January 31, 2018
Plans to develop 2 million sq. ft. of office space in South East England announced
Property developer John Baker, formerly of Baker Lorenz, has launched a new venture to develop a series of new business districts in South East commuter towns and outer London boroughs. The John Baker Group is working in partnership with building and civil engineering contractor Sir Robert McAlpine on the £2bn project which will see the delivery of some 2 million sq. ft. of new office space across the South East. The joint venture, called The Commercial Parks Group, has already acquired £20m worth of property in Crawley, Haywards Heath and Bromley in order to create a series of major business hubs.
December 14, 2017
How designers copy nature to create new and extraordinary forms
by Charles Marks • Comment, Workplace design
Humans have a long track record of turning to Nature for inspiration. When Leonardo da Vinci turned his mind to the challenge of acquiring the power of flight for mankind, his sketches show he believed the solution lay in mimicking the form and function of bat wings. We’ve learned a lot about aerodynamics since the fifteenth Century but nature continues to provide a blueprint for the way we design materials and structures. Researchers at the University of Alabama have recently won a grant from the US National Science Foundation to explore how the scales on the wings of butterflies (pictured) help the creatures to fly in the hope that it will help engineers design better and more efficient aircraft.
(more…)