November 2015 – SpecNews

Tributes to Gerry Bradley, the Portstewart man killed in Perth construction

Construction workers working on the job yesterday will receive counselling after seeing their two workmates killd.
While Declan Kelly is the manager of the Portstewart Arms, where Mr Bradley worked before moving down under.
The site in East Perth has now been closed and is under the control of the Coroner.
Joe McDermott and Gerry Bradley, crushed to death in a workplace accident.
Such a happy and joyful young man who brought a smile to everyones face on meeting him.

Will Wiles on the “real” architecture of Foster and Aravena

Opinion: while many architects are designing slippery “architexture”, Norman Foster and Alejandro Aravena are unlikely allies in the pursuit of real architecture, says Will Wiles.
What could we call the new, expanded, discipline that Foster and Aravena both appear to have in mind?
Perhaps we don’t need a word for it at all – it’s architecture, behaving as architecture should.
Architecture as surface and appearance, architecture that is camouflage and alibi.
Aravena calls for a rethinking of the role of the architect, and new language to express that role.

Network Rail property sell-off to fund upgrade projects Ι Construction Enquirer

Network Rail plans to raise £1.8bn from selling some of its property portfolio.
New Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy yesterday published his review into the five-year funding programme to 2019 yesterday.
Network Rail will be able to stick to most of its planned £38bn spending programme with extra investment generated from the sale of non-core railway assets.
The remaining projects will be delivered after 2019 so that Network Rail remains within its funding envelope.
He said: “The extra investment secures a Railway Upgrade Plan that delivers better stations, faster, more frequent and longer trains and a safer and more reliable railway for millions of passengers and businesses.

GCC Hosts Record High USD 3 Trillion in Construction Projects

Counting both ongoing and planned construction projects the GCC’s construction pipeline totals USD 2.8 trillion especially in mixed-use mega-developments airports and seaports and transportation infrastructure according to the recent report “GCC Powers of Construction 2015” by Deloitte.
At The Big 5 Tekla is showcasing its BIM software Tekla Structures 21 and Tekla Structural Designer along with Tekla BIMsight an open BIM viewer and Tekla Field 3D for viewing BIM models on smartphones and tablets.
(MENAFN Press) Tekla to Further Integrate with Trimble Delivering Global Best Practices in Construction Technology to Middle East
Dubai United Arab Emirates: GCC contractors must adopt the latest construction software to ensure the swift delivery of nearly USD 3 trillion worth of construction projects industry experts declared today ahead of The Big 5 construction exhibition.
Advancing government BIM mandates further demonstrate the Middle East’s desire to be on par with global innovators in the construction field” said Paul Wallett Area Business Director Tekla Middle East.
From BIM to holographic technology to real estate management software we’ll deliver best practices in technology to help the Middle East’s architecture engineering and construction firms deliver on innovation agendas” added Paul Wallett.

Does architecture need to be original?

Lawrence argued that the “non-verisimilitude” of rooms paradoxically preserved the intention of the original architecture at the level of aura.
How can authorship work to expose hidden value judgments or latent potential in a so-called “original”?
The commercial and social value of “new” and “novel” and even “original” are, arguably, products of modernity.
What constitutes authorship when architecture almost always involves the evolution of existing typologies?
What does it mean to preserve or destabilise “original” authorial intent?

The Big 5 opens today with thousands of certified products on display

Counting both ongoing and planned construction projects, the GCC’s construction pipeline totals $2.8 trillion, especially in mixed-use mega-developments, airports and seaports, and transportation infrastructure, according to the recent report by Deloitte.
“The Middle East is seeing nationwide transformation in construction innovation, with projects for mega-events such as World Expo 2020 in Dubai and 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar stretching design boundaries.
The building and construction sector in Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) has witnessed 74 per cent growth in the last five years growing from Dh10.7 billion in 2009 to Dh18.6 billion in 2014.
Advancing government BIM mandates further demonstrate the Middle East’s desire to be on par with global innovators in the construction field,” Paul Wallett, area business director, Tekla Middle East, said in a statement.
Among the top visiting countries to the event will be the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt and Pakistan.

Don’t destroy the Sir John Cass Faculty – a wonderful part of creative learning and life

The Cass is named after Sir John Cass, who established one of London’s oldest education charities with a historical mandate to found a polytechnic institute at Aldgate to serve the population of east London.
As Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, has said, it is essential to develop the skills of making through hands-on learning.
We should know by now that learning is not restricted to the purely academic: making is also learning.
We, the undersigned, call on London Metropolitan University to review its current strategic plan, One Campus, One Community, in light of its consequences for the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design.
We call on London Metropolitan to pursue a two-site solution that keeps the education of art, making and design alive and kicking where The Cass began – in London’s East End.

Here comes the Bride: architect plans world’s tallest building in Basra

If built, the 230-storey, 1,152m tall “Bride Tower” would be located in Basra and would be made up of four buildings joined together.
An alien planted in the city, disconnected from the urban scale at ground level.
“The Bride, on the other hand, will be conceived as a city itself both vertically but also horizontally from the ground.
The tallest building under construction is the 1km-high Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
However there is no fixed location for the building, and although Basra is relatively peaceful and prosperous, neither a construction schedule nor a price has been suggested.
The tallest building completed is the 830m Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

R3 assembles expert technology team

You are here: Home » News » Banking news » R3 assembles expert technology team to lead distributed ledger initiative
Financial innovation firm R3 announced the team tasked with managing the design and delivery of advanced distributed ledger technologies to global financial markets in partnership with its consortium of member banks.
The R3 collaborative model is the best way to quickly, efficiently and cost effectively deliver these new technologies to global financial markets.
The team brings together a unique set of expertise in electronic financial markets, distributed ledgers and blockchain technologies.
In his fifteen-year career at IBM he specialized in the application of new technology in banking and financial markets.
Ian Grigg, Architecture Consultant: Ian is a financial cryptographer with 20 years experience building secure ledger systems for the internet.

LG G5 will have a metal unibody construction according to rumor

In this year when Samsung launched the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 with glass and metal combination construction, it had to do away with microSD support and a user-replaceable battery.
Despite the fact only half a year has passed since the announcement of the LG G4, the LG G5 rumors have started popping up.
The previous flagships of LG have received praises and good words, so this upcoming “LG G5” has a lot of expectations to meet.
That being said, earlier this year a few very early reports (linked to above) detailed what we could see from the LG G5.
However, if the latest reports from South Korea turn out to be accurate, next year, LG will bring out the big guns and introduce the fabled LG G5 wrapped in a full metal unibody.