Features

Simon Castle, Managing Director of construction and fit-out contractor, Chisholm & Winch, discusses a phased refurbishment which was delivered while the client retained business-as-usual operating conditions.

A new standard will ensure that energy efficiency retrofits are carried out properly. But is that enough to encourage the surge in retrofitting we need to hit our ambitious carbon targets? Hudson Lambert, Director of Safeguard Europe, investigates.

The B&M group is the fastest-growing variety goods value retailer with stores operating in the UK, Germany and France. It has recently injected £100m in investment to create a new distribution centre in Bedford that is expected to create 1000 new jobs. The distribution centre will become B&M’s third in the UK and will support its southern operations. Started in April 2019, the project took just over eight months to complete.

The specification of trees within an urban area can provide many benefits, including improving inhabitants’ mental and physical wellbeing, to filtering urban pollutants and aiding the offset of carbon emissions.

Justin Hayward, Technical Timber Manager at Lathams, explores the versatility of engineered wood and its increasing popularity in both contemporary and heritage projects.

Some 5% of all deaths in the UK’s largest towns and cities are linked to toxic air exposure. Now, with air pollution thought to exacerbate the symptoms of COVID-19, there is an even greater need to review infrastructure, improve sustainability and meet our carbon-zero goals. Richard Hyams, Founder of astudio, investigates.

There is no predicting what the UK will look like by the time this piece is published so here’s a reminder of the UK in mid-June: consumer lockdown is easing, queues for non-essential stores re-opening were featured on the news, the weather is good, property viewings are up, and houses are selling. You’d be tempted to think that life is getting back to normal, says Santtu Kottila, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of Leadoo Marketing Technologies.

Writing in the Times last month, Architect Norman Foster relates how he was asked in a BBC documentary to name his favourite building. Without hesitation, he cited the now disappearing Jumbo 747. Six storeys high at the tail, with about 3000ft2 of space, five lavatories, three kitchens and room for 367 guests, he believes the 747 is genuinely architectural both in its design and its thinking. And, what’s more, it flies!

Barry Wark’s project for the Glasgow School of Art proposes the creation of new educational studios, public spaces and gardens, forming a block-wide strategy in response to the series of fires that have destroyed Mackintosh’s national icon.

Led by Ma Yansong, MAD Architects has released the design of the Wormhole Library, which sits on the coast in Haikou, Hainan Province in China. The sensuously curved pavilion appears to be a “wormhole that transcends time and space”.