September 2015 – Page 2 – SpecNews

Arup Celebrates the Grand Opening of The Broad Museum

Why Open Source Software Is Taking Over You don’t have to look far to see evidence of open source software’s impact on IT as a whole.
You don’t have to look far to see evidence of open source software’s impact on IT as a whole.
But no one is making real money from open source.
We also hear about the most common tools being used for continuous integration, continuous delivery, an…
Over the past decade we have seen the migration from physical servers to virtual machines and now to public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud.

Lift-off! My 90-second ride into the future of virtual reality

For all the hype around 3D virtual and augmented realities, however, the technology still necessitates strapping a device to your head.
For anyone who has experienced virtual reality (VR) before, or been in any kind of simulator, the experience is all rather underwhelming, particularly after the warnings of motion sickness and expectations of an immersive bucking bronco ride.
Signing a health and safety waiver and confirming that I’m not overly sensitive to noise, I am strapped into a padded vest and virtual reality goggles and invited to straddle the turbine – and ominously told to hold on tightly.
Before you know it, you’re floating somewhere above an imaginary landscape and landing back in the room 90 seconds later.
Which is something that the spectacular downfall of Google Glass revealed the general public – if not hardcore gamers – are still very reluctant to do.

Guided Tours To Challenge Views

But while some view buildings like the Southbank Centre and University of East Anglia (UEA) as examples of daring and dramatic design others argue they are an austere and bleak eyesore.
The vast Park Hill estate of flats in Sheffield is also being shown to the public as part of the Brutal Utopias tours starting on 25 September.
And while structures built from slabs of concrete may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the National Trust is keen to convince detractors they are much more than blots on the landscape.
The “teaching wall” is a building close to half a kilometre long made of unbroken concrete housing different schools of the university.
There are also the iconic accommodation blocks known as the “ziggurats” – stepped terraces of concrete and glass that hug the landscape.

One third of US construction market could be green by 2018 – report

Green building construction is on track to make up a quarter of the US construction market this year, according to a new report from the US Green Business Council (USGBC) released this week.
It forecasts the green building construction market will grow 15.1% annually – outpacing the 9% expected growth in overall construction starts this year – from $150.6bn in 2015 to $224.4bn in 2018.
By 2018, more than one third of all construction will be green, the report predicts.
“Estimates of the economic impact of green building construction for 2015-18 show a significant increase in impact on GDP, jobs and labor earnings as compared to 2011-14,” the report’s authors wrote.
From 2015 to 2018, green building is expected to support 3.9m jobs, bring $268bn to industry workers and add $303bn to the GDP, according to the report.
It defined green building as construction that is sensitive to site placement, resources use and indoor air quality, among other factors.

Radisson Blu hosts Jersey Architecture Biennale

The six designers will meet at the Radisson Blu Hotel in St Helier, as part of the Jersey Architecture Biennale.
A Jersey building, once voted the ugliest in the British Isles, will today play host to some of the UK’s most successful architects.
The Radisson won the Carbuncle Cup for being the British Isles’ least impressive building seven years ago.
But the architects meeting there today have all been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize for great building design.
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Building giant says plenty of public sector work available in Scotland (From Herald Scotland)

THE chief operating officer of building giant Galliford Try has highlighted the strength of the construction market in Scotland where public spending is providing a spur for the sector.
Galliford Try runs a big housebuilding operation under the Linden Homes brand.
Mr Gillespie said the market had picked up south of the border.
Ken Gillespie said Galliford Try’s construction arm enjoyed dramatic growth in Scotland over the last 12 months as it felt the benefit of winning a string of public sector contracts.
However, it does not build homes in Scotland preferring to focus effort south of the border, where Mr Gillespie has said it can make more money with less effort.

Binladin suspended over crane tragedy Ι Construction Enquirer

The government of Saudi Arabia has suspended construction giant Saudi Binladin Group from working on new contracts following Friday’s crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque which killed 107 people.
The crane toppled over at Mecca’s Grand Mosque last Friday, less than two weeks before Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage.
The company, one of the largest contracting companies in the kingdom, had been carrying expansion work at the Grand Mosque.
An official statement referred without elaborating to the responsibility and “shortcomings” of the company following an investigation into the crane crash that also injured 238 other people.
The company is believed to have attributed the collapse to a lightning strike breaking a cable that was used to secure the crane.

Timothy Hatton designs floating stairs for Deirdre Dyson gallery

London firm Timothy Hatton Architects has added a burnished steel staircase to rug designer Deirdre Dyson’s Chelsea carpet gallery as part of a renovation of her studio.
The rest of the building has been transformed into a gallery, with rugs displayed hanging on metal frameworks.
Lighting for the gallery was provided by Lighting Design International, who treated the building as an art gallery rather than a carpet showroom.
Deirdre Dyson had previously used the building as a studio and showroom, but decided to overhaul the space to incorporate a gallery that could also display rugs as works of art.
The architects added glass bricks to the back wall of the gallery, to bring additional natural light into the space.

Architects produce “psychotic” movie to promote apartment

“Living inside a building is nothing like looking at a few pictures of one,” Groves Natcheva Architects co-founder Adriana Natcheva told Dezeen.
It is set in Groves Natcheva Architects’ apartment renovation on a South Kensington mews completed in 2010.
London Design Festival 2015: an apartment renovated by Groves Natcheva Architects provides the setting for this short thriller, which the London-based studio created to promote the project using “emotion” (+ movie).
Groves Natcheva Architects wanted to find a more engaging way to showcase their design, rather than simply using the typical set of still photographs showing an empty house.
The new movie, titled Black Ice, is the first in a series that the studio is making for their architecture and interior projects.

107 dead after crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque

At least 107 people have died after a construction crane crashed into the Grand Mosque in the Saudi city of Mecca after toppling over during a storm.
The mosque is Islam’s holiest site, and the tragedy occurred ahead of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage later this month.
The mosque is Islam’s holiest site to which Muslims face in daily prayers and a forms central site among the hajj rituals.
Images aired on Saudi state television showed the crane’s metal boom had smashed through what appeared to be the roof of the mosque.
Mr Al-Mansouri said the crane, which was being used in construction work at the mosque, struck a circular area around the Kaaba and a nearby walkway.