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Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category

3 Of The Most Amazing Sets Of Stairs In The World

02 Feb

When one thinks of stairs and staircases, the first thing that usually spring to mind is the standard, functional and straight set found in a domestic three up, two down family home – usually anyway.

However, the world is never this simple and within interior design circles, stairs are undoubtedly a focal point for a feature, lending gravitas and strength to a building’s visual authority. From great British stately homes to modernist or cubist designs in the 20th Century, staircases across the Western world have reflected our changing tastes and eclectic decisions to turn home improvement into an art form.

Here are three of the World’s most challenging sets of stairs in terms of design and structure:

1.      Chand Baori Step Well

First up is this incredible step well in India in the village of Chand Baori, built to solve the problem of providing locals with a dependable source of fresh water. And, whilst this certainly isn’t a Modernist projection of a 20th Century ideology, it certainly is an incredible project which combines engineering, of design and of functionality.

2.      Deconstructible Staircase from Wood

In an age where architects and designers need to be aware of the strengthening arguments for making recycling and reusable constructions in the same way that manufacturers of packaging have needed to do to satiate the requirements of consumers for environmentally friendly products.

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Meet Britain’s Most Influential and Famous Architect: Terry Farrell

27 Jan

London is a world leader in many industries from fashion and photography to design and culinary arts, setting trends and further extending her central influence. For this reason one of London’s most renowned daily newspapers, the Evening Standard, selects and highlights London’s one thousand most influential people. Famous architect Terry Farrell is the highest ranking architect to grace the category of property for his immense involvement in the development of London’s urban spaces. Possibly one of the most famous architects of our time, some of his greatest achievements include the M16 headquarters for the British Secret Intelligence Service in Vauxhall and the Charing Cross redevelopment. At the moment he is working on the mammoth architectural project to regenerate over seventy acres in Earls Court. This famous British architect is the shaper of London’s urban planning and thus a top influential in the property sector.

Early Life

This famous English architect was born in the unassuming town of Sale, then part of Cheshire, in 1938. After high school he enrolled at Newcastle University, where he completed his undergraduate degree, which was followed by a Masters in urban planning at Pennsylvania Universiy. Farrell moved to London in 1965 where his career really started to pick up with his partnership with Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, another famous UK architect. His most famous early works include the TV-am headquarters (now MTV Europe), which highlighting his distinct postmodern style, as well as the Comyn Ching Triangle redevelopment in Covent Garden.

Later Works

In 1980 he established his own company, Terry Farrell and Partners under which he completed many regeneration projects in London as well as the United Kingdom. Underpinning all of these projects is his acute understanding of London’s organic development. His argument is that London has developed in a more unplanned or organic way as opposed to following a master development plan like cities such as Paris. Unlike most architects who attempt to tidy up the City with new ideas that are foreign to the City’s current existence, London’s famous architect works with this random and haphazard formation. He was also involved in many regeneration projects around the UK, including Newcastle, Edinburgh and Paddington, to name but a few. Hiw work is often in demand internationally; he developed Incheon airport in South Korea and Beijing South Railway Station, the biggest station in Asia. His most recent project is the regeneration of Earls Court, where he has proposed the building of ‘villages’ around the Tube stations and exhibition centre.

Winner of numerous awards such as the Civic Trust Award, RIBA National Award and British Council Award, advisor to the Mayor of London, and shaper of London’s urban Landscape, famous architect Terry Farrell truly deserves to be named a London influential.

 

Penny Munroe is an avid writer in property news from around the world and is based in the serviced offices Mayfair offers. She specialises in commercial property and offices for rent.

 
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Love DIY? Hate Mess? Follow These Top Tips for Disposing of DIY Waste

22 Jan

Embarking on DIY projects around the home can be great fun, make a house feel more like a home and may even add market value to the property. However, in everything that we do we should always be thinking about recycling and how we can do our bit to help the environment and save the planet. For this reason it is important to research how you can safely dispose of any DIY waste.

Many retailers these days fortunately are doing all that they can to help their customers recycle. This is because they understand the importance of recycling and want to help as many people to do so as they can.

Read the Label

For instance, many DIY products and tools from different hardware stores now feature on-pack recycling labels that clearly say what can be recycled and where. Some paint manufacturers will allow paint pots to be given back to the original store where they were bought from in order to ensure that empty paint pots are recycled and disposed of safely.

Choose Goods with Sustainable Packaging

Many other retailers have attempted to reduce packaging on many items and DIY tools or change the type of packaging that is used – for example changing plastic packaging to cardboard packaging. Some specialist stores may offer recycling schemes for old products when a brand new one is purchased such as vacuum cleaners, beds and washing machines.

Recycle

Although many retailers are now making a large effort in order to encourage their customers to recycle the onus is still with each and every individual to recycle as much as they can. For larger home projects it is wise to find local recycling centres that will take any large household items for recycling. For instance, one of the most popular DIY projects to undertake is a bathroom renovation. In this example it would be a wise course of action for the homeowner to find a local recycling centre that will take care of bathtubs, ceramic toilets and sinks and other bathroom accessories for safe recycling using the correct tools.

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How to Make the Farm User Friendly

29 Dec

Many farms today are very old. They have been handed down from generation to generation. Some look exactly as they did when they were first created albeit with a few paint jobs done for good measure. When an old farm is handed down to its new owners, they may have no desire to possess it especially if it has ancient systems of work. Like many things today, farms need to be brought right upto the twenty first century in terms of ease of operation. Establishing and erecting excellent farm boundaries is one of the best ways to ensure that everyone minds their own farm business. Farm boundaries should have some basic components.

Strength – as many people know, farms are busy places with all types of activities going on at the same time. In addition to planting, farm animals of different types are also kept. Managing all these activities at the same time requires excellent time management as well as proper farm fencing to keep every activity in its proper place. The fences that hold in animals must be strong enough to handle animal interference of any type. Since animal behavior cannot be predicted, the fences should be resilient enough to hold each of the different farm animals within their separate paddocks so that work can be easier, faster and less dangerous.

Flexible – many farms are very dynamic and depend on the requirements of their current owners. Their use therefore, keeps changing over time. Previously erected farm enclosures must be able to become adaptable to the many uses that are required of them. They must also be multipurpose in terms of overall functionality. This means that, even if the farm activities may change over time, the farm enclosures should be able to easily adjust to the new requirements in the shortest time possible.

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Why Working With Wood Warrants Extraction Wherewithal

23 Dec

If you’ve ever stepped within a hundred feet of a workshop, you’ll know that that the amount of mess generated by saw dust means that it can be particularly tricky to manage. Step a bit closer, and you’ll have smelled the unique, dewy scent of freshly sawn timber as it ascends through your nostrils and into your lungs. And therein lies a potential danger for anybody working in or around workshops- how to ensure the safety of your workers and protect yourself from inhaling the tiny particles.

In smaller workshops, where hand-tools are used more regularly, the amount of saw dust build-up is likely easy to manage with good housekeeping and a thorough sweep about at the end of the day. But in larger workspaces, where machinery is used more and machine vents blow air about quickly, it is much easier to produce vast quantities of wood waste, which inevitably start to gather on all manner of surfaces. No amount of cleaning or sweeping will keep the air free of dust particles, so what do you do? Invest in a dust extraction system, of course. But wait! You can’t just pick any dust extractor- you need to make sure it’s the right one for your workshop.

How Do I Pick An Industrial Dust Extractor?

Before you invest in a workshop dust extraction system, you need to think about your workshop environment. Do I create large chippings? Do I create fine dust? If your workshop creates a lot of large chippings as a result of machines such as planers and moulders, then you will probably need to buy a dust extractor which has a low pressure level and high flow rate. Conversely, if you generate finer dust particles, for example with sanders, then you’ll probably be better suited with an extraction system which has a high pressure level and low flow rate.

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