Opinion – Page 369

  • Comment

    The perfect contract

    2009-07-17T00:00:00Z

    It was interesting to read the letters in response to Tony Bingham’s article (3 July, page 28)

  • Comment

    Let’s have a heated debate

    2009-07-17T00:00:00Z

    I would like to bring to your attention the worrying practice of organisations that fill the CDM co-ordinator (CDMC) role on projects at fee levels that cannot facilitate the proper delivery of the CDMC function

  • Contrary to what you may have heard on television, fire doors are a serious business …
    Comment

    Don’t listen to the media

    2009-07-17T00:00:00Z

    In the recent programme Property Snakes and Ladders (Channel 4, 9 June) presenter and property developer Sarah Beeny recommends replacing the use of tested and certificated fire doors by ordinary doors painted with intumescent paint

  • Comment

    Sounding out

    2009-07-17T00:00:00Z

    Your recent articles on school acoustics (10 June, building.co.uk) really caught my eye

  • Comment

    What an amazing spike! Any thoughts on the causes?

    2009-07-15T09:53:00Z

    Here's a mystery.I have my own theories, and admittedly have the advantage of the data to test them, but I was wondering if there are any of you out there who have any views as to what might lie behind this rather surprising effect of the credit crunch.I will refrain ...

  • Comment

    House prices likely to rise say surveyors

    2009-07-14T11:24:00Z

    The shortage of homes on the market has provided surveyors with increased confidence that house prices may rise, according to the latest RICS survey.For the first time since May 2007 more surveyors polled by the RICS expect house prices to rise than expect them to fall.And the RICS sales to ...

  • Comment

    It's worse in construction than we thought say forecasters

    2009-07-13T17:53:00Z

    The latest forecasts to emerge in the current round all see the future prospects for construction as far gloomier than was expected when the number crunchers examined the figures three months or so ago.Experian now expects a 12% decline this year compared with an 8% fall and Hewes has shaded ...

  • Comment

    Our predicament

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Both parties admit that the axe will have to fall on public spending soon, although politicians have been too squeamish to describe this in detail

  • Comment

    Chelsea changed everything

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    The fall of Rogers’ Chelsea Barracks scheme was not so much the cause of an enjoyable public row as the effect of a fundamental change in the way we do design

  • Comment

    My digital life: Cressida Toon

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    What is your favourite website?

  • Comment

    Wonders & blunders

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Guy Austin revels in Renault’s stunning underground Oxfordshire laboratory but a Hampshire new town is about as much fun as having your teeth drilled without anaesthetic

  • Comment

    Hansom ’tis the season to be what?

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    In the building industry this week we find tidings of joy, hustle and bustle at train stations, cosy quilts, lots of presents and a fun quiz. Um … it is July, isn’t it?

  • Comment

    Lost in Translation

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Designers can have 10 great ideas before breakfast, but if they can’t find ways of making the bureaucracies that run our world understand them, they’re doomed

  • Comment

    Don’t get the wrong idea

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    I enjoyed the interview with Steven Morgan of BAA (26 June, page 26), but it was easy to misinterpret what he had to say about frameworks and collaborative working

  • Comment

    Good riddance

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    It was striking to see the large number of articles and letters in last week’s edition (26 June) fretting about, and even anticipating, the demise of partnering and frameworks and the return of dreaded competitive tendering

  • Comment

    Find the combination

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Looking behind the headlines (26 June, page 26), I wonder if BAA is really looking to “ditch” frameworks or to question how and where they are used and to what effect?

  • Steven Morgan’s trenchant views on the bracing effects of competition have provoked equally trenchant views from readers …
    Comment

    What would Aristotle do?

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    What a relief to read Steven Morgan’s views on procurement at BAA (26 June, page 26).

  • Comment

    Get it sorted

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    My small practice recently lost out because we didn’t “fit the selection criteria”. This was despite the fact that we had worked on about a third of the client’s properties and had performed to everyone’s satisfaction

  • Comment

    Fight, fight, fight! (productively)

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    The trouble with advocates of single-stage competitive tendering and the collaborative crowd, is that they are both coming from the extreme end of their respective spectrums

  • Comment

    Cat fight

    2009-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Open mike Prospective office tenants seem to want less waste, less energy consumption and lower costs. Impossible? Actually, it isn’t – if you use ‘smart cat A’, says William Poole-Wilson