Leading national property consultants Bidwells has achieved planning permission for the first major student accommodation development in Norwich City Centre. 

The development, which is taking shape on part of the old bus station site, will include 228 bedrooms and has been largely achieved due to pro-active work by Bidwells, as Planning Partner Paul Clarke explains.

It’s that time of year again, when awards are awarded and competitions competed in. The biggest deal in the past couple of weeks was the presentation of the Construction Industry Awards themselves, at the Grosvenor Hotel on 9 October.

The big building project award – for those valued at over £50m – went to perhaps the capital’s most notable new building of recent years: The Shard. Renzo Piano’s latest masterpiece has used up all the superlatives, so I won’t use any.

At the other end of the scale was the gong for Building Project of the Year for a project valued at up to £3m was for the gorgeous new Henry King Chapel at Ripon College in Oxford, which was also shortlisted for the Stirling Prize.

The most outlandish-looking project won the International Award, for “projects outside the UK for which one or more UK-based British firms have made a significant contribution”. That was the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley Research Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Wow!

Check out New Civil Engineer for pictures of all the award winners.

• Another prizegiving this month was that of the Structural Concrete competition, supported by the Mineral Products Association, the Concrete Centre, the Institution of Structural Engineers and Laing O’Rourke. It is a design competition for civil and structural engineering students. This year’s competition called for the design of a luxury residential building that formed part of the extensive redevelopment of an industrial site close to the centre of a large UK town.

First prize and sustainability prize were awarded to a team from Imperial College London, while the winners of the second prize were from the University of Southampton.

Next year's competition, for which entries are now open, will require entrants to produce a design for a school building within an existing school development in the suburbs of a large UK city. The brief for the competition includes a range of specifications that must be adhered to, as well as a precise description of the ‘site’ and its conditions, imposing constraints upon the entrants, who must “respond as though they are the structural engineer responsible within the consultant’s team”.

• Entries are also now open for the 2014 Greenbuild Awards. As the name implies, the awards celebrate “truly green buildings that show the project teams are serious about sustainability”.

These awards are for actual buildings that have been constructed, and entrants must show that they live up to the green aspirations of their design while actually in use. One of the seminars at this year’s Greenbuild Expo featured an entertaining sidelight on how and why some buildings with marvellous specs fail to deliver the carbon footprint to which they aspire – usually because the people in them don’t behave as they are supposed to!

Chris Stokes

The UK’s largest roofing trade association, the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC), has rolled out a roofing campaign exclusively for the architectural and specification sectors. Entitled ‘Think roofs – think NFRC’, the campaign aims to raise awareness of NFRC and to promote its knowledge and expertise to the architectural community.

Corrugated Case Company (CCC), a leading independent corrugated box manufacturer is revolutionising its factory with British made LED lighting.

With the help of Greater Manchester-based lighting manufacturer, MHA Lighting, CCC is set to save over £60,000 on its lighting energy bills and over 140 Tonnes of Co2 by switching to LED.

The savings will be achieved over the 29 year lifespan of the lighting solution, giving average annual cost savings of £2,360.

Off-Site construction specialists Elliott have been awarded the contract for a £5.0m, 108 bed Staff Accommodation Block at Peterborough City Hospital.

The feature four storey building was designed by Elliott to incorporate their innovative off site manufacturing techniques and modular construction expertise which, when combined, offer the flexibility of bespoke design while maximising efficiencies by quality controlled factory manufacture and a reduced onsite installation programme.

Peterborough City Hospital’s new accommodation block will be installed by Elliott in just 16 weeks on site. The building will have a 60 year structural design life with a 25 year structural warranty.

Savvy house buyers are creating their own “grand designs” by snapping up quality homes from a leading Hertfordshire developer and having them built to their own bespoke requirements.

Home seekers are queuing up to buy homes from Taylor French Developments, based in Tring.

Demand is such that the award-winning firm has had to draw up a waiting list to notify disappointed house hunters, who previously missed out on buying one of its homes, about future schemes.

Professional builders in the North West can take advantage of three special offers from the Federation of Master Builders in October. They will receive, free, a top-quality 22” Draper Supercut handsaw just for meeting an FMB advisor, and can save 50% on inspection costs if they apply for FMB membership by the end of the month. If their application is successful, they will also receive a year’s free registration with the Government-backed TrustMark scheme for professional trades.

West Yorkshire metalworking firm Arkoni has put a fire-rated finishing touch to one of the most iconic and unique Victorian shopping malls in the UK.

The impressive Grade II listed Silver Arcade, situated on Silver Street in the heart of Leicester, was built in 1889 by architect Amos Hall and is the only four storey Victorian arcade of its type in Britain.

The second ProTimber Industry Summit took place at Timber Expo on the 24th September and saw a wide range of timber industry leaders focus discussions on the opportunities ahead for the timber sector in developing a clear and robust response to the UK Government's Construction Strategy 2025.

An iconic new grassroots sporting facility, designed to integrate effortlessly with its environment, has been officially opened in Thamesmead by Football legend Sir Trevor Brooking CBE. 

Built thanks to funding through the Football Foundation, the country’s largest sports charity, and other contributors, Sporting Club Thamesmead boasts an outstanding new changing pavilion, floodlit third generation (3G) artificial grass pitch (AGP), and multi-use games area (MUGA) and represents a much-needed investment to an area that has significantly lacked in community facilities, particularly sports facilities, for many years.