Elemental

[Edited 18 Aug - for some reason some blank links have been publishing - all the links I have tried to send are there, these appear to be addition. I suspect it is a result of me messing around on iPhone and iPad with settings - hopefully will be fixed next week - I've deleted the error 500 links]

These are my links for August 11th through August 17th:

• It Isn’t Easy Grading Green – GreenSource Magazine – Excellent, must read article on various global green building ratings. so good I couldn’t choose a quote – go read the whole thing.
• Clients wary of Davis Langdon deal with Aecom | Magazine News | Building – My obsession with M&A continues – here the multiplier is on sales rather than profit: “Tony Williams, chairman of consultant Watts, said the merger was an excellent deal for Davis Langdon and as a result other consultants could sell for a higher price. “DL’s price tag is 75% of its sales [based on Aecom’s figure of $430m, or £274m, for the 2009 calendar year]. I’d expect 100% in a bull market and 50% in a bear market. We’re not in a bear market but conditions are pretty difficult, so this is a good deal for DL.” In fact, he argues that it is a better deal than American engineer URS’ purchase of Scott Wilson for £223m, which was 66% of its sales. The result? “We’ve seen two deals where consultants have sold for well over 50%. So I’d say the benchmark is 70% for a decent business. Six weeks ago I’d have said 50-55% but now if I were a vendor I’d look for at least 60%.””
• Residents hit boiling point at the eco tower where turbines don’t turn | News – Oh dear: “But the turbines have barely moved, according to its new residents. They also claim the single boiler down the side of the building is overheating their flats. Resident Nathan Wheelhouse said: “When I left my house the other morning it was 28C at 7.30am — it’s tropical in there. The cold and hot water pipes flow next to each other. I feel like I’m in an eco experiment that has gone wrong at the design stage. I only moved in two weeks ago and I am not enjoying it.” “
• News – ‘Cheap’ solar geoengineering plans may have unintended consequences – The Ecologist – “‘Doing SRM is likely to be cheap,’ said Professor Granger Morgan, head of Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy, ‘so there is risk that a single nation or region might start doing it to solve a local or regional climate problem, and impose the impacts on all of us.’”
• Strata tower wins 2010 Carbuncle Cup | News | Building Design – “The building’s grim stridency is exacerbated by its sporty livery of alternating black and white stripes, configured, needless to say, in voguish barcode distribution. And to literally cap it all off there are the three gargantuan wind turbines at the top. The architect has trumpeted that these could supply 8% of the building’s energy requirements, which seems nothing much to shout about given the enormous expenditure in carbon that has been required to engineer such a baroque arrangement and the fact that this is a part of London that has absolutely no need for the creation of a 147m-tall tower. For services to greenwash, urban impropriety and sheer breakfast- extracting ugliness, we hereby award the 2010 Carbuncle Cup to the Strata tower.”
• A Glimpse of Dubai in Khartoum and Nouakchott: Prestige Urban Projects on the Margins of the Arab World – “We hypothesize that for these cities, located on the margins of the Arab world, prestige projects inspired by the Gulf model epitomize a new way of development based on hypermodernity. They epitomize economic development, success and opulence thanks to oil exploitation. Undergoing discovery and exploitation of oil resources makes the Mauritanian and Sudanese governments hope to follow the same path. Moreover, the towers of Dubai represent a specific cultural model for two states where affiliation to the Arab world is a contested political issue. The comparative approach brings out the importance of foreign investments in these urban transformations, characterized by privatization processes and real estate speculation. The emerging urban model is in strong contrast to the citizens’ expectations and national political unrest.”

admin News cities, geoengineering, global, greenwash, m&a, overheating, strata

These are my links for August 4th through August 10th:

• Why there are too many public sector chiefs spoiling the broth – Catching up on Jackie's posts – spot-on again: "It is the uncomfortable truth that the only public servants we really want to pay out of our hard earned cash are those that could readily get a job in the private sector if they so chose. We need to apply private sector mores to those that survive the cuts: we need to review what public sector services we need, what delivery structures are most appropriate, what skills, behaviours, attitudes and performance we need from workers and how we should reward and recognise these."
• Davis Langdon & Aecom: A history of mergers and aquisitions | Online News | Building – I *do* love a good M&A – nice potted history of DL: "Aecom have finally acquired Davis Langdon after months of financial wrangling. Both consultants have a long tradition of growth through mergers and aquisitions as their potted histories reveal."
• 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
• Green machine: Aircon that doesn’t warm the planet – tech – 27 July 2010 – New Scientist – Excellent article also covers ammonia and thermoacoustic(!!!) cooling: "Compressing CO2 generates much higher temperatures than HFCs – around 150 °C compared with around 60 °C. So Maidment and colleagues are investigating the idea of using the heat generated by CO2-based air-conditioning systems and fridges in supermarkets, for example, to provide hot water for nearby homes."
• Thinking larger than local « – "The RTPI has gone into battle with 28 other groups to ensure the survival of strategic planning. Being careful to avoid any mention of ‘regional’ the new coalition has written to Eric Pickles calling for ‘larger-than-local level’ planning to be enshrined in any reforms to the current system. It’s an impressive array of signatories (and acronyms) with the TCPA, ADEPT, BPF, CPRE, CIH, CIC, CLBA, FoE, ICE, NHF, NHF, POS, RIBA, RSPB, Shelter and WWF all lining up to back strategic planning, some for very different reasons."
• So You Want To Be a Green Building Attorney? : Green Building Law Update – "Green building is not a fad. But it is important to understand that green building is a subset of the overall construction industry. As "green" becomes standard practice, the term "green building" will go away and we will once again primarily refer to just "construction." Anyone interested in green building law should think of it as a niche within a niche. "
• T?F – "The Green City Calculator measures the ‘greeness’ of the city and makes it comparable. This tool for sustainable planning will be developed in this studio. Studio is a collaboration of T?F and Climate Design and Sustainability<br />
  Challenge<br />
  We need to measure the greenness of our cities. We have a lot of labels for buildings. Two for neighbourhoods are in development. But so far, there is no tool to measure and compare cities. We need the Green City Calculator, because cities are crucial in the fight against climate change. We need to measure our effords to know if they have an effect. And to know where we are and how far we need to get."
• 500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error

