Construction

Container homes – a statement against Barcelona’s housing shortage ©Koen Greven It’s not something you expect in Barcelona’s old town center. But they are certainly there. Twelve container homes on the Nou de Sant Francesc, near the world famous Rambla. As a remedy against the acute lack of social housing. “I honestly think it’s a bit of a gimmick”, says Dutch architect Co Gevers. She’s based in the capital of Catalonia along with her company ‘Zest’. In other words, the container homes have partly been built with the aim of attracting attention to the major housing problems that Barcelona is...

Mick George Group Buys UK’s First Doosan DL-7 Wheel Loaders by Doosan (Europe) The Mick George Group, a leading supplier to the construction industry in the East Anglia and East Midlands regions of the UK, have taken delivery of the country’s first new Doosan DL-7 wheel loaders. As well as four new DL420-7 models, the order includes two DL580-5 and a DL300-5 wheel loader all now working at quarries within the Mick George Group, with a further new DL320-7 wheel loader arriving in mid-January 2021. Advertisement The new wheel loaders have been supplied by Leicester-based Pioneer Plant Ltd, the new...

Five-year study shows recycled concrete works as well as normal concrete, maybe a bit better Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) conducted side-by-side comparisons of recycled and conventional concrete in a building foundation and a municipal sidewalk, finding that the recycled concrete had comparable strength and durability after five years in service. The study conducted by UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering also found that the recycled concrete had a higher rate of compressive strength after 28 days of curing, while maintaining a greater or equal strength during the five-year period.Crushed concrete replaced natural aggregate in the study’s recycled...

Russian engineers give Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome a fractal makeover The geodesic dome, a way of making spherical structures out of triangular elements, has been given a 21-century redesign by two Russian engineers armed with modern computers. The dome was developed in Germany in the 1920s, and taken up by legendary US designer Buckminster Fuller in the 1940s as a solution for America’s housing shortage. The idea was to use factories that previously made aircraft to prefabricate the domes. Fuller’s business venture failed, but many domes have since been built, often as statement pieces with ecological import, such as the...

“Oscars of construction”: Nominations now open for Construction Manager of the Year Awards The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has begun its search for the UK’s finest construction manager of 2021, as nominations open for the annual Construction Manager of the Year Awards (CMYA). Now in their 43rd year, the awards celebrate the talent of those who manage construction projects rather than the project itself.Rigorous assessment by a panel of expert judges, including previous CMYA medalists, assess the performance of construction professionals in a range of categories, from infrastructure and residential to healthcare and commercial projects.Winners are picked in each...