What challenges lie ahead for the new government?

From cumbersome planning consent to rising material costs, Alasdair Rankin, MD at Aitken Turnbull Architects, considers what major challenges lie ahead for the new...

Business confidence will boost Aberdeen’s struggling housing market

Addi Spiers, partner in business support and restructuring at legal firm, Addleshaw Goddard, explores Aberdeen’s tentative steps towards recovery and the impact upon the...

CDM 2015: are you ready?

Claire Mills at bto solicitors outlines the changes coming into effect with the new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. CDM 2015 will replace CDM...

The urgent need to revive Scotland’s SME housebuilding sector

By Jane Wood, chief executive of Homes for Scotland Last week, Homes for Scotland (HFS) published a report revealing a concerning decline in the small...
Alan Ferns

RAAC and ruin? Timely advice can relieve panic over aerated concrete

By Alan Ferns, director – structural engineering at Dougall Baillie Associates Panics come and panics go in the pragmatic world of engineering. It is part...

How Covid-19 has impacted the construction industry in Scotland and England differently

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact industries of all disciplines across the globe, the construction sector in particular has faced a plethora of mixed messages with the...

Designing feel-good homes to suit modern and flexible needs

By George Buchanan, director and lead architect at George Buchanan Architects THE UK has always had a fascination with homes, but in a post-Covid world,...

Training efforts are helping mould leaders of the future

Statistics suggest the construction industry needs to employ another 400,000 people per year. Gordon Cunningham, managing director of Clark Contracts, believes the sector needs...
Roddy Morrison

Aberdeen’s legacy buildings: the key to meeting modern sustainability demands

By Roddy Morrison, senior director, UK project management & building consultancy, at CBRE Scotland AS companies sharpen their focus on meeting net zero targets, the...

Better insulation vital to slowing global warming

By Paddy Leighton, UK director, Icynene THE uptake of energy efficiency measures such as loft and wall insulation must be accelerated for domestic housing if...
Graeme with pupils at Stoneyburn Primary School. Image credit: Robert Perry

Building blocks of change: inspiring young people into carpentry

By Graeme Binnie, a joinery lecturer at West Lothian College and founder of the West Lothian Woodworking Initiative WOMEN working in construction recently hit an...

The future of construction lies in developing the right talent

By Graham Mercer, MD of Rearo, which specialises in the manufacture and supply of bathroom and kitchen surfaces for UK trade and retail markets As...

Can online pay portals combat blame culture?

By Colin Darch, business process consultant at OPEN ECX BLAME culture is a contentious topic in the construction industry, particularly when it comes to invoicing...
Nursery garden at Passivhaus school

Landmark Scottish Passivhaus school is outperforming targets

Edinburgh-based architect Architype is working on a number of Passivhaus schools, including the recently completed Riverside Primary, the first Passivhaus certified school in Scotland....
Façade access solution development must also be a long-term process

The growing complexity of facade access

Mohamed Merchant, an associate director at TÜV SÜD’s UK real estate facade access division, explores how the introduction of increasingly convoluted building envelope designs...

Three things the industry needs to know about working smarter

By Lynsey Lennon, Performance Team Leader - Alliance Management, Scottish Water LAST month I was invited to talk to a room full of hundreds of...
Kobir Ahamed

Social value schemes find their place in company environmental strategies

Kobir Ahamed, sustainability manager at commercial roofing firm BriggsAmasco, says social value schemes are finding their place in environmental strategies INITIATING a social value strategy...

Heat decarbonisation: the woolly mammoth in the room?

Charlie Drysdale, associate director, smart energy and sustainability at Hydrock, discusses the opportunity for district heating networks to solve the heat decarbonisation challenge...
Ian Rogers

The coordination crisis no one’s talking about

Ian Rogers, CEO and founder of construction consultancy Procync, explores the reasons why so many projects go over time, budget, or underdeliver THERE is a...

Increased timber use can help meet carbon targets

Stewart Dalgarno, director of product development at Stewart Milne Timber Systems, discusses the role of offsite timber building systems in meeting net zero goals...