More Focus – Page 260
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Features
On your marks: Countdown to 2012, London's Olympic stadium
No false starts here. Construction at London’s 80,000-seater Olympic stadium has got off faster than Usain Bolt (well, almost). Martin Spring watches the sprint towards that now famous deadline
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Features
A year in the life of the borrowers: the credit crunch one year on
Twelve months on from Northern Rock, Tom Bill looks back at how an unprecedented series of events unfolded, leaving most construction firms residing in the pockets of their clients and bank managers …
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Features
Library fines and other crimes: Feilden Clegg Bradley’s Addlestone town hall
Feilden Clegg Bradley’s £12.6m town hall in the Surrey town of Addlestone houses the council, public library and police station all under the same roof. Which means you’d better get your books back on time
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Features
Sun, sea and sandcastles
The British seaside is back – after all, who wants to go abroad with summers like ours…? To celebrate, we challenged some of our finest construction minds (plus sundry offspring) to a giant sandcastle building showdown. Roxane McMeeken and Katie Puckett commentate on the action.
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Features
Who guards the guards?: Arson and intimidation in Glasgow
Some security firms in Scotland don’t bother with tenders when they bid for work. Instead they make an offer you find difficult to refuse, and if you do, they apply a bit of muscle. But why do the authorities let it happen?
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Features
Procurement: Retail delivery
The successful fitting out of a major retail scheme owes a lot to effective retail delivery management. Simon Rawlinson and Nick Clare of Davis Langdon lift the lid on the processes involved
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Features
The fixer: James Bulley, the Olympics’ troubleshooter
Ah, the London Olympics. Twenty-three venues, 15,000 athletes, 9 million visitors. What could possibly go wrong? It’s James Bulley’s job to plan for anything that does. So why is he looking so damned cool?
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Features
Blood, sweat and fixed gears: ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV’s cycling track day
When dozens of the industry’s most fanatical cyclists descended on a London velodrome for ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV’s inaugural Track Day, an afternoon of frenetic racing ensued – stirring memories of a certain sporting extravaganza held in the stadium 60 years earlier …
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Features
The tracker: The bumpy road
Despite wider financial turmoil, most industry sectors held their position this month – although cracks begin to show when the regions are examined more closely, says Experian Business Strategies
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Features
A fine winery: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ Spanish project
In between its airport terminals and office towers, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners manages to find time for the odd small but perfectly formed project. Martin Spring visits a wine factory in northern Spain
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Features
Wates staff work on local community projects
Wates works with specialist waste expert Hippowaste on ‘Grants up for Grabs' initiative
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Features
First impressions: Projects by Hadid and Metropolitan Architects
Another ‘First Impression’ panellist, this time Michelle Sweeney, graduate from the School of Architecture at the University of Manchester, comments on five new schemes
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Features
We were there – Construction’s Olympians tell their stories
Construction is full of people who’ve lived the Olympic dream. As the Beijing Games kick off, eight of them tell Emily Wright about their years of training for moments of glory. Photography Michael Clement
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Features
A mighty wind – the government’s plans for wind farms
The government’s plan to build 3,000 offshore wind turbines with blades the length of football pitches will spark a new multibillion-pound industry – complete with thousands of jobs. Olivia Boyd explains how you can get involved
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Features
Country focus: France
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s honeymoon period may be at an end, but France is weathering the credit crisis relatively well and the construction industry is still a bastion of the economy, reports Patrick Leniston of EC Harris
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Features
The second coming – the Strategic Forum for Construction’s Nick Raynsford
As the Strategic Forum’s new chairman, Nick Raynsford is bent on getting the industry to comply with its targets, recently launched by his predecessor Mike Davies. But is the response likely to be any better than it was to Egan? Kate Wheal met them both to find out
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Features
Aquifer thermal storage: DIG! A Dutch method of sorting out energy
M&EÂ A Dutch method of storing all the energy required to heat and cool a building deep underground is coming to the UK. Stephen Kennett finds out how it works
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Features
The alternatives: Cooling and heating
Seasonal heat storeAt Beaufort Court (right), the headquarters for Renewable Energy Systems, environmental engineer Max Fordham created a seasonal heat store. This consists of about 1,000m3 of water held in a 5m deep hole, which tapers from 18m2 at the surface to 8m2 at the base – this shape does ...
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Features
ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV pathology: Boilers
Boilers have a tendency to go wrong at the most inconvenient times. Peter Mayer of ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV LifePlans discovers what the most common problems are, and how they can be avoided
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Features
‘Life is just one long series of crises and disappointments’: Nick Clegg interview
But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to try to make it better. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg thinks decentralised government, lower taxes and an end to ‘messing around’ with construction might help.Portraits by Julian Anderson