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The yearly Premier League season lasts for around nine months. What with regular training sessions and of course football matches, the busy schedule leaves little room for clubs to carry out building work without severely disrupting the player’s fixtures. As a result, construction needs to be done quickly and efficiently, while still producing high-quality, usable buildings. Replacing the traditional bricks and mortar method of building, fabric structures are becoming increasingly popular. Fabric structures boast a number of benefits, so it’s easy to see why so many football clubs choose to use them. Here are just a few of the advantages: Bespoke designs Fabric structures are not restricted to the same limitations as typical brick structures. Rather, they can be made in a variety of intricate shapes …

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The £17 million project for a complete makeover of the front entrance of Leeds railway station has been given the go-ahead by the government. Work will see passengers receive better access to the railway site, with a new pedestrian entrance and improved access to the southern side of the station from the existing platform footbridge. Final approval for the project was issued by local transport minister Baroness Susan Kramer yesterday (October 31st). The minister said the scheme will help the Leeds city economy to grow as it will provide improved access for the people who work towards the southern end of the station. Baroness Kramer said: “The £12.4 million we are putting into this project shows that the coalition government is serious about investing in …

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Most construction companies believe that they have good engagement with the workforce. But as Rhaynukaa Soni argues, operatives need management to demonstrate a more active interest in their on-site safety. On most construction sites today you will find a plethora of signage, notice boards, information sheets, posters… the list is endless and I now refer to it as ‘posteritis’. How much of this is actually read and absorbed by those on-site remains questionable. A challenge I’ve set many times when visiting various sites is to tell operatives that they will be awarded £1m right there and then if they can recall five of the posters currently on their notice board – no one can. Despite a significant increase over the last 10 years in …

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Housing Minister Kris Hopkins has offered a deal that will give a decade of strong protection for social tenants with the cost of living. The minister highlighted how this will also give greater stability for landlords, as they will be able to use this certainty to predict their likely revenues and invest in new homes. A fair deal for tenants and landlords Yesterday’s (31 October 2013) proposals would come into effect from April 2015, and offers a fair deal for tenants and landlords alike. For tenants, annual rent increases will be linked to inflation – using the more stable Consumer Price Index as a measure rather than the Retail Price Index as has been used in previous years. In turn, it will give councils and housing associations the …

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The CBI has raised its growth forecasts for 2013 and 2014 and expects growth to gather pace in 2015 with construction one of the main drivers. Britain’s business leaders are predicting GDP growth of 1.4% in 2013 – up from 1.2% in the August forecast – following signs of a pick-up in confidence across a broad range of sectors, including services, construction and manufacturing. In 2014 and 2015, the CBI expects the recovery to gather pace, forecasting 2.4% GDP growth in 2014 (up slightly from 2.3% in August), rising to 2.6% growth in 2015. John Cridland, CBI Director-General, said: “The UK is now set fair for growth with confidence returning to Britain’s entrepreneurs. “The recovery that started in the service sector has fanned out to manufacturing and construction, and is shaping up to …

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Infrastructure and support services provider Carillion has joined other leading road maintenance companies and the Highways Agency to launch a national radio campaign to ask drivers to ‘take extra care’ through roadworks. Every year there are hundreds of incursions into roadworks which put road workers’ lives at risk. A series of hard-hitting messages are running on commercial radio stations across England until 3rd November to raise awareness among the public of the need to drive safely through road works. The campaign is being run jointly by A-One+, Amey, Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Enterprise Mouchel, Connect Roads, Connect Plus (M25), Galliford Try, Sir Robert McAlpine and Skanska UK, who provide services to the Highways Agency. All companies are members of the Roadworkers Safety Forum, a group …

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In many industries personal protective equipment (PPE) is integral to employee safety. PPE is equipment which protects the user against health or safety risks at work. PPE can include respirators, protective gloves, protective clothing and footwear and eye protection. The British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) makes a hard-hitting statement on the reality of using fake PPE: “buying a fake watch may be illegal but it is unlikely to be life threatening. Supplying fake personal protective equipment (PPE) however could be the difference between life and death.” What does the law say? In accordance to the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 employers and the self-employed have duties concerning the provision and use of PPE. Regulation 4 states that suitable PPE should be provided by every …

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Construction work has begun on an award-winning sustainable housing scheme which will bring 76 new eco-homes to the vibrant, Ouseburn valley in Newcastle, on land owned by the Homes and Communities Agency and Newcastle City Council. The leader of Newcastle City Council, Cllr Nick Forbes, looked on as the transformation of the former Ice Factory and Heaney’s Coachworks site on the banks of the Ouseburn got underway. The £14m Malings project – named after Malings Pottery which operated on the site during the 1800s – will see developer Carillion-igloo deliver on its promise to bring low-energy, high-quality and neighbourhood-focused housing to the Lower Ouseburn Valley. The design by architects Cany Ash and Robert Sakula has received national recognition, having been …

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GstarCAD8 is a brand new CAD software developed over 3 years by Xi’an Gstarsoft Ltd. This platform is powered by a completely new engine and a number of innovative technologies to make its graphic speed and user operation 3-5 times faster while the memory usage is around 40%-50% less than previous GstarCAD versions. The new cad software structure also gives big room for further performance and improvement in the future, possibly making GstarCAD the fastest CAD software in the world. Gstarcad Features GstarCAD8 at a fraction of the cost of other CAD software programmes Standard Version: Allows you to produce high quality 2D CAD plans and elevations. Professional Version: Has the added functionality of allowing you to produce 3D models. Dongle Version: The advantage of a dongle version …

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History is in danger of becoming the study of half-baked ideas. There is a fair degree of anxiety in architecture schools at present about the teaching of history: we seem to be unsure about what to teach and how to teach it. ARB/RIBA criteria demand that history and cultural context are included in the curriculum; but the case for history in education has not been clearly made. At a time when we are told all knowledge is highly contingent and education is about transferable skills, it’s often hard to justify the study of Bramante or Mies, except as a source book for design studio. The Foundation for Architecture and Education (AE) is a membership organisation designed to provoke discussion about practice and education. The foundation …

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