Building Insights

James Parker, managing editor of Housebuilder and Developer speaks to Hugo Reeve, Development Director & Co-Founder of new housebuilder BRiCS. Focused on placemaking and high quality design, Reeve describes how he managed to launch the firm in the teeth of Covid, with the help of former Crest Nicholson colleagues, to offer a more bespoke solution to buyers in the south east.

James Parker speaks to Neil Walker, Design Manager at Russell Homes, about how the award-winning north west-based housebuilder is prioritising green features over maximising margins.

In this audible article, Greg Blee, founder of Blee Halligan, tells ADF how he found himself working in architecture almost by accident, and why he now focuses on creating projects overseas which blend into their landscapes.

In our third Building Insights episode in association with Saniflo, James Parker speaks to Conor Reeves, UK sales manager.

The growth of adaptive reuse projects which convert ex-commercial premises into residential schemes in urban centres has a range of potential benefits. However as Conor explains there are also many inherent challenges including adapting  and adding plumbing for current and future domestic needs.

In association with Saniflo. James Parker speaks to David Cook, managing director of Saniflo about the rising demand for bathrooms which work for elderly users and the rest of the family, to support multi-generational living. He also has some strong views about the need for housebuilders to be driven to focus on whole-life performance.

In this episode, James Parker, editor of ADF, introduces highlights from our recent Building Insights Live round table held in September 2024 at RIBA, focusing on improving the design of dementia care facilities to offer better support to all people living with the condition.

The multi-disciplinary debate included expert academics, people with lived experience of dementia and neurodiversity, architects and product manufacturers. It was sponsored by Amtico International, WMS Underfloor Heating, and Johnstone’s Trade Paints. The debate was an important opportunity to share knowledge on the problems and opportunities for practical design solutions, given that the number of people with dementia in the UK is predicted to reach 1 million in 2025.

In association with Saniflo, James Parker speaks to Scott Taylor, area sales manager for Scotland and North East England at Kinedo. He discusses the rising trend for more decorative wall panels in bathrooms and other settings, and how the Kinewall brand is helping specifiers meet the demand.

Christian Hale, MD of housebuilder Hale works in the high-end luxury home sector, but even his end of the market isn’t immune from the perils of value engineering post-tender, in fact it’s getting more common. He explains how clients’ expectations from their homes need managing so that cost cutting isn’t inevitable, and makes a plea to reduce extra costs like urban parking suspensions.

For the third time on the podcast, we are joined by Nick Haughton, Head of ESG at Sapphire Balconies, who are sponsors of this episode. James Parker discusses with Nick the crucial topic of why we need to strive to keep sustainability data as simple as possible, as more and more is unravelled in products’ life-cycles assessments, and Sapphire’s rigorous approach to transparency.

In this special episode of Building Insights, we capture some of the key sessions of a seminar held at RIBA recently to discuss ways to drive specification of timber buildings in the UK, as one of the chief ways to move the country to net zero by 2050. It features highlights of talks by leading lights in timber design; Alex de Rijke of dRMM, Anthony Thistleton of Waugh Thistleton, Jerry Tate of Tate & Co, and Rory Bergin of HTA. Other speakers at the Structural Timber Association-staged event provided key insights on how the Government’s Timber Roadmap is showing the way forward.