Technical Feature
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TechnicalDigging deep: The radical engineering underpinning Stiff + Trevillion’s 65 Holborn Viaduct project
A disused railway station below half of a central London site meant conventional piling was out of the question. The team that built a five-storey basement under Claridge’s hotel while keeping it open were drafted in to come up with a radical solution
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TechnicalDoes the key to cutting carbon lie beneath your feet?
A new system aims to reduce the embodied carbon of a floor slab by up to 75%. But are other solutions already to hand?
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TechnicalTechnical Study: The Black & White Building by Waugh Thistleton
The Office Group’s first new-build project will be London’s tallest timber office building when it completes next year. And as for the reduction in embodied carbon compared with concrete – well, the numbers speak for themselves. Thomas Lane reports
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Restoring Birmingham Selfridges’ cladding
Future Systems’ Selfridges has donned temporary garb of greater gaudiness while faults are fixed in the glittering blue chainmail below. Thomas Lane explains the technical challenges. Photography by Oliver Lane
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Kingston Cycle Hub, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects
Kingston council has spent £32m upgrading the borough’s cycle facilities, including a storage hub beside the station that is no ordinary bike shed, finds Thomas Lane
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TechnicalOne Triton Square by Arup: a refurbishment with a difference
A 20-year old office block increased its net area by 57% but still saved 40,000 tonnes of carbon. How did the project team do it?
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TechnicalLet’s be honest, achieving true net-zero is still a huge challenge
Even with a highly motivated team, RIBA’s 2030 target is little more than an aspiration with less than a decade to go, as Robin Turner demonstrates with this live project
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TechnicalTechnical: Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, restored by David Chipperfield Architects
‘Surgical’ €100m, decade-long project had to tackle flaws in Mies’ original design
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Park Crescent, Regent’s Park, by PDP London
Amanda Birch talks to the architects who demolished and rebuilt a grade I-listed Nash crescent – for a second time
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Old Admiralty Building, London by BDP
After a £60m refurb, the top-secret former haunt of Churchill and Ian Fleming is back in Her Majesty’s Service, writes Elizabeth Hopkirk
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TechnicalComing soon – 3D printed components for the masses
3D printing has the potential to produce complex structural components quickly and cheaply if the technology were commercially available. Now Fosters has done just that.
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TechnicalTechnical Study: UK Hydrographic Office in Somerset by AHR
Bringing everything under one roof was a central aim – so the architect made it the defining feature, writes Helena Russell
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Stratford Pavilion by Acme
This substantial structure at the Olympic Park had to be built over a DLR tunnel, setting the team major challenges. Ike Ijeh reports
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Science Museum supporters’ centre, by Hat Projects
The conversion of a former Royal Mail sorting office into the £3.5m Smith Centre required instinct and guts, writes Elizabeth Hopkirk
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Beaconsfield Mews cohousing, London, by Stolon Studio
Architect-developers Robert and Jessica Barker tell Elizabeth Hopkirk how they are turning community-building on backland sites into a business model
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TechnicalTechnical Study: North West Cambridge housing by Stanton Williams
The architect’s first affordable housing creates a sense of intimacy while complying with tough daylight regulations, writes Elizabeth Hopkirk
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TechnicalTechnical Study: IOC Headquarters, Lausanne, by 3XN
The International Olympic Committee has raised the bar for office buildings. Ike Ijeh finds out how architect 3XN created a world-beater
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Hill House, Helensburgh, by Carmody Groarke
Ike Ijeh explains how a chainmail shed is protecting a Charles Rennie Mackintosh mansion from water ingress
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, London
Carl Turner tells Elizabeth Hopkirk how he won the biggest project of his career – and then had to design it a nerve-wracking three times
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TechnicalTechnical Study: Boulevard Theatre, Soho
Thomas Lane finds out how Soda Studio turned tricks with a tiny space to create a supremely flexible theatre