Archive for March, 2007
Dubai
I’m not a big fan of Dubai - either of what’s going up or what’s going on. But I do know a few people out there working. I found this via RatandMouse.
An overview of Dubai’s megaprojects including the Palm Islands, Burj Dubai (world’s tallest building), Dubailand (world’s largest theme park), Business Bay [...]
Judging books by their covers
I bought this book today:
It used to look like this:
The sales rank on the first on amazon is 448, for the second 3336.
Lessons: despite the old adage, we do judge books by their covers and environmentalism is now exciting and sexy in a B-movie, pulp fiction kind of way, whereas this time last year it [...]
Things I learnt about the industry this weekend
I’m deep into research for the dreaded MBA dissertation and I thought I’d share my new found knowledge with you all.
For instance, did you know prior to 1982, ACE and RIBA fee scales were in place in the UK and the markets for both engineering consultancy and architecture were fixed? I had no idea it [...]
More good news for housing
The press release reads:
At a time when demand for housing outstrips supply, the change to build better homes more cheaply and efficiently using modern approaches to construction is essential, according to a new joint Housing Corporation and English Partnerships publication.
Launched today (Thursday 1 March 2007) and referred to in Housing Minister Yvette Cooper’s speech at [...]
One Million Sustainable Homes
The news that Paul King of WWF is to take up the reins at UKGBC prompted me to revisit the OMSH (One Million Sustainable Homes) toolkit.
There is a wealth of information here:
The toolkit signposts useful sources of information that can be used by house-builders to inform their general approach to sustainability issues, as well as [...]
Miliband’s webchat on 10 Downing Street
Following a tip-off from WorkinProperty (another new kid on the construction blogging block) I followed the proceedings here. Not sure how long the chat will stick around so I’ve cut and paste it below the break for reference. It was hard to determine how many of the questions were pre-picked and how many were ‘live’. Some of [...]
Pareto principle at work in design
I came across this article (10 pages, pdf) from 1996 via RICS (Royal Institiute of Chartered Surveyors). The article is “Improving the quality of conceptual structural design: A neural network approach“, which no doubt sounds very dull to most readers. Glutton for punishment, I forged ahead and found some nuggets in there (I’m actually looking [...]