admin News aircon, cities, cooling, m&a, planning

These are my links for January 10th through January 14th:

• Why do architects earn less than other professionals? – BD Resource – Going back 50 years or so, architects used to have similar earning power to lawyers and medics, but we seem to have gradually painted ourselves out of the picture for clients. We wanted to focus on the interesting design bits. We didn’t want to “do money”, which led to the rise of the QS in advising and controlling costs for the clients. We were less interested in the management of projects, which led to the project manager becoming the client’s agent. All the so-called boring technical bits we delegated to technicians, technologists and engineers. No wonder clients now put far less value on what architects do.
• Building4Change : M&S backs A rated appliances and Code level 4 – Quite a commitment!: "High street retailer Marks and Spencer is incorporating energy efficient domestic appliances and building to level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes into its home insurance policy. If a property is damaged severely and warrants a total rebuild, properties will be rebuilt in line with the Code for Sustainable Homes level 4."
• Completion date scrapped for Masdar eco-city – Building – "Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s clean energy firm, has abandoned the final completion date of 2016 for its pioneering £13bn desert eco-city project.
  Initiated in 2006, Masdar City was billed as the world’s first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city. At the city’s groundbreaking ceremony in 2008 a completion date of 2016 was announced, but this has now been scrapped.
  The first stage of the project will be finished by 2013, with a new date of 2020 set for Masdar City to have a critical mass of residents and businesses."
• Ex-Llewelyn Davies Yeang team on move again | News | Architects Journal – Llewelyn Davies Yeang’s (LDY) former masterplanning unit has been sold on for the second time in two years
  The 13-strong team, which was offloaded by LDY in February 2008 to consulting giant the Tribal Group, has joined multi-disciplinary design and engineering outfit Scott Wilson.
• ASHRAE Standard 189.1 The Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings – "Standard 189.1P, once published, will provide a ‘total building sustainability package’ for those who strive to design, build and operate green buildings. From site location to energy use to recycling, this standard will set the foundation for green buildings through its adoption into local codes. The Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is being developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The standard is slated to be the first code-intended commercial green building standard in the United States when published early in 2010. It covers key topic areas similar to green building rating systems: site sustainability, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and the building’s impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources."
• Green, not grand – "Environmental concerns are no longer being overlooked by many developers, who have begun to take advantage of the politically correct, socially responsible image that being "green" provides, especially to attract multinational tenants. To prove their buildings are environmentally friendly, design professionals are beginning to adopt standards from the United States for "green" buildings, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, an internationally recognized rating system designed by the US Green Building Council. LEED certification is meant to verify that buildings are energy and water efficient, have low CO2 emissions, and utilize local resources that use smaller amounts of energy to create and transport. "

admin News 189.1, architect, ashrae, building, China, CSH, green, LDY, LEED, m&a, masdar, masterplanning, Scott_Wilson, standard

These are my links for August 30th through September 1st:

• Coal verses Nuclear (Jonathon Porritt) – I've not made much comment on George Monbiot's comments on nuclear – mainly because I agree with his qualifications. JP explains here why the green movement are in a kerfuffle about it by explaining: "a communicator as astute and clever as George should (and surely does) know the difference between a 'Yes … If' position and a 'No … Unless' position." JP's a "No…Unless" man…
• Rod Sheard leads MBO at HOK Sport – Building – After a long period of consolidation and M&A are we due for increased fragmentation and MBO's? The current economic climate would suggest not, but HOK Sport are going for it…
• Deadlines provide an opportunity – BSEE – Building Services and Environmental Engineer – BESCA's new accreditation scheme is the only one that certifies assessors to inspect both Level 1 (simple, packaged or VRV) and Level 2 (complex, central-cooled air or water) air-conditioning systems.
• Mission Creep | Neil Williams » Blog Archive » How to be an interesting civil service blogger (and not get fired) – via Tom Watson, a guide to blogging if you're a civil servant. Private sector bloggers can learn from this too – a good summary of things as they stand.
• CIBSE RESET tool (Excel spreadsheet download) – Further to TM38, this tool is intended to provide guidance to those responsible for the design, installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance of building services. It is not intended to be exhaustive or definitive and it will be necessary for users of the guidance given and results produced to exercise their own professional judgement when deciding whether to abide by or depart from it.

mel starrs News Blogging, business, calculators, certification, CIBSE, debate, EPBD, George_Monbiot, green, guide, m&a, MBO, nuclear, part_L, renewables, spreadsheet, TM38, UK