Site Lines: Designing envelopes for Passivhaus townhouses

Architect Gavin Finnan describes the design of Passivhaus townhouses in a south London regeneration project, focusing on how their external envelope was fundamental to performance. South Gardens is the first phase of Elephant Park, a major regeneration project that sits... View Article

Meeting brick aspirations

Andy Batterham of Ibstock looks at the ongoing renaissance in brick, and how providing for increasing demand for colours, as well as the trend for grey brick, is helping architects and specifiers reinvigorate this traditional building material. It is fair... View Article

Cladding: is our response to tragedy adequate?

FunderMax’s Paul Hughes questions whether the UK is doing enough to prevent further disasters following the Grenfell fire, and suggests where improvements should be made. In the early hours of 14 June 2017 Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey social housing tower... View Article

Practice Profile – Cove Burgess

James Parker spoke to architect Tim Burgess, one of the founders of a young practice which has quickly evolved from a two-man set up to a firm making its name in London and beyond. CoveBurgess Architects has been in existence... View Article

Editor’s comment – February

Comment by James Parker, editor of Materials for Architecture, February. Now that spring is finally rearing its head, the events season is upon us. If you are attending ecobuild which is fast-approaching at the start of March, you may well... View Article

Don’t forget family-sized homes

A third of children in social housing and a quarter of children in private-rented accommodation live in overcrowded conditions. The London Assembly is concerned that without enough three and four-bedroom family-sized homes, the problem of overcrowding will get worse in... View Article

Turning the threat of the invisible enemy into an opportunity

With the amount of supported housing in private hands increasing, Andrew Scott of Gauntlet Group reiterates the significance of checking and balancing for legionella According to the HCA Statistical Data Return, between 2015 and 2016 we witnessed the largest increase... View Article

Carillion: the high cost of low margins

It would have been nice to have started 2018 on a high note, however the liquidation of Carillion is a catastrophe not only for the firm but the wider industry. Beyond the mayhem for the careers of the private and... View Article

Workspace at your service

Offering flexibility for tenants, a serviced workspace is instrumental in supporting the success and growth of businesses, argues Simon Eastlake of Office Space in Town. Agrowing demand for modern, flexible office space with ‘future-facing’ tech capability is prompting small and... View Article