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This paper presents a two year long empirical study on the effects of fabric retrofit insulation on a high rise social housing building (a 23-storey block with 157 flats) in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK). The study has followed a quasi-experimental approach coupled with qualitative methods and examines whether temperature take-back is taking place; whether it operates independently of socio economic characteristics due to saturation effects; and the relationship between temperature take-back, physical factors and occupant’s behavioural change. The presented empirical evidence suggests that, first, temperature take-back as extra warmth (or energy consumption savings) is not occurring. Second, the saturation effect has taken place. This supports the assumption that temperature take-back decreases owing to saturation effects when pre-intervention internal temperatures saturate (approaching 21 °C) in lieu of the hypothesis that low-income householders take the benefits of an energy efficiency intervention as extra warmth rather than energy savings. Third, an upper level or maximum take-back temperature was achieved for the dwellings ranging from 20.85 °C to 24.81 °C. Fourth, behavioural factors such as turning on the heating appear to be less relevant than physical factors such as energy-efficiency improvements to explain the increased of standardised mean internal air temperature. The study also suggests that local building characteristics (e.g. heating pipes routing) play an influential role and that to evaluate appropriateness of retrofitted energy-efficiency insulation measures pre-intervention variables such as internal temperatures, heating system and building fabric performance should be taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2001, the construction of flats and high-density developments increased in England and the building of houses declined. Does this indicate a change in taste or is it a result of government planning policies? In this paper, an analysis is made of the long-term effects of the policy of constraint which has existed for the past 50 years but the increase in density is identified as occurring primarily after new, revised, planning guidance was issued in England in 2000 which discouraged low-density development. To substantiate this, it is pointed out that the change which occurred in England did not occur in Scotland where guidance was not changed to encourage high-density residential development. The conclusion that the change is the result of planning policies and not of a change in taste is confirmed by surveys of the occupants of new high-rise developments in Leeds. The new flat-dwellers were predominantly young and childless and expressed the intention, in the near future, when they could, of moving out of the city centre and into houses. From recent changes in guidance by the new coalition government, it is expected that the construction of flats in England will fall back to earlier levels over the next few years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

High-rise housing, long seen as a postwar disaster, has an interwar prehistory characterised by debate between the advocates and critics of multistorey flats for social housing. In London, the controversy divided the political Left (initially firmly opposed to 'barracks for the working classes') and Right (willing to contemplate multistorey solutions), while others argued from a stated position of political neutrality for advanced modern solutions to urban living. This debate forms the background to a paper that examines a number of experimental slum clearance and redevelopment schemes, all featuring high-rise blocks served by lifts. All were promoted by the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney. John Scurr House (built 1936–1937), Riverside Mansions (1925–1928) and the Limehouse Fields project (1925 but never built) are examined in this paper, together with the local politics that shaped events in one East End borough, and the evolution of architectural and planning ideas that, after World War II, were to shape so much of London's housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001, plans were unveiled by a private developer for a 32-storey residential tower next to the Tate Gallery of Modern Art in Bankside. Although not the tallest building proposed within London's high-rise landscape, this tower became a minor cause célèbre within the city's media. The twists and turns involved in attempts to win — and oppose — planning permission for the building are charted in this paper. Yet, the vociferous battle involved does not reveal distinct political and social fault-lines. Instead, it highlights how an agenda of corporate property-led development has come to dominate efforts to regenerate and re-imagine contemporary London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of timber as an efficient building material. It also cites several examples of such achievements including completion of an eight-floor wooden office block in Austria and a nine-storey residential project in London. It mentions that timber used in construction is assembled from solid panels made from multiple layers of wood and other materials.