Uncategorized – SpecNews

Problem contracts slash margins at Mace | Construction Enquirer

Stephen Pyecroft said new work over the year included a major data centre in Ireland for the construction team
Problem contracts and rising costs saw margins at Mace’s UK and Europe division crash from 1.7% to less than 0.5%.
Overall the group operating margin including construction, consultancy and FM activities around the world halved to 1.1% over the year.
Announcing Mace results for last year, executive chairman Stephen Pyecroft said: “2015 saw some challenges for our construction business.
“The sector delivered £1.42bn in turnover, an 18% increase on 2014.
However a number of difficult projects did impact on the margin level delivered to the business.
“But we lived up to our long-standing reputation of being a trusted partner able to deliver large, complex and iconic projects.”

He added: “Mace continues to go from strength to strength and while challenges remain in the UK and global economies, we have an enviable pipeline of work stretching well

into 2016 and beyond.”

Mace’s group pre-tax profits were actually up 4.5% on last year to £36.2m, supported by almost £18m profit from a major property disposal, thought to by its London student accommodation development Assam Place.

Industrial Construction in the UAE to 2019: Market Forecast – openPR

The construction sector can be broadly classified into five categories: Commercial, Industrial, Infrastructure, Institutional and Residential.
The reasons for this growth can be attributed to various macroeconomic factors conducive to the construction sector.Key Macroeconomic Trends Driving Growth in UAE Industrial Construction SectorUAE is one of the most diversified economies in the Gulf region.
Looking at the Middle East, UAE can be seen as one of the fastest growing economy, with its construction industry ranked third among the construction industries of the Middle East countries.
The construction industry is third largest economic activity after oil and trade, in the UAE, including approximately 6000 companies with most of the construction activities taking place in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The industry’s output value in real terms is forecast to rise at a CAGR of 6.52% in the next five years period; up from 3.55% during the period 2010-2014.The promising future of the construction industry can be seen by observing its past trend.

Robot builder designed for construction sites

The map allows the robot to know its location at all times and move around a construction site unaided.
I think that in the next five to ten years we are going to see mobile robots on the construction site, but they’re not going to replace humans.
Kohler says a robot builder would have multiple benefits, not least in terms of reducing the planning time required before building begins.
The robot is an industrial arm on a mobile base and is designed to be self-contained, without the need for external localization systems.
He told Reuters that construction sites are fascinating to roboticists.

Renewable energy outstrips coal for first time in UK electricity mix

Ageing coal and nuclear plants have been closing in recent years, while renewable energy has been rapidly rolling out.
Renewable energy has for the first time surpassed coal in supplying the UK’s electricity for a whole quarter, according to government statistics released on Thursday.
However, the government’s energy statistics released on Thursday said demand “fell by 2% continuing the recent downward trend”.
Nuclear power was third with 21.5% and coal – the most polluting fuel – fell back to fourth, with 20.5%.
Gas-fired power stations provided the most electricity – 30% – with renewables second.

London’s Walkie Talkie judged UK’s worst building

A City of London skyscraper, nicknamed the Walkie Talkie, has won the annual Carbuncle Cup, awarded to a building judged to be the UK’s worst.
To find a winner, readers of Building Design nominate their most hated buildings, which are then whittled down into a shortlist by a jury of architects and writers.
Mr Lane, editor of Building Design magazine, said it was a challenge to find anyone with something positive to say about the Walkie Talkie, officially known as 20 Fenchurch Street, which was completed in April 2014.
Thomas Lane, who runs the awards, said the carbuncle “crashes into London’s skyline like an unwelcome party guest”.
Other buildings vying for architecture’s wooden spoon were Parliament House, Southampton City Gateway and Woodward Hall in north-west London.

Drone Oversight Is Coming to Construction Sites

For some construction workers, any thoughts of slacking off could soon seem rather quaint.
Monitoring activity across a large, complex construction site is particularly difficult because there are so many moving parts, and because the jobs being performed change frequently.
Once per day, several drones automatically patrol the Sacramento work site, collecting video footage.
The software developed by the University of Illinois team can show how different subcontracting teams are working together.
At the Sacramento project, video is being captured by a drone-operating company called ImageInFlight.

Project Sunroof calculates rooftop solar potential using Google Maps

Figures are offered up for different scenarios, such as leasing solar panels, taking out a loan to pay for them or buying them outright.
Powered by Google Maps, Project Sunroof can tell users how much sun is hitting their roof and how much they might be able to shave off their power bills.
The video below provides a quick overview of Project Sunroof.
According to Google, it already has access to all the information needed to create detailed maps of your rooftop’s candidacy for solar harvesting.
Well, a new venture from Google is aimed at taking the guesswork out of weaning your household off the grid.

Architects seek $2.9 billion to build ‘Lord of the Rings’ city Minas Tirith in U.K.

Architects seek $2.9 billion to build ‘Lord of the Rings’ city Minas Tirith in U.K.
Crowd-sourced projects with lofty aspirations are a dime a dozen, but Jonathan Wilson’s Indiegogo proposal is asking for many more dimes — nearly $2.9 billion — to build the “Lord of the Rings” city of Minas Tirith.
If the nearly $2.9 billion goal isn’t reached by the late-September deadline, no contributors will be charged the amount they pledged.
“We settled on Minas Tirith, as we felt it represented the most realistic and sustainable project.”
Living in England’s Worcestershire County, Wilson said he came up with the idea to build the city after watching a marathon of its corresponding movies with his friends.
In addition to posting updates on the Indiegogo page, Wilson is updating fans on project progress on Twitter, via his @RealiseMinas account.

WeWork’s First Acquisition Is Building Information Modeling Firm Case

The company will be acquiring Case, a building information modeling and consultancy firm, for an undisclosed amount.
Case launched in May 2008 with a plan to bring better technology and information flow to the process of architecting and constructing a building.
WeWork, the NYC tech (and real estate) darling valued north of $5 billion, has today announced its first acquisition.
Eventually, the relationship between WeWork and Case grew even more, with Case helping carry vital information from the real estate group to the operations department and other corners of the company that would have a say in building design.
The team starts at the property buying stage and helps clients make decisions about purchases, design, and building operations while ensuring that collaboration between owners, builders and architects is smooth.