All articles by Tom Lane – Page 2

  • Colindale fire
    News

    Timber-frame firms defend their corner after blaze

    2006-12-15T06:00:00Z

    Sales unaffected by July's Colindale fire, say manufacturers - and safer systems are on the way

  • Features

    Sounding the fire alarm

    2001-12-14T00:00:00Z

    Use a blowtorch next to a stack of polystyrene insulation blocks, polythene-wrapped to a wooden pallet, and sooner than you can cite the health and safety code, you've got a roomful of poison gas. Something like this happens 11 times a day on UK sites. Tom Lane asks what's going ...

  • Features

    Photo Finnish

    2001-08-03T00:00:00Z

    Finnish timber firm Finnforest has created its own all-wood office in Lincolnshire – complete with sauna – to showcase its wares

  • Features

    Revolution in retirement

    2001-02-23T00:00:00Z

    McCarthy & Stone may be in the business of building retirement homes, but its attitude to IT is far from fuddy-duddy.

  • Features

    Faults on the line

    2001-02-16T00:00:00Z

    London and Quadrant Housing Trust's repairs hotline was already overstretched when its maintenance budget was frozen. So it's developed an internet service to make everyone's life easier.

  • Features

    Chaos theory

    2001-02-16T00:00:00Z

    You can tell at a glance there's madness in the method used to design this canopy over Melbourne's Federation Square. Its structure is based on the mathematical model that describes the pattern of patchwork quilts …

  • Features

    We'd like to build the world a house

    2001-02-09T00:00:00Z

    Özdemir and Sheena Keskin have spent 15 years developing the Termo House. They say the fast, easy-to-build and eco-friendly system will provide low-cost housing for millions around the world.