Why specify recycled plastic?

Sarah Mitchell of Goplastic explores how and why landlords and social housing providers should utilise recycled plastic in their projects. The world’s annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100... View Article

Avoiding pitfalls from roofs

Marley’s Stuart Nicholson pinpoints the most common roof specification pitfalls, and advises housebuilders on how to avoid them for a best practice approach. The quality and security of pitched roofing in housing has seen some huge improvements over the last... View Article

Reducing drainage noise

LISTEN HERE Adam Cafer of Polypipe Building Services discusses how sound pollution can be reduced, especially in tall building drainage systems. With one third of the UK workforce currently working from home, issues such as noise pollution from building service... View Article

The advantages of electric heating

Bill Walters of The Electric Heating Company explores how advances in technology and new energy efficiency standards mean there’s never been a better time to invest in electric heating. Electric heating is continually becoming an increasingly viable option for heating... View Article

The future is contactless

Paul Smith of Häfele discuss how remote access control is central to the future of hospitality design, in a future which has to function with Covid The announcement of a new national lockdown has added yet more strain on hospitality... View Article

Seeing a smart future beyond the pandemic

Neil McSporran of NSG Group discusses how ‘smart’ antimicrobial glass for tackling infections beyond the pandemic, and how smarter building materials will help designers to create safer environments Curbing the transmission of diseases will be a priority for those who... View Article
Multiple benefits

Multiple benefits

With different fires presenting different challenges for buildings and occupants, Barry Sargent of Nittan looks at the factors that make multi-sensor alarms a safe choice Fires come in different forms, and different alarm sensors perform different functions; in addition, false... View Article

Porcelain performs inside and out

Jamie Gledhill of Brett Landscaping looks at how porcelain paving can deliver on aesthetics and function in both domestic and public realm settings in the context of Covid When creating community or shared spaces, architects are balancing a raft of... View Article
Ask the Architect: Damien Lee of WGP Architects

Ask the Architect: Damien Lee of WGP Architects

Damien Lee of WGP Architects answers ADF’s questions about what drives him, and how he has tackled the challenges posed by the pandemic What made you want to become an architect? I grew up with architecture in the blood. I... View Article

The natural solution

Charlie Sharman of Cantifix discusses how the recent months have reminded us how much we need sunlight, and how glass technology innovations can help architects design for maximised natural light There are many lessons we can take from 2020 about... View Article

The visible future

Conversions from office to residential under Permitted Development Rights are becoming more commonplace as we move to widespread home working. Structura UK’s Manny Patel looks at the implications for facades Life has changed radically under Covid-19. The epidemic is changing... View Article

Multi-functional glass

The conversation around fire safety glass tends to focus on fire protection alone. However as Andy Lake of Pyroguard explains, when specified correctly, this glass can be combined with other products to create a multi-functional system that offers so much... View Article

Social housing with a human face

A new Build to Rent project for a housing association in central Manchester saw Mecanoo use a difficult site cleverly to provide a mix of human-scaled dwellings. James Parker reports on how it avoids the anonymity of the area’s previous... View Article
Fluid dynamics

Fluid dynamics

Aiming to set a new standard for air transport, the dramatic curves of ZHA’s first airport are as much the result of a need to provide maximum throughput, as aesthetic aspiration. The project’s lead architect tells Jack Wooler how the... View Article
Adding space, made easy

Adding space, made easy

Ann Boardman of Saniflo highlights how, despite the uncertainty of the past few months, homeowners have carried on investing in upgrading their properties, and drainage connections are key to how their spaces can be reconfigured or added to Homes and... View Article

DfMA: the great offsite hope

With productivity in construction a more acute problem than other sectors, Nigel Ostime of Hawkins\Brown says that architects need to embrace offsite Design for Manufacture and Assembly as the panacea which also delivers the quality they want Productivity in the... View Article

Reinforcing the message

William McDowell of Hambleside Danelaw puts the case for why GRP rooflights in metal roofing systems can help solve the many problems such as light levels that face architects when designing industrial buildings Think rooflights and you might think of... View Article

Sliding versus bifold

Edward Stobart of ID Systems looks at how recent trends in residential glazing are affecting the sliding versus bifold doors debate For the past two decades, the trends in home design and customer demand have seen significant shifts when it... View Article

The warm glow of lower bills

Rises in gas and electricity prices mean that specifying more energy efficient and renewable heating options such as biomass is even more important, as Ian Sams from Specflue explains Renewable energy means energy produced from sources that are constantly replenished.... View Article

A crisis of supply

Patrick Mooney, housing consultant and Housing, Management & Maintenance news editor, says the tiny increase in overall numbers of low rent housing is masking a growing affordability problem in England Further evidence of a crisis in the supply of affordable... View Article