Technical

18 March 2025

Meeting standards for safer building

Stephen Workman, Technical Director at AtkinsRéalis, shares insights from the Technical Competency Panel meeting, focusing on material passports, retrofit, adaptive reuse and more.

Culture, Education & Health, Housing, Industrial & Logistics, Net Zero, Planning, Technical, Transport & Infrastructure, Work

14 January 2025

Expert Panels 2024 Summaries

As we kick off 2025 Expert Panels, panel chairs share summaries, recommendations, reflections and key findings from across the 2024 meetings, visits and debates.

Technical

14 January 2025

Shaping Safer Buildings: New Era of compliance under the BSA post Grenfell

Karen Bennett Jones, Safety Director at Ryder, highlights the Grenfell fire's legacy, industry failings, and the urgent need for compliance and cultural change under new regulations.

Technical

11 April 2024

Kicking off the fourth cycle of Technical Panel

Arita Morris recaps the fourth cycle of the Technical Panel, which had new and old panellists, making for a good cross-section of perspectives and expertise from the built environment.

Technical

04 December 2023

PII Market Update – light at the end of the tunnel?

Matt Jones and James Burgoyne of Lockton reflect on our annual fire safety update exploring the impact of changing building regulations on the design and safety of buildings.

Technical

22 March 2023

Technical Competency in the design and delivery of buildings

Liam Bryant of Webb Yates Engineers reflects on the latest Technical Expert Panel meeting and subsequent workshop in March.

Technical

15 December 2022

Technical Expert Panel

Arita Morris, Child Graddon Lewis reports on the latest Technical Expert Panel meeting with a refreshed panