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Date announced for opening of new Beijing Airport

Matt Falcus Transportation Technology & Automotive

China’s new world-beating mega-hub airport at Daxing, near Beijing, has taken a step closer to becoming operational by announcing its planned opening date in October next year. Work on the airport has been steadily progressing for a number of years at the site nearly 30 miles from the center of Beijing, with a design set to match the requirements of today’s travelers and the massive demand for air travel in China.

GIS-savvy surveyors muster political will to lobby at multiple levels of…

Bill Becken Construction & Building Materials

Surveying is daytime work — especially if it invokes today’s remarkable high-tech geospatial mapping and navigational tools, known collectively as geographic information systems (GIS). Nighttime or off-hours duties aren’t usually associated with it. Yet those are exactly what many land surveyors have shouldered lately — as members of one or more of their professional associations — as they attempt to cogently address the legislative and political issues facing the profession.

3-D printing in the commercial construction world

Miranda Y. Brumbaugh Construction & Building Materials

Believe it or not, 3-D printing has been around for nearly 40 years. However, it would take 20 years before the technology involved in 3-D printing became reliable and accessible on a global scale. Today, jet packs, limb replacements, cars and even houses are made using this technology. The commercial construction industry is also utilizing this more-efficient method of building commercial spaces and infrastructure.

Generation Z is reshaping the rental market

Michael J. Berens Construction & Building Materials

Believed to be the largest birth cohort in U.S. history, Generation Z, also referred to as post-millennials, has now breached the boundaries of young adulthood and are starting to strike out on their own. For the oldest, that includes renting their first apartment. And while they currently make up only a small portion of the rental market, Gen Z renters have already gained the attention of property owners eager to attract them as tenants.

Renewable energy jobs are growing worldwide

Scott E. Rupp Waste Management & Environmental

The renewable energy sector created more than 500,000 new jobs globally in 2017, with the total number of people employed in renewables surpassing 10 million for the first time. Per the International Renewable Energy Agency’s report, "Renewable Energy and Jobs," jobs in the sector increased 5.3 percent in 2017, for a total of 10.3 million people employed worldwide. China, Brazil, the United States, India, Germany and Japan have remained the world’s largest renewable energy employers, per the report, representing more than 70 percent of all of the sector’s jobs.

Urban design gone wrong: Density

Lucy Wallwork Construction & Building Materials

There is perhaps no more divisive term in our cities than that of urban density. Often measured in "dwellings per hectare" or "people per hectare," for some it can evoke our greatest fears about what our neighborhoods might become. For others, higher density is an environmental imperative to manage the environmental crisis. For yet others, higher densities hold the key to "happier cities." But there is less consensus than we might think about density. Where does "density" end and "overcrowding" begin?

Signs point to improving business conditions for designers

Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & Fixtures

After several months of declining growth, the interior design industry showed signs of regaining momentum in the latter part of the first quarter. Both residential and commercial sectors have experienced increased activity in recent months. The upward trend has boosted designers’ expectations that demand will continue to grow in the months ahead.

Getting ready for ‘show’ time

Susan Mulholland Interior Design, Furnishings & Fixtures

Design is all about the next big thing. We are all obsessed with the idea that there is something new or better out there, and we just have to find it. This is where interior decorators’ and designers’ true passion resides. If you don’t believe me, just go to any of the design conferences listed in the professional interior design trade magazines. I have been practicing professionally for two-and-a-half decades, and I can tell you that no matter how many emails you get from manufacturers telling you about their latest product introductions, nothing beats going to the shows and seeing them in person.

Getting the training right for flammables

Andrew Gaved Engineering

As any reader of past columns will know, the ongoing mechanism of the F-Gas regulation, with its emphasis on moving the industry to lower-GWP refrigerants via bans and quota reductions, has caused European cooling businesses to do a lot of soul-searching. Now, the urgency of the message appears to be percolating through the industry. But, the advent of lower-GWP refrigerants also brings with it serious longer-term considerations. The fact that the majority of alternatives in the future will have some degree of flammability has given rise to concerns that the current engineering base does not have the right skills to handle them.

Urban design gone wrong: Lazy frontages

Lucy Wallwork Construction & Building Materials

With a generation of city planners brought up reading Jane Jacobs, another term you are likely to find peppering their documents today is "active frontages." However, walking in the shadow of blank walls in many of our cities today, it becomes clear that we are not always living up to Jacobs’ aspirations. Active frontages are designed to make a street more visually engaging. That does not necessarily mean the bohemian café-lined streets of Paris or Brooklyn but can be much more prosaic — it might be a handyman’s store, a gym or even a house frontage.

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