1. Exclusive: ‘Disruptive’ start-up announces plans to 3D print $5m project
Chorogenesis, a new digital fabrication start-up that has openly declared its intention to “disrupt” the construction sector, claims to have developed a new approach to 3D printing that can achieve far more sophisticated results than current systems. Read more…
2. Kier joins John Lewis and Easyjet in ‘most admired’ list
Kier Group has been ranked sixth in the annual Britain’s Most Admired Companies list (BMAC), compiled by Birmingham City Business School for the magazine Management Today, beating McDonald’s Restaurants UK and property investment firm Derwent London. Read more…
3. £1bn bid for PPP assets put Balfour Beatty at a crossroads
Balfour Beatty’s board considered a £1bn offer from John Laing Infrastructure Fund to buy its portfolio of PPP projects. The bid was below the Balfour Beatty board’s own £1.051bn valuation of its PPP assets in the UK and US. Read more…
4. Start-up VRM rolls out affordable BIM for retrofit sector
18-month-old technology company VRM is rolling out a new cloud-based service that will bring the benefits of BIM and 3D scanning to social landlords, framework contractors and even SMEs operating in the domestic client retrofit sector. Read more…
5. 10 things you need to know about George Osborne’s Autumn Statement
A commitment to build a “Northern Powerhouse”; a road building strategy; Stamp Duty reform; and a new Garden City at Bicester were among the key announcements from the chancellor of interest to construction. Read more…
6. Scotland’s home-grown CLT could roll off the production line in 2016
A commercial factory manufacturing cross-laminated timber (CLT) from Scottish timber is now a “serious proposition”, according to Peter Wilson, who leads the Wood Studio at Napier University. Read more…
7. Osborne predicts 50% of work at Level 2 in 2016
The year ahead for £325m turnover contractor Osborne will see a “step change” in the volume of public sector projects using BIM, according to Dr Rennie Chadwick, the company’s director of design and IT and a member of the CIOB Innovation and Research panel. Read more…
8. What you need to know about Project Tango
Google’s Project Tango will turn any Google Android smartphone or tablet into a 3D scanner, able to gather data on the location and dimensions of its surroundings and creating a real-time 3D map. Read more…
9. International firms work behind ‘corporate veil’ in Qatar
A sociology professor advising the Qatar Foundation told BBC Newsnight that international contractors operating in the country choose to work behind a “corporate veil” separating them from the realities of human rights abuses. Read more…
10. Cast your vote for the CIOB Art of Building prize 2014
A mosque in Abu Dhabi, an abandoned and grafitti’d Italian experimental house and a photo-journalistic depiction of brick-makers in Bangladesh are some of the entries for the final of this year’s Art of Building digital photography competition. Read more…
Top in Management
Revamping your website? Just make sure it’s legal
Andrew Brennan, a technology lawyer at commercial law firm SGH Martineau, on legal health checks for corporate websites. Read more…
Top in International
Self-driving office pods do the commuting for you
The Work on Wheels concept by California-headquartered IDEO features a 4m-long, air-conditioned, self-driving electric office pod that commutes to you, or to a place you’d like to be. Read more…
Top in Comment
You could argue we’ve been complacent on carbon emissions
Paul Toyne, group head of sustainability at Balfour Beatty, on the industry’s disappointing efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. Read more…
