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The challenge
The Co-op wanted to build a landmark building for its new headquarters. The 16-storey, 330,000sq ft building contains general offices, a call centre, meeting rooms, a restaurant, a café, and test kitchens. There is also car and bike parking, loading bays, and ancillary…
As the first snow flurries spread across the UK at the end of November it reminds us that winter can pose some additional problems for buildings and everyone in and around them.
Aside from freezing temperatures, icy surfaces, severe storms and bad weather to test our structures to the limits,…
The Construction Industry Council (CIC) have published a new free inclusive design guide.
Entitled the 'Teaching and Learning Briefing Guide - 'Bringing inclusive design into built environment education', the guide's purpose is to illustrate key issues in terms of improving knowledge,…
LABC's Lorna Stimpson explains how LABC is responding to the need for standardised practices across the profession. (Published in RICS Building Control Journal).
Increasingly, the building industry has become part of a wider national and international business involving many large…
Acoustics can be a real nuisance on a conversion project where there is a material change of use (MCOU). Being unsure of differences between material properties could lead to pitfalls; for example, knowing which plasterboard product has the required mass of 10kg/m² as opposed to a 8kg/m² board…
Do you work with structural steel frame buildings? If so, read on...
A new Alert guidance document published by Structural-Safety* incorporating CROSS (Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety) and SCOSS (Standing Committee on Structural Safety) and the HSE (Health & Safety Executive…
While it’s important to get the design and installation of the pile foundations right first time, one thing you may not have considered are the documents you need to submit to ensure the foundations are approved by building control.
To help minimise any delays you need to ensure your paperwork…
One of our surveyors was alarmed when called out on site recently for an excavation inspection. Above is what he saw.
The Building Regulations application was actually for a new foundation to connect the back of the house to the detached garage, but the builder had taken the opportunity to…
A raft foundation is a reinforced concrete slab under the whole of a building or extension, 'floating' on the ground as a raft floats on water. This type of foundation spreads the load of the building over a larger area than other foundations, lowering the pressure on the ground.This is an…
Smoke alarms have been a standard feature in new homes since they were first introduced into Approved Document B in 1992. Whilst they are now installed as a matter of course, just how much consideration is given to ensuring that they are located correctly?
Siting alarms correctly throughout a…