RICS responds to the council house building announcement

Lewis Johnston, RICS Parliamentary Affairs Manager: “It is over 65 years since a Conservative Conference committed the party to delivering 300,000 homes a year. With today’s housing challenge no less urgent, the Prime Minister’s plan to unleash the first major... View Article

Site Lines – The real value of human-centred design

‘Human-centred’ buildings offering users better technology or greater material comfort will always be the exception rather than the rule as they are costly and challenging. This is a perception Atkins is trying to counter, as Rebecca Wicks reports. The needs... View Article

View Point – Dr Andy Lewry of BRE Global

Dr Andy Lewry of BRE Global outlines his strategy for betterintegrated design and build processes that use modelling to address the ‘Performance Gap’. As we drive the performance of our building stock, it is becoming clear that one of the... View Article

Comment: Get specification right first time

The Metal Cladding and Roofing Manufacturers Association explains the importance of approved cladding systems and the dangers of changing specifications. Metal cladding systems provide efficient, aesthetically pleasing and sustainable solutions for a wide variety of external building envelopes. However, the... View Article

5 genius ways shipping containers are used every day

If you think shipping containers are only used for imports and exports around the world, it’s time to think again. While shipping containers play a vital role transporting the products that we enjoy every day, they can also be used... View Article

Bringing light home

Chris Chaney of Sunsquare explains how rooflights can improve daylighting, boost wellbeing and minimise a building’s energy consumption. Spiralling property prices plus a lack of appropriate accommodation to move into have led to many homeowners preferring to carry out significant... View Article

Realistic rainwater storage

Ian Crickmore of Polypipe Terrain explains how adopting rainwater harvesting systems can provide sustainable drainage solutions in space-constrained urban areas. Obsessing over rain is something of a national pastime, but capturing rainwater could help meet sites’ increased drainage demands, particularly... View Article

Get smart, get control

Edward Lees of Feilo Sylvania shines the light on how sophisticated smart lighting control systems can offer efficiency benefits as well as design flexibility. The industry is now well versed in the benefits of LED technology and the energy savings... View Article

View Point – Rory Bergin of HTA Design

In his second article on the subject for ADF, Rory Bergin looks deeper at the facets within ‘the ethics of development’ that architects should consider. Since ethics are primarily about how we deal with each other, architects might be forgiven... View Article

Ask the Architect – Glenn Swann of LK2

Glenn Swann, associate at sports & leisure specialists LK2, tells ADF about the firm’s aspirations and how technology is helping to shape the profession today. WHY DID YOU BECOME AN ARCHITECT? I’ve always been creative, so the idea of using... View Article