New-build home with impressive facade

Building better façades from the first conversation

David Grace, sales director at Saint-Gobain Exterior Solutions, explains that when specification decisions are made in isolation or too late in the process, this...
Fraser Lynes Queensberry Properties

The opportunities offered by brownfield land

By Fraser Lynes, Queensberry Properties’ land and development director    FOR almost a century, people have worried about suburban sprawl and the growth of our...

Designs liability: lessons to learn from recent decision

By Sandra Cassels, a partner in the commercial litigation team at Morton Fraser, specialising in construction and engineering disputes What happened A design consultant was involved...
David Shaw

Why we should stop waiting for perfection and start making progress towards net zero

By David Shaw, director at Torridon If there’s one message I’d give every commercial property owner, asset manager or occupier, it’s that you don’t have...

The road to true net zero

As construction works towards reducing carbon emissions, John Smith, technical director at Donaldson Timber Systems, discusses why embodied carbon is critical to its success IT’S...

Striking the right balance over BIM

There is less than a year left to go until the Government target of April 2017 for requiring public sector projects to adopt a...

Employees: confident or cautious?

By Ian Eker, director of Hays Construction & Property in Scotland THE construction and property industry in Scotland has been buoyant for many years. So...
Sika green roof

Roofing’s role in saving energy and combating urban heat islands

By Mark Harris, head of sustainability – roofing at Sika URBAN heat islands represent a growing challenge in the modern urban environment, characterised by significantly...

Progress on the RICS Conflict Avoidance Process

Len Bunton, a dispute resolution specialist and chair of the recently assembled working group of Scottish construction industry stakeholders seeking to explore and encourage...

I always had ‘Grand Designs’ on my career

By Robbie Hunter, site manager for Kier Regional Building Scotland LIKE many children I liked playing with Lego and creating my own buildings, but it...
Lynsay Bell Manson, MD at Studio LBA

Designing viable masterplans without compromise

By Lynsay Bell Manson, MD at Studio LBA THE future of masterplanning in Scotland is undergoing a transformative shift, one that puts people, place and...

English SuDS planners can learn from Scotland

With the implementation of Schedule 3 in England due to happen early 2024, the importance of SuDS as part of a sustainable way to...

Tackling fuel poverty by building sustainable homes

By Malcolm Thomson, sales director at Scotframe HANDS up if you’ve heard about the urgent need for new homes? Chances are most of the business...

Retentions: will proposed deposit scheme help to rebuild trust?

By Keith Emmerson, an associate in Gillespie Macandrew LLP’s dispute resolution team, specialising in construction IN April 2020, I wrote on the Scottish Government’s consultation...

Time to scale up action to reduce building emissions

By Beverly Quinn, environmental engineer at TÜV SÜD, an international building services engineering consultancy specialising in sustainable MEP (mechanical, electrical and public health), BIM,...

Let’s not let our high streets fall by the wayside

The UK Government recently announced plans to invest billions of pounds into infrastructure to help rebuild the economy. The decline of the British high...

The Roberts, not the Robots, will win the day

By Brian Williamson, entrepreneur-in-residence at Kissing With Confidence THE robots are coming. The concept of Artificial Intelligence is no longer confined to the lurid pages...
Worker using a laptop

The massive challenge for construction as PFI agreements come to an end

As public sector organisations prepare to inherit assets built under long-term contracts such as PFI, they face a challenge - fragmented and inconsistent maintenance...

Construction sector needs foreign labour to survive

By Andrew Stephen, director of construction, property and infrastructure at Change Recruitment THERE’S an elephant in the room. Construction companies know it’s there and have...
Grahame Barn

Time for warm words to be replaced with concrete plans

By Grahame Barn, chief executive of CECA Scotland IN 2021 we will hopefully leave Covid-19 behind us as the vaccine programme is rolled out, but...