The UK has a new prime minister who wants to shake up housing delivery by building more on green belt land. But this would be fiercely contested; is the answer to build more homes on brownfield sites?
The demand for housing in the UK is putting pressure on land, with the consequence that greenfield sites—those that have never been built on—are increasingly seen as a development opportunity.
The world around us is shaped by architects and designers. In 1985 the Paris-based International Union of Architects launched World Architecture Day to highlight the work of those who design our built environment.
Manufacturing homes in a factory can lead to quicker delivery times and bolster quality
The construction industry lags many other sectors when it comes to adopting technology. Could robotics be the answer to the sector’s skill shortage and help deliver faster, better-quality buildings?
Homes have been created underground since prehistoric times, but with the climate emergency getting worse and the issue of land availability becoming more pressing, could we see the construction of more subterranean homes?
The construction sector has just got back into its stride, but now faces more uncertainty, as rising energy and material prices set to put a dent in the sector’s efforts to return to normal.
Rising tidal activity, in part driven by climate change, increasingly threatens coastal communities. Officials are assessing shore defenses around the country, including considering seawalls. But are such structures the answer, or are there more effective alternatives?
Contractors undertaking a building project need to know who can supply them with the materials to complete the job, at what price and when. This is where a request for information (RFI) comes in.
Engineers have a crucial role to play in making the built environment greener, particularly when it comes to delivering infrastructure that impacts the world around us. In an interview with Bluebeam, expert Tim Chapman of Arup and the Institution of Civil Engineers spells out what needs to be done.
The collapse of contracting giant Carillion offered a lesson for the construction sector. It reminded the industry of the need to carry out jobs for the right amount of money and to maintain good cash flow. It has also led to the sector looking at new technologies such as cryptocurrency to smooth out cash flow issues.
The construction industry needs to address not only the operational carbon of a building – what it emits throughout its use – but the embodied carbon in buildings, which is linked to the materials used to deliver it, along with the construction activity itself.
Construction work in the UK is regulated by the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. Introduced in 1994 and most recently revised in 2015, the regulations set out what is expected of those involved in the delivery of a building project
Property developers deliver our homes, offices and the facilities we regularly use. However, these organizations often gain a reputation for dodgy behaviour, shoddy practices and poor quality. How can the sector ditch its tag of being unethical and embrace better working methods?
Thanks to Brexit and the covid pandemic-related supply chain issues the cost of building materials – everything from bricks to timber and steel – soared during 2020 and 2021. Just as this situation began to ease, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine piled yet more cost pressures on a number of key products. How can the industry mitigate these and meet the demand for new homes, infrastructure schemes and other projects?
