Having to close a shop, factory or warehouse for your quarterly or annual inventory check is frustrating. Climbing a ladder tens of feet into the air to count with a laser scanner, or worse a pen and paper, is both scary and precarious. Yet these tasks require the attention of…...
Norra Tornen Towers Project
Last year, in Sweden, OMA was awarded the contract to build twin residential towers to mark the gateway to the new Hagastaden neighbourhood of Stockholm. The ground-breaking ceremony is scheduled for May 2015, but until then new pictures released this week show that a couple of truly astonishing pieces of…...
Government Rights to Light Proposals Announced
There has been speculation over the last 23 months or so about what may happen to the country's centuries old laws that govern a building right to be kept out of the shade, not least in this Telegraph article from 2013. To give a brief rundown of a building's rights…...
Fighting Crime by Design
Clients don't always ask for secure buildings. It's not necessarily the first specification that comes to mind when commissioning a new design, so it's generally left up to the architects to determine whether safety or crime prevention need to be a priority. In the past, concern with security at the…...
Construction Industry Growth Opens Vacancies
Latest figures for October 2014 show that Construction and Property are one of the top five sectors that can boast year-on-year growth in advertised vacancies since 2009. Based on recruitment firm Reed's 'Job Index', opportunities are at their highest since 2009 across the board, with the top five sectors…...
SketchUp 2015 Released
The beginning of November saw the release of the 2015 update to Trimble's SketchUp 3D modelling program. Those who are familiar with SketchUp can skip ahead a little if they like, while we go over a little history for the latecomers. SketchUp was developed independently and launched in 2000…...
President of China Calls for an End to Extreme Architecture
Along with China's booming economy, record production figures and thriving construction scene, has come one or two unforeseen issues. And it's not soaring pollution levels, stripped natural resources, or an increase in poverty amongst the poorest regions brought about by the inexorable industrial machine. Everyone knew those things were going…...
Vectorworks releases its 2015 suite
In September of 2014, US software company Menetschek announced the release of the 2015 update for its Vectorworks Building Information Modelling suite. The new version contains over one hundred updates and new features, particularly focussing on architecture, BIM, entertainment design and urban planning. A recovering building industry, combined with the…...
Rising AEC Industry Growth Could Mean a Shortage of Workers
McGraw-Hill Construction, or MHC, have some startling predictions for the global construction industry. A survey conducted recently amongst firms in the AEC industry expects non-residential building projects to grow by an amazing 73% over 2011 levels, by 2015. That's the good news. The bad news is that many survey…...
AutoCAD 2015 Review
With Autodesk's release of AutoCAD 2015 back at the end of March 2014, now everyone's had a chance to play with it for a while, what have we discovered? Well, this version is certainly more evolution than revolution, with no major changes or re-designs to get your head around,…...