News

Filter by topic

Reactive Fire Safety Regs Ignore Tragedies Waiting to Happen

07 Oct 2019

It’s a red herring to suggest that ‘avoiding another Grenfell’ is the reason we need stronger fire safety regulations. Quite rightly, preventing tragedies is a priority for the ministers, the Fire Brigades Union and others using this language to criticise the pace of change.

Making Places

07 Oct 2019

There are few areas related to building development that generate as much debate as housing, from the size and type of tenure, location and density, to environmental considerations such as energy efficiency, noise and comfort. Elaine Toogood of The Concrete Centre reports.

Delivering Housing that is Resilient to Fire and Climate Change

02 Oct 2019

A forthcoming conference, Resilient Housing, a collaboration between Modern Masonry, Brick Development and The Concrete Centre will be providing the latest guidance and technical expertise to enable the design and delivery of long-lasting and high-performance homes.

Huge Turnout for Engineering Seminar

24 Sep 2019

On 12th September we returned to the Royal College of Pathologists for our autumn seminar. The evening started with prize giving to the winners of our student competition Structural Concrete 2019 by the chairman of the judges, Roger Hewitt.

New London Architecture event: Towards zero-carbon London

19 Sep 2019

New London Architecture held a conference on 17 September entitled ‘Designing for a changing climate: towards zero-carbon London’. Among the speakers were Elaine Toogood from The Concrete Centre, who provided a round-up of everything the cement/concrete and delivering net zero carbon.

Structural Concrete Student Competition Winners Announced

12 Sep 2019

The Concrete Centre’s annual student competition, in partnership with Laing O’Rourke has been won by a team from the Imperial College London. The 2019 competition brief for teams of engineering students was to design a laboratory building which is to be built on a prominent site on the outskirts of a large UK town.

Building Standards (Scotland) Technical Handbook Update

21 Aug 2019

On the 12 July revised Technical Handbooks were published in Scotland. The revisions follow the Scottish consultation on the Building and Fire Safety in 2018 and the revised guidance comes into force on the 1st of October.

Beautiful Buildings

02 Aug 2019

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – a phrase that neatly sums up much of the debate centred around the work of the government advisory Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission. Elaine Toogood, Senior Architect, The Concrete CentreConcrete, illustrates how concrete helps deliver a bespoke, natural aesthetic and superb structural performance.

Planning to Tackle Overheating Upfront

22 Jul 2019

Tom de Saulles, Building Physicist, The Concrete Centre discusses the new planning tool to inform planners about early considerations for overheating.

Style and Substance

10 Jul 2019

Basements are known for requiring technical expertise in engineering, waterproofing and material specification, but this does not need to limit the design and aesthetic of exposed concrete, as Claire Ackerman of The Concrete Centre and Basement Information Centre explores.