Building materials

CABE Built Environment 2024 winner Turnstones was celebrated for ARCO2 architects’ ability to rise to a challenge, as Matt Lamy discovers.

From mud bricks to smart concrete, Instarmac gives a brief history of how building materials have changed over time.

The Mission Possible Partnership aims to make net-zero emissions in concrete and cement a reality

Dura Composites was awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category for its glass reinforced polymer walkway grating products. The range has up to 33% less embodied carbon and is fully recyclable and lightweight – making installation safer, easier and more cost-efficient.

An unusual steelwork connection found during a fit-out of a high-specification building has prompted safety concerns.

A member of the public who leaned on iron balustrade on a seaside promenade fell four metres onto the beach when the railings gave way. Another member of the public below narrowly avoided being struck by the person and the falling railing.

A report from the National Access & Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) has revealed that 80% of scaffold accidents among its members are due to manual handling, slips, trips and falls from height.

Leeds Beckett University will work with YORhub to create a supply chain engagement toolkit. This aims to increase the number and diversity of regional SMEs with access to public sector procurement frameworks, reducing the over-dominance of large firms and introducing innovative solutions in a sector that is slow to change. It is a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership part-funded by the government through Innovate UK.

From 29 June M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, will present I. M. Pei: Life is Architecture, the first major institutional retrospective of Chinese-born American architect Ieoh Ming Pei (1917–2019).

Group Director for Architectural Conservation Professionals (ACP) and CABE Fellow David Humphreys has worked in the global built environment sector for more than 30 years. CABE’s judges commended him for working tirelessly to promote best conservation practice and raising standards in his native Ireland and also internationally.

Scott Wilson, B&W’s Head of Sustainability, says ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘net zero’ have become buzzwords in the construction industry – but what does it all mean?

Finding ways to save the embodied carbon in tall buildings has staggering implications for the net-zero agenda. Denise Chevin discovers what can be achieved.

Steel is the go-to solution for challenges in domestic construction, but it’s not without its problems, reports Huw Morris.

With the need to implement sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) soon to be a legal requirement in England, ACO has produced a guide covering the principles of sustainable drainage.

Project management is a big player in the UK economy. Huw Morris reports on how competence is driving the profession to ever higher standards.

The National House Building Council (NHBC) has noted that there were 105,449 registers by developers of intent to build in 2023 compared with 189,009 in 2022, with the biggest decrease in the north-west of 61%.

At its inaugural Housing Roundtable, Oldham Council has pledged to get 500 new social homes built in the borough over the next five years.

Alongside the culture changes to safety and competency, Matt Lamy asks where the construction industry is in terms of managing quality and where it should be

A huge shipping vessel that collided with a major bridge in Baltimore has left numerous people missing has prompted many questions: why did the ship hit with the bridge in the first place? But many of them are structural: how was the ship able to reach the bridge, why was it not protected against such collisions, and why the bridge collapsed so quickly once the collision had happened? We look at what experts around the world are saying.

Eric Moussiaux, Vice President Technology at Exel Composites, explains how fire considerations influence composite design.