More Focus – Page 398
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Features
An inside job
Breaking into the former NatWest HQ was the easy part. Ripping the heart out of it to create state-of-the-art offices while preserving the listed facade, banking hall and directors’ suites, and shifting 1000 lorry-loads of rubble without disturbing the heavyweight neighbour – well, that needed something like a plan … ...
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Blocking out the pain
Construction manager Tony Bennett is planning to run 250 miles while holding a brick, a feat that will earn him a place in the Guiness Book of Records.
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Off site and off piste: Bob the Builder takes to the slopes
Bob the Builder premiers latest movie at the ICA and unveils a glamourous new leading lady.
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L of a challenge
Industry has less than a month to respond to the ODPM’s radical proposals for Part L of the building regs. John Tebbit, industry affairs director at the CPA, picks out the highlights.
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Ask Edward
The right to employee status and the right to a pay rise are this week's points of legal confusion
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Tricky business
In the fourth of five monthly articles, ǿմý, in association with ConstructionSkills, investigates why construction operates so inefficiently – and asks what can be done to improve performance.
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B-Trac Services: A business success story
Paul Banner is managing director of B-Trac Services, a small maintenance company in the West Midlands working for housing associations. He explains how his firm achieved Investor in People status
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IT workshops: How builders are updating their skills
Robin Hood-Leeder explains how the Federation of Master Builders is trying to help its members improve their performance by setting up IT workshops
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Holyrood reaction
The Fraser Report may have passed down its judgment on the Scottish parliament building, but the mud is still flying. Here, ǿմý’s readers join the fray and Rob Smith, senior partner at Davis Langdon, defends his firm’s decisions as cost consultant on the project
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Are parliaments inherently unmanageable?
Solicitor Matthew Bell argues that Holyrood was always going to be a problem – but at least it is in good company …
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Blob on the Tyne
Foster’s Sage music centre in Gateshead is positively puffed up with pride. And justifiably so thanks to a dramatic riverfront setting and its promise to put the city on the cultural map
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PFI in limbo
Ten years after it burst on the scene, PFI has become bogged down in project delays. As research published this week reveals yet more missed PFI targets, We report on how contractors are upping sticks and taking their expertise abroad
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Top 200 Consultants 2004: Monsters, Inc
This year’s consultants league table ranks the 200 biggest, scariest practices in the UK – and then breaks them down into bite-sized top 100 architects, engineers and surveyors charts. So who are the Godzillas and the Godzukis of the industry this year? We report from under his desk, Tables compiled ...
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Inside off-site
Modern methods of construction are now being used on all manner of projects, from restaurants to naval bases. Mark Faithfull looks at the latest developments and asks: could this be the age of off-site?
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OSM experienced
For many project teams, using OSM means embarking on a scarily steep learning curve involving substantial changes to their traditional building processes. So how can they be sure of getting it right? At Mtech Group, we apply this simple checklist, nominally aligned to the RIBA workplan, that focuses the project ...
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Language skills
Learning the right words and phrases is the key to understanding a new culture. So, here with “Off-site manufacture: Lesson one” is Mtech Group
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Regulations roundup
A brief guide to recently issued regulations with pointers to upcoming changes in regulations and consultation documents
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Five tips for complying with the DDA
By today, organisations that deal with the public should have complied with the Disability Discrimination Act by making their services accessible to people with disabilities. What constitutes a fully DDA-compliant building has yet to be decided, as this will be determined by a body of case law. In the meantime, ...