Dantherm Air Handling Blog

Regeneration Awards & Ventilation Info....

BURA Awards
The British Urban Regeneration Association, (BURA) launched its 2008 BURA Awards for Best Practice in Regeneration recently. According to their website: A celebration of imagination, innovation, inspiration and determination. Through these independent awards we seek to identify and promote projects that are making a positive contribution to economic regeneration, acting as catalysts for wider regeneration and creating a self-sustaining momentum with long-term benefits for local communities.

The closing date for entries is 6 June 2008. For further information on how to enter click here.   

Ventilation Trends
Forward-thinking architects and specifiers will be pleased to find that the Air Filtration & Ventilation Centre has published the presentations given at their March conference on "Trends in national building ventilation markets and drivers for change". The presentations give a huge wealth of statistics from 16 countries so check it out here!

Olympics Aquatic Centre under attack by MPs

Not a week goes by without some news on the Olympics Aquatic Centre. Of all the buildings due to be completed for the 2012 London games, it seems that the Aquatics Centre will be the one that hits the headlines most frequently. Could it be the next Dome?

According to Building magazine: “Zaha Hadid’s Olympic Aquatics Centre has been labelled “over-designed” by an influential group of MPs in the second parliamentary report on the 2012 Games within a week.

The culture, media and sport select committee report accused the Games organisers of being “prepared to spend money like water” and said the engagement of delivery partner CLM had played a “significant part of the increase in costs” to the Games.”

Full marks to the committee for the pun!   

To read the full article go to Building Magazine.

News Round Up: RIBA fears over EPC; 12 Eco Experts; Aquatic Centres North & South; Dantherm at TETRA

RIBA fears over EPC

RIBA is voicing concern about the number and quality of assessors needed to carry out the new Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) reviews. All non-domestic buildings over 10,000m2 put on the market for sale or rent from 6 April have needed an EPC assessment and although RIBA backed the plan Keith Snook, the RIBA's director of research and development, speaking to the Architects Journal says: 'For the system to work successfully it is essential to ensure that assessments are carried out stringently. [This]is why the RIBA is currently working with Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists to prepare a training scheme for EPC assessors, which will be completed in the late summer.'

The 12 Eco Experts 
Hot on the heels of the Eco Towns announcement comes a list of 12 eco experts who will ‘play a key role in shaping the future of the biggest new towns programme in the UK for forty years.’ They include: John Walker (Chair) - Former Chief Executive, British Urban Regeneration Association. Dr Liz Goodwin - Chief Executive, Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) and Stephen Hale - Director, Green Alliance. For the full list, with a few surprises, click here.

Aquatic Centre opens to the public
The £20 million Sunderland Aquatic Centre opened to all yesterday and has already been earmarked as a potential training camp for the 2012 Olympics. It is the first 50 metre pool in the North East and the only one between Leeds and Edinburgh. Meanwhile, the London Olympics Aquatic Centre costs have spiralled to £242m, tripling from the original £75m. For the full story click here.

Dantherm at TETRA
Dantherm will be exhibiting at TETRA World Congress which is being held in Hong Kong on 26-29th May. Dantherm Air Handling and Dantherm Power participate with a common stand where Dantherm's new integrated cabinet solution ICS with cooling and fuel cell power backup will be on show. We look forward to seeing you there!

ECA and HVCA talk 'convergence'

Contract Journal last week reported that the long running talks between the Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association (HVCA) and Electrical Contractors Association (ECA) are progressing – albeit slowly.

Contract Journal says: “Leaders of the electrical contracting and heating and ventilating sectors are taking a "softly, softly" approach to a long-awaited attempt to bring contractors in their industries together. But both have attempted to brand the union as a 'convergence' rather than a merger, and stressed that there is no immediate pressure, no fixed timetable, and no set model for the prospective organisation.

Speaking to CJ, Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association (HVCA) chief executive Robert Higgs said: "This is not a merger. That has connotations of a takeover and of winners and losers. That's why we're carefully talking in terms of convergence."

Higgs and Electrical Contractors Association (ECA) chief executive David Pollock also stressed that 'convergence' was not being driven by any cost-cutting imperative. They have formally notified the separate electrical employers in Scotland (SELECT), the plumbers of England and Wales (APHC), and the Scottish and Northern Ireland plumbers (SNIPEF) of their convergence initiative. There was an open invitation for them to become involved. The next step is for the ECA council to consider similar backing at the end of this month.”

Source: Contract Journal.

Eco Town Locations Announced

Last week, the government announced the shortlist of sites for the 15 new Eco Towns due to be built by 2020. In a blaze of publicity the sites were unveiled in locations across the UK including Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Essex, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The size of the towns range from 4,000 to more than 15,000 new homes.

Always controversial, the announcements were not universally welcomed but probably the most surprising piece of news surrounding Eco Towns came yesterday in The Sunday Telegraph:

Tesco ‘secret bidder’ behind eco-town project.

Britain's biggest retailer plans to build a large "environmentally friendly" store in the centre of the proposed town in a move that will further increase Tesco's high-street dominance. One of the towns shortlisted last week for potential development - Hanley Grange in Cambridgeshire - was put forward by a company called Jarrow Investments. But The Sunday Telegraph has established Jarrow owns much of the land on behalf of Tesco. It is also project managing the development on behalf of the supermarket chain.

We suspect Eco Towns will provide the press with interesting stories for some time to come....watch this space!