Accelerated approval for wind farms
Accelerated approval for wind farms To help meet government energy targets, planning hurdles for wind farms have been lowered. But will it work? In July, the UK government approved six fixed offshore wind projects, generating electricity for more than 7 million homes. This will be a major boost to the UK’s efforts to meet its […]
Regenerative High-Rise
REGENERATIVE HIGH-RISE Bethel Teferra, Senior Consultant at Ramboll, illustrates how a modular, sustainable high-rise tower that evolves with a city’s needs could be a future reality and include engineered timber as key component. Modular houses may have been around for a while, but modular high-rise with flexibility in function is a relatively new concept. Imagine […]
Is Modular Construction the Answer
Is Modular Construction the Answer? Developers face plenty of challenges today: It’s difficult to find experienced labor. Material costs keep rising. And supply chain disruptions mean that it can be difficult to get everything from insulation to concrete and steel to construction sites on time. That’s why it’s not surprising to many commercial real estate […]
As we head for a sub-tropical climate, how do we design heat out of our homes?
As we head for a sub-tropical climate, how do we design heat out of our homes? For anyone who has been around house building since the 1980s, the introduction of Approved Document O: Overheating will seem rather ironic. Up until the 1980s we built houses rather like today. Brick and block cavity construction, but the […]
As the economy sinks, architects must avoid a race to the bottom
As the economy sinks, architects must avoid a race to the bottom What have the Tory leadership battle, NASA’s space programme and the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid all got in common? Each represents a so-far futile search for intelligent life. But, regardless of how smart you are, amid the political and professional chaos that we have […]
Why are we struggling to make modular work?
Why are we struggling to make modular work? A series of MMC firms have gone to the wall this year and doubts persist among more traditional builders. Tom Lowe looks at the issues involved A couple of months ago, a study by two academics found that using modular construction could cut carbon emissions by as much […]
US Factory-Built Homes Could Help Solve Housing Crisis
US Factory-Built Homes Could Help Solve Housing Crisis EUGENE, Ore. — As a boy in the late 1950s, Terry McDonald watched as workers built an 80,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in an industrial neighborhood on the west side of Eugene. Long after childhood, McDonald felt an affinity for the factory, where American Steel once fabricated heavy-duty […]
The coming food catastrophe
The coming food catastrophe By invading ukraine, Vladimir Putin will destroy the lives of people far from the battlefield—and on a scale even he may regret. The war is battering a global food system weakened by covid-19, climate change and an energy shock. Ukraine’s exports of grain and oilseeds have mostly stopped and Russia’s are threatened. Together, the two countries supply […]
Corporate and Distress Restructuring
Corporate and Distress Restructuring Corporate distress, including the legal processes of corporate insolvency reorganization and liquidation, is a sobering economic reality reflects the corporate demise. Many theorists stated that each firm is unavoidably exposed to ups and downs during its development (Burbank, 2005) and corporate collapse is not an unexpected event (Agarwal and Taffler, 2008). […]
Bank of England Report Warns of ‘Substantial’ SME Debt Vulnerablity
Bank of England Report Warns of ‘Substantial’ SME Debt Vulnerablity The Bank of England’s latest Financial Stability Report, released this week, points to the particular vulnerability of the SME sector as the economy emerges from COVID-19 restrictions. The twice yearly reports, compiled by the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee, sounded a warning about increased corporate indebtedness, […]
