More Focus – Page 297
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Features
No rush to judgment
Housebuilders and planners have blamed each other for the UK’s housing shortage, but the head of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit believes a more rounded approach is called for. Mark Leftly meets Kevin Williamson
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Features
Cost model: Further education
England’s tired further education colleges need about £5bn of work to bring them up to date. Simon Rawlinson of Davis Langdon explores the design, procurement and cost issues
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Features
Batten down the hatches
Hull council wants to make flood resistance a condition of planning permission, but is it possible to build a house capable of resisting the recent freakish weather? And would anybody buy one?
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Features
The quiet revolutionary
Don’t be fooled by the lack of windmills and solar panels – this Innovate Properties building in Leeds is the greenest office in the UK, even with its mechanical ventilation. Eleanor Cochrane finds out how it was done
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Features
The art of Deco
Ansell Lighting has launched Deco Highbay, a light designed for situations in which both illumination and visual impact are required, for example in offices, shops and restaurants.
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Features
Air-source heat pumps
DEVI has released Danfoss, a range of air source heat pumps that supply heating and hot water simultaneously.
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Features
Mixed-flow fan
Ventilation specialist Addvent has launched a range of mixed-flow fans that come in 100mm, 125mm, 150mm and 200mm models.
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Features
Lift for timber-frame buildings
Stannah has developed a structure-supported lift, designed specifically for timber-frame buildings, for which traditional lift structures are too rigid.
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Features
Temperature and power monitoring
ETI has developed the ThermaGuard, a system that monitors the temperature and power status of a building and reports it to the user by telephone.
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Features
Emergency stairway lighting
LED lighting company EcoLEDLighting has launched an energy-efficient emergency stairway lighting range, which it says is ideal for public buildings and industrial and public walkways, bridges, tunnels, mines and underground rail systems
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Features
Should estate agents be barred for not complying with Hips?
The Office of Fair Trading has issued a stern warning to estate agents - were they right to do so?
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Features
The golden years
If the eighties were the era of Thatcher’s children, then the late nineties and the noughties belonged to Blair’s bling.
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Features
Blair, Brown and bling
Construction directors and their employees got rich under TB. Now that Gordon’s at No 10, how can he keep the good times rolling? Mark Leftly offers a few dos and don’ts
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Features
Market forecast: Tender prices head up
Tender prices are continuing to soar, especially in London, but the rise in the cost of building is set to slow over the next year
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Features
‘Developers use appeals to blackmail the council’
And that has to stop, says Katrine Sporle, the head of the Planning Inspectorate. It’s just one of her prescriptions for the ailing system. But is she right? In the second of our series of articles on planning, David Blackman tries to find out
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Features
Narrow site access: How do you get a four-bedroom house through this door?
Imagine getting all the materials for a four-bedroom house with nanny flat through a standard-sized doorway on a busy London street (yes, that one on the left). Tricky, no? Now imagine doing it against the wishes of some mightily cheesed off and powerful neighbours. Thomas Lane reports on a project ...
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Features
Gordon Brown wants 3 million new homes by 2020.
If they are ever to be built, Britain’s planning system needs radical change. The planning white paper, now out to consultation, aims to streamline applications. But critics claim it does little to stop councils playing politics with housing.
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Features
Guess who just upped their street cred
You’d expect the winners of the Housing Design Awards to be ambitious schemes. But you may be surprised to learn they’ve been built by the biggest mass developers and the smallest social landlords. Martin Spring celebrates some of the best entries and, on page 50, revisits a trailblazing former winner.Photographs ...