Buildings

Earlier this year, Queen Elizabeth II made what proved to be her final visit to a major UK construction site – opening London’s Elizabeth line, which had been named in her honour. Following the completion of work on the much anticipated Crossrail project, which opened four years late, Her Majesty…

Shawn Galliers is director of sustainability at property and construction consultancy Ingleton Wood As a northern hemisphere nation that is closer to the North Pole than the equator, Britain was built to deal with (and moan about) the cold – not the heat. But, perhaps the summer of 2022, when…

Alexander Edwards is a partner at Rosling King LLP We all saw the Grenfell Tower tragedy unfold before our eyes in June 2017. In the aftermath, its disastrous consequences, and cladding in high-rise buildings in particular, triggered fierce debate across the country. Almost five years later, the Building Safety Act…

Luke Osborne (left) is energy & emerging technologies solutions advisor and Shahid Khan is technical manager at the Electrical Contractors’ Association As low-carbon technology and energy efficiency take centre stage in the UK’s energy strategy, commercial opportunities are booming. It’s also a time for electrotechnical designers and installers to consider…

Mark Wibberley is associate director at John Robertson Architects The role of compliance monitoring in the successful delivery of many medium- to large-scale schemes is rarely discussed outside the context of the projects in which it operates. Yet the establishment of a compliance monitoring team (CMT) is routinely a requirement…

Gurprit Bass is associate director, façade engineer & sustainability lead at façade specialist Wintech With record-breaking temperatures hitting the UK this week, it is appropriate to consider the issue of overheating. In residential dwellings, overheating has historically not been given serious consideration as an issue. With the advent of more…

Stuart McLaren is decarbonomics director at Atkins The decarbonisation of our built environment is a key pillar in the strategy to reach global net-zero targets, and it is entirely possible to design new buildings that deliver this. The issue is to scale it so that this is the achievable standard…

Boris Johnson’s time in office was a tumultuous and historic period unlike any other. Throughout much of it, the prime minister rarely missed an opportunity to don a hard hat and get out on a construction site, as the industry he declared would Build Back Better was rarely far from…

Sarah Peterson is director of energy and sustainability at Harley Haddow Homebuilders in the UK are set to face significant changes with a major step in the government’s drive to become carbon neutral. With the rise of net zero and a nationwide commitment to create a cleaner and greener built…

Tim Claremont (left) is a partner and Gavin Hoccom is a senior associate at law firm Browne Jacobson The Building Safety Act 2022 received Royal Assent at the end of April. The government has described its contents as “the biggest changes to building safety regulation in a generation”. For once…