Acoustic conditions within schools can have a profound impact on both pupil and staff performance: if acoustics are poor teachers can find it difficult to be heard as noise levels rise in a classroom. Unfortunately in the UK we have a large stock of school buildings that were constructed without thought to acoustical performance, or where budget constraints dictated that it was a low priority at design stage.

You have to have been living a hermit's existence for the past decade not to have noticed the impact that Pret A Manger is having on our changing attitude to fast food.  The company's 160 shops around the UK are the antithesis of everything that is unhealthy and increasingly unacceptable about fast food.  Pret A Manger creates handmade, natural food that is prepared on the premises, in their own kitchens - except for a few of its tiny shops - that shun dubious chemical additives and preservatives.

The 4,000m² HQ is located in the UK’s busiest container port, Felixstowe and the design team was strongly influenced by the maritime history of the location. Pre-patinated copper for example forms the cladding on the rear elevations giving it a stunning ‘sea’ colour.

The Electronic Assistive Technology Service (EATS) and the Centre for Brain Injury Rehabilitation (CBIR), Dundee, are using a range of ABB EIB/KNX products to help adults with acquired brain injury (ABI), to lead a more independent life.

How would your end-clients feel if you were to specify a product for their building that couldn’t be guaranteed to work and would have to be installed before you could tell whether it was working or not? Surprisingly, this is the situation with many physical water conditioners (PWCs) in use today.

International trains will be running at speeds up to 186mph on the completed Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) from 2007. From St Pancras International, travellers will reach the Channel in just 35 minutes, Brussels in one hour 51 minutes and Paris in two hours 15 minutes. This has been made possible by London and Continental Railway’s (LCR) new 39km line through London that includes three twin-bore tunnels of more than 21km featuring pioneering ventilation technology. Phil Doyle of HVAC contractors Senior Hargreaves explains the technical and logistical challenges.

When Priva Building Intelligence required more office space at its Dutch headquarters the obvious answer was to develop a new purpose-built structure on the existing headquarter site.  But rather than erect just another office complex, the company drew on its knowledge and experience in building controls and energy management and constructed an energy-efficient building that utilises an underground thermal storage system that is capable of providing heating and cooling throughout the building, eliminating the need for boilers and chillers. The system is managed, obviously, by a Priva building management system (BMS).

In February of this year we brought to you news of a new IT cabinet cooling system which was being brought to the market by Trox AITCS. Six months later, and with the system up and running in Imperial College London, we look at how the pioneering carbon dioxide based IT cabinet cooling system fares in the real world.

The safe evacuation of a building’s occupants is the top priority in the event of any life-threatening incident, and a clear and unambiguous means of communicating with them is essential. This is especially so with hotels, where the safety of guests is of paramount importance. In the case of the four-star Hotel de France in St. Helier, Jersey, currently undergoing a new extension build, Gent by Honeywell’s Approved System Integrator Smail and Richards has been able to offer a high quality, state-of-the-art voice alarm that properly reflects this top hotel’s high-quality status.