New arrivals

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Making an entrance has changed – door materials have developed far beyond traditional options to offer composite alternatives which provide a wide choice of styles as well as practicality. Chantel Roach of Distinction Doors explains all PVCu... View Article

Drawn into nature

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Richard Rogers’ final project is the latest addition to an array of modern architecture at Château La Coste, near Aix-en-Provence. Jack Wooler reports on a gravity-defying cantilevered design that soars over its woodland setting Along a historic... View Article

Georgian contemporary

LISTEN HERE 🔊 A practice’s debut new build scheme is a luxury house that tackled a sloping site and planning objections, with a sensitive blend of Georgian and slick modern architecture in north west London. James Parker reports Sitting among... View Article

Designs taking flight

Eric Nicholls of Spiral UK explores the different options for feature staircases available to housebuilders and developers, detailing the benefits of each. Choosing a staircase sounds easy – after all a staircase has only one function – but why should... View Article

Raising the standard

Steve Cipriano of Vaillant examines the real-world impact of the 2025 Future Homes Standard for England’s housebuilders. The long-awaited publication of the UK Government’s response to the Future Homes Standard (FHS) consultation provided much needed clarity around the direction of... View Article

Making the journey to net zero

Progress towards net zero carbon 2050 is gathering pace with the Government reinforcing commitments to a series of sustainability pledges. Tom Murray of Baxi Heating discusses the latest developments, and what housebuilders and developers need to consider right now. The... View Article

Permanence and sustainability

Among the many benefits aluminium has to offer, Andrew Cross of Kestrel Aluminium discusses its ability to forecast the cost of maintenance over a system’s design life. With increasing pressure to specify building systems offering clearly defined sustainability, the use... View Article

Take the lead on lead

Steve Leigh of Groundbreaker asks housing providers, is your property’s drinking water harming your tenants? Awareness of the potential health problems caused by lead in the water supply, particularly in infants and children, is growing. Houses built before 1970 would... View Article

The capability of IoT

MRI Software explores how the Internet of Things (IoT) can improve safety in social housing. For some time, anticipation has been building for the capability of the IoT to transform social housing. The path to mainstream adoption has been slow,... View Article

Lifts in housing

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Alastair Stannah of Stannah Lift Distribution & Service (UK) answers some of the most frequently asked questions around the emergency use and upgrading of lifts in the housing sector. Today, there are estimated to be more than... View Article

Turn down the volume

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Karen Wilding of Forbo Flooring Systems explains how noise can be minimised in multi-occupancy buildings by retrofitting acoustic flooring solutions. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), excessive noise seriously harms human health and interferes with people’s... View Article

Tackling radon to keep residents safe

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Exposure to radon gas is a real health risk. James Kane of Airtech Solutions explains how landlords and housing providers can protect residents. Since the introduction of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, landlords are... View Article

Crest Nicholson’s Godalming goals

A collection of three and four bedroom houses and one and two bedroom apartments are being launched by Crest Nicholson at its new development, Catteshall Court, in the market town of Godalming, Surrey. Once the units are complete in 2023,... View Article

A modern method of Covid recovery

John Carter of Aldermore argues why builders need to embrace modern methods of construction as a way to help the industry recover from the pandemic. The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have demonstrated the importance of the need for businesses... View Article

Short supply

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Brian Berry, CEO of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), explores how the shortage of construction materials is constraining small builders’ ability to ‘build back better.’ Since the coronavirus pandemic, many small to medium-sized (SME) construction firms... View Article

Taking pride in inclusivity

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Anchor Hanover has been chosen to deliver the UK’s first ‘extra-care’ housing scheme for LGBT+ people, in south Manchester. Charles Taylor from Anchor Hanover takes Jack Wooler through the proposals. What’s believed to be the first UK... View Article

The housing stats don’t stack up

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Patrick Mooney, housing consultant and news editor of Housing, Management & Maintenance asks, do the Government’s numbers for how many homes with planning permission have not been built stack up? There is a strange and mysterious coincidence... View Article

Steeling yourself for the future

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Stuart Judge of the Steel Window Association considers the performance benefits of contemporary steel frames in terms of meeting the future challenges for housebuilding. Britain can take pride in the way its big pharmaceutical companies and top... View Article

Throwing away the toilet taboo

Good architects know only too well the importance of promoting post-occupancy health and wellbeing, particularly in education settings. Purdie Proudman of Geberit explains how it’s now high time that specifiers view school bathrooms as much more than just purely functional... View Article

Colour safe

Ian Gisbourne of Dulux Trade discusses how colour can be employed to help keep students safer in all education settings, in a post-Covid world This past year has been like no other in the education sector. Many students spent long... View Article