Editorial: Back to the Future

Green Towers: Oliver Lowenstein brings us an extensive report on the progress of a range of eco-skyscraper proposals. September 11th docked a big question mark on building up, but one which turned out to be strictly temporary. In cities across the globe, the skyscraper is resurgent. For instance - Shanghai. An April Time magazine issue showcased a cast of stellar signature architects and their skyscraper projects which are apparently on course to wow the public, from New York’s Freedom Tower to Italy’s Milan Daniel Libeskind’s curving tower

Eco-Selfbuild: Bill Flinn outlines a recent selfbuild community scheme and discusses various choices and decisions made by the selfbuilders. How have the self-builders gone about the business of actually building? And how have environmental concerns been addressed?

RuralZED - Prototype on Show: Barbara Tremain reports from an event which was the culmination of the building of a prototype ‘affordable’ rural home with great selfbuild potential.

Pathfinder: Ben Bamber follows the trail from a Radio Four report that highlighted how a government regeneration scheme seems to be encouraging the demolition of perfectly good homes to make way for so-called ‘brownfield regeneration’.

Greening Blair’s Academies: Nanik Deswani tells us how Tony Blair’s plans for new academy schools across the UK has breathed new life into the BRE’s BREEAM for Schools’ accreditation scheme.

Green Roofs: Olwyn Pritchard and Keith Hall take a look at the latest trends and report from the green roof sector. Green roofs are far more common on the continent, but over the last few years there has be a renaissance in the UK. Corus (ex British Steel) introduced a simple but highly effective profiled steel tray system called Kalzip Nature Roof suitable for creating simple but effective, thin soil sedum roofs.

Sustainability Appraisal: Nick Gardner takes a look at one of the sustainability assessment tools currently on offer and examines a building product manufacturing plant case study.

Wind on the Roof: Dave Elliott wonders whether the day of the domestic scale wind turbine may soon be upon us.
64 pages

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