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Surveyors acting on behalf of commercial property owners are now allowed to use email when dealing with Party Wall notifications. The first ever amendment of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 came into force yesterday allowing notices and awards to be served to neighbours by email for the first time. Surveyors have still been issuing notices of construction work to neighbours by post or in person. James Audsley, the partner who heads up the Party Wall team at national building surveying firm, Malcolm Hollis LLP, said: “It has been 45 years since the first ever email was sent, but finally we are being trusted to modernise our practices. “It will be sad to see our corporate branded carrier pigeons let go, but times are changing. I am looking forward…

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London’s first timber skyscraper came a step closer to reality this week after researchers presented Mayor of London Boris Johnson with conceptual plans for an 80-storey building. Researchers from Cambridge University have teamed up with engineers and architects to work up plans for a 300m high wooden building integrated within the Barbican. At present, the world’s tallest timber building is a 14-storey apartment block in Bergen, Norway. The proposal presented to the Mayor by Cambridge University working with PLP Architecture and engineers Smith and Wallwork pushes the boundaries to envisage a structure that could be the second tallest building in London after The Shard. Simon Smith of Smith and Wallwork engineers said: “Timber is our only renewable construction material and in its modern engineered form it can work alongside steel and concrete…

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UK’s most considerate constructors get ready for 2016 National Site Awards The Considerate Constructors Scheme – the national Scheme to improve the image of the construction industry – will be hosting the prestigious 2016 National Site Awards at ceremonies throughout the UK this month (April). The Scheme will be rewarding the top-performing registered sites that have demonstrated the highest level of considerate construction towards the public, the workforce and the environment. This year’s National Site Awards apply to registered sites that completed in 2015. Over 3500 guests from construction sites of all different sizes will be attending award ceremonies during 11-29 April in Edinburgh, London and Manchester. For the first time, ‘value bands’ are being introduced to enable sites to be assessed based on their project value. The value bands are: …

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Lagan Construction International has been chosen by London City Airport for its runway overlay and taxiway widening scheme. Work is expected to start at the Docklands site in May. Main works will include overlaying the existing runway surface and widening and reinforcement of the taxiways. Refurbishment of the existing drainage network will also be carried out alongside installation of a new pit and duct network and upgrades to the lighting. Works will be undertaken outside of airport operating hours to ensure there will be no disruption to flights. Darren Grover, Chief Operating Officer at London City Airport said: “The runway overlay is a major project, made more complex by the unique location of our runway surrounded by water on three sides. “I look forward to working with…

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A online photographic resource detailing the buildings and places connected with William Shakespeare William Shakespeare’s legacy continues in classrooms all over the world. Despite the fact some of his works are over 400 years old, they still offer a foundation for learning and inspiration for literature. While his plays, texts and sonnets have been poured over by academics and amateurs alike, information about his life is poorly known as records are few and far between. The little we do know about his life we can be fairly certain of thanks to public records. It is these records which have been able to reveal the locations and areas where Shakespeare frequented and lived. Shakespeares Buildings

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Brightening your home is crucial in creating a peaceful living space for you and the family. There are plenty of ways and tricks to lighten up the mood in a home, with a few well chosen accessories and a good lick of luminous paint on the walls. But when this isn’t cutting it – and this is especially true for older buildings that tend to have smaller windows, it might be time for a bigger structural makeover. Conservatories Getting a conservatory to lighten up a room such as a dark kitchen is an excellent investment as you’re getting more space and much more light for a reasonable budget. Depending on your home style, you can decide to go for traditional CR Smith conservatories, or go full on …

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London’s Wandsworth council has shortlisted five consortia to help it regenerate a major estate next to Clapham Junction rail station. Tenants on the 32-acre estate site support most ambitious redevelopment plan The £1bn Winstanley and York Road scheme will regenerate a 32 acres site creating a new better-designed mixed-use neighbourhood of around 2,000 homes with new retail, leisure, community and office space. The scheme is being promoted as the flagship project in the Government’s crusade to bulldoze and rebuild the country’s worst sink estates. Winstanley and York Road scheme Shortlist Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Investments & First Base Berkeley Group C&C Properties UK & Pinnacle Group Lend Lease Europe Holdings Taylor Wimpey UK Council tenants and owner occupiers are being offered new homes in the development so they…

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New resource from the Considerate Constructors Scheme to capture the social value created through construction London, United Kingdom, 16 March 2016: Building Social Value – a simple way to report on the social value created through construction – has been launched by the Considerate Constructors Scheme for all Scheme registered sites, companies and suppliers. Building Social Value has been developed by the Scheme in conjunction with a number of leading construction companies and industry clients across the UK:  Basildon Borough Council; Kier Group plc; Land Securities Group plc; and Morgan Sindall. By using the Scheme to carry out the report, contractors and clients recognise that gaining a professional, third-party report will help them to evaluate the impact of their construction sites in creating social value. Scheme Monitors will …

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Staff and students from Heart of Worcestershire College rolled up their sleeves, grabbed their toolkits and got down to work as they answered a call to volunteer from BBC One series ‘DIY SOS: The Big Build’. In December last year, construction students from across the College, along with their tutors, headed down to the site in Bidford on Avon to lend a helping hand to Nick Knowles and his team. Getting stuck in straight away Brickwork apprentices, Aidan Woodbine and Dalton Griffiths along with tutor Rob Smith, began helping to construct the main brickwork elevation to the rear of the property before moving on to make alterations to the existing building both internally and externally including creating a feature fireplace wall. Once structural work had been completed …

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Company marks 500th client registration with Considerate Constructors Scheme London, United Kingdom, 8 March 2016: Bellway Homes Limited – one of the UK’s top housebuilders – has been recognised for its long-term commitment to improving the image of the construction industry. The company, which has been in business for over 70 years, reached its 500th client registration with the Considerate Constructors Scheme for the latest phases of The Pavilions development, in Tottenham Hale. Bellway’s The Pavilions is part of a staggering £450m regeneration of the Tottenham Hale area, providing over 1,200 new homes to the north London suburb. A pioneer of considerate construction, Bellway Homes led the way as one of the first housebuilders to register with the Scheme, in 1998. Since then, Bellway Homes has won seven Considerate Constructors …

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