More Focus – Page 427
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Features
As good as it gets
Training and developing staff is not only essential if the construction industry is to be as good as the client demands, says the CITB's director of training strategy Sheila Hoile, but also if the industry is to fulfil its workers' career ambitions
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Features
If I were in your boots …
In his latest management masterclass, Andrew Gay casts a beady eye over Mott MacDonald and tries to work out how a consultant with its talent can produce such mediocre results
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From Birmingham to Basra
One minute he was a QS in Birmingham, the next he was dodging Scuds in Iraq. Territorial Army lance corporal Craig Barker spoke to us about food rations, Saddam's yacht and keeping cool.
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… and relax
It’s 15 months late, it’s doubled in cost and the project team has got into a big fight with itself – but all will be forgotten when the warm waters of Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners’ Bath Spa are soothing harrowed souls …
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Features
The secret of our success
With the fastest-growing construction industry in Europe, Britain is the envy of its continental neighbours. And a revealing report shows that it's all down to the economy-transforming magic of the PFI.
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Features
Good morning, Vietnam
Welcome to joined-up 24-hour working, whereby consultants going to bed in the UK can hand over work to those waking up on the other side of the globe. But does outsourcing really open up a world of possibilities?
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Features
When walls have ears
When housebuilders were told they would have to test the acoustic insulation of homes to prove they complied with tough new regulations, they were so worried they decided to radically change the way homes were built instead
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Features
We have a dream …
Can new libraries really transform rundown cities, knit communities together and persuade young people of all races and classes to play and learn together? CABE's latest research says yes – and where better to test the theory than in race-riot-blighted Oldham?
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Towers of doom
Strange but true: countries that build the world's tallest building shortly afterwards suffer an economic catastrophe. Matthew Richards examines the link between skyscraper booms and economic bust – with special reference to the USA, Dubai, China and Taiwan
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Features
Temporary Queens
On Saturdays, in the dense heat of the New York summer, Manhattan sophisticates make one of their rare trips cross the East River to Long Island City, Queens. Their destination is the PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, where they happily queue around the block to spend the evening drinking, dancing and ...
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Features
Fellowship of the bullring
Or, how three developers, one city council and a handful of architects transformed a reviled 1960s concrete lump into the apotheosis of cool design. Martin Spring tells the story.
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Just the job
Fred Selolwane was born and grew up in Botswana, studied quantity surveying in England, then went back home to Africa to practice it. He tells Andy Pearson why
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Nice and easy does it
In this month's market snapshot, Experian Business Strategies reports that activity will continue to grow gently until October – apart from civil engineering, which is experiencing a full-scale boom
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Focus on the regions
A closer look at activity levels and order books in 11 regions around the UK, suggesting that Wales is a much better place to be than Northern Ireland …Please refer to the table to the left
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A run for his money
Nick Brooke likes a challenge – the serial marathon runner once ran a record-breaking 127 miles in 24 hours. Well, as RICS president he’ll need all his puff to pacify the institution’s members. He tells us about the need for increased subscription fees and going global.
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Features
The Lion and the Gherkin
Lion Plaza in the City of London is a fraction of the size of the Swiss Re tower, but it will take longer to build. We tell the story of a project that felt the weight of Murphy's law
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Features
Cost update: August 2003
We make our quarterly inspection of inflation in the industry, and find that it's chugging along at the 1-2% mark – but there is a 23% wage rise for craftsmen in the pipeline and the cost of some works packages are rising rapidly. Hot Rates focuses on claddings and coverings