green features, from solar panels on the roof to heat pumps under the floor. Sonia Soltani paid a visit

  • Angus Robertson
    Features

    Just the job

    2006-06-16T00:00:00Z

    Angus Robertson tells Sonia Soltani how he followed his heart to the city that never sleeps

  • Modules are lowered into place at Berkeley First’s 17-storey tower. It will be completed in September, after just 21 months on site
    Features

    The only way is up

    2006-06-09T00:00:00Z

    Berkeley First had a mere 21 months to house 1000 students and key workers on a tight west London site. There was just one solution: the tallest modular construction the UK has ever seen. Sonia Soltani found out how it was built

  • The 5000 m² roof will span the shops and a new square, giving Broadmead a vibrant new identity
    Features

    Roofing

    2006-06-02T00:00:00Z

    This spectacular, undulating glass roof is about to be slung over Bristol's Broadmead shopping centre. Sonia Soltani finds out how it will revitalise the long-neglected site and be one in the eye for its rival outside the city. It also kicks off our eight-page focus on roofing products and prices

  • Cease and desist: Officers arrest rioting youths at the Cité des 4 Tours housing estate in the Paris suburb of Le Blanc Mesnil last November
    Archive Titles

    After the riots

    2006-05-19T00:00:00Z

    Youths running wild on suburban streets, police cracking down, violence, poverty, despair - not a scene from La Haine but real-life France last autumn. To stop this happening again, the French government is trying to revive the banlieues. Will it succeed and what can we learn from its efforts?

  • David Drake
    Features

    Just the job

    2006-05-19T00:00:00Z

    David Drake tells Sonia Soltani why he's glad he swapped manufacturing for quantity surveying

  • Zumtobel’s Active Light Wall is especially suited to retail display as colours can be changed at the touch of a button
    Features

    Retail and leisure

    2006-05-19T00:00:00Z

    With suppliers introducing such innovations as walls and ceilings of solid light and ‘light transmitting' concrete, Joannah Connolly and Sonia Soltani report on how retail specifiers are turning to showrooms rather than catalogues to check out the latest products.

  • The new entrance on Madison Avenue
    Features

    Piano's intermezzos

    2006-05-12T00:00:00Z

    For his New York debut, Renzo Piano has created a grand opening and some sympathetic connecting passages for the Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Avenue

  • Gemma Sapiano
    Features

    Just the job: work, rest and more pay

    2006-05-12T00:00:00Z

    Gemma Sapiano tells Sonia Soltani about her speedy rise to the role of construction manager

  • The refurbished office space is designed to offer more flexibility and energy efficiency
    Features

    Flooring

    2006-05-05T00:00:00Z

    This week's Specifier turns its attention to the ground beneath our feet - beginning in Birmingham, where an innovative thin flooring system helped to save this iconic building from demolition.

  • Despite the industry’s best efforts, insurers and mortgage lenders are still wary of homes built using modern methods of construction.
    Features

    Testing, testing

    2006-05-05T00:00:00Z

    Despite the industry's best efforts, insurers and mortgage lenders are still wary of homes built using modern methods of construction. Will a robust new standard from BRE, designed specifically to test durability and ease to repair, assuage their fears?

  • Features

    Just the job

    2006-04-28T00:00:00Z

    Design consultant Maurice Rosario tells Sonia Soltani all about working (and eating) in Cairo and Istanbul

  • Robert Adam & Alain de Botton - Portrait by Bohdan Cap
    Features

    The fast and the furious

    2006-04-21T00:00:00Z

    Alain de Botton (right) discusses his new book on design with philosopher Robert Adam.