More Focus – Page 434
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Features
Players on the terrace
A record number of MPs and the industry's top brass attended ¾«¶«Ó°ÊÓ's annual reception on the House of Commons terrace, where they heard a controversial speech by Peter Rogers.
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Watching the waste
Rubbish is the latest and the sexiest building material, according to this £100m recycling plant-cum-theme park on the island of Majorca
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Open to the elements
You don't often see a wind turbine on the top of a high-rise apartment block. But that's just one of the ideas Manchester's Macintosh Village team has come up with to create this super-eco-friendly residential building.
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No contest
As more PFI projects line up on the horizon, it seems that fewer contractors are willing to bid for them. So is the government's flagship policy in trouble? We look at the PFI model as it goes global and asks if the UK's lumbering original can compete.
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Virtual success
David Bentley of NetConstruct wonders if companies know why they have websites
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Welcome 160
To celebrate the occasion of its 160th birthday, ¾«¶«Ó°ÊÓ has done something young and foolish: it has tried to predict what's going to happen over the next 30 years or so. Big subject, the future.
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Wilson 160
Nostradamus didn't say anything about what the construction industry would look like in 2033.
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Technology 160 - 2033 Site
The building project of the future will be a model of rationality. If the initial design is good, and the system is operated properly, the process of procuring and erecting a building will be an elaborate, computer-choreographed dance in which many hundreds of people will perform precisely the right steps ...
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Technology 160 - 2033 Home
In the UK, 30 years is not a long time in housing. If we were transported back in time to 1973, we would be astonished by the archaic design of cars, telephones, hair and instant coffee, but we would be at home in the houses. So it is safe to ...
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Technology 160 - 2033 Office
The office of the future will contain much of the same furniture as the office of the present, but a lot of the equipment and objects will go. Say sayonara to the fax, copier, shredder and shelf after shelf of lever-arch files. Instead, information will be stored on servers and ...
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Love the car
The funny thing about technology is that most of the time, progress grinds along incrementally – but then suddenly, even unpredictably, there's an explosion that changes our entire world. Take two technologies that have a lot to do with cities and city life: transport and communications. And, since we're looking ...
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Space 160
Nostalgia has already set in for the nuclear family. The semi-detached suburban utopia of 2.4 children, plus dog – not to mention the gas-guzzling car in the driveway – now only exists in the sweetly sentimental works of the poet John Betjeman. Today's image of the typical family appears dystopic ...
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Environment 160
Life on the edgeWe think of global warming the way a smoker thinks about lung cancer. We know, in a distant, abstract way, that what we are doing could have some serious consequences for our health, but we solve the problem by refusing to think about it. Smokers shy away ...
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Business 160
Extract from ¾«¶«Ó°ÊÓ, 18 July 2033:So, after all the speculation, the shortlist for main contractor on London One, the world largest office complex, has been narrowed down to two candidates. It's no surprise that the global powerhouse of Bechtel Beatty made the cut for the *8bn project – it has ...
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Society 160
"… and on BBC9, Harlan Davis' How Did We Get Here examines social change in the first three decades of the 21st century; this week its the turn of the built environment". A 3D image of Harlan, looking a bit of a prat in his trademark leather trousers, appears on ...
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Features
Meades 160
Go to a fully accredited tourist village in any European country – Ireland, Germany, France, wherever. We all know these places – steeped in the romance of history, sweating heritage, foetid with feudal associations and so on. We will certainly find examples of the vernacular architecture peculiar to their area, ...
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Features
The dark side of construction
Every two days, a construction worker commits suicide – which is higher figure than any other professional sector. We explore what lies behind this disturbing statistic.
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Features
Dermot Gleeson
The chairman of MJ Gleeson may look like he's sitting pretty as he takes over the hot seat at the Major Contractors Group. But the question everybody's asking is, can he stop its members from leaving?
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Features
Empty promises?
Prescott's plan to build the homes that southern England so desperately needs is not going to work without a huge increase in funding. So far, there is little sign that he has the money or the political support to make it happen.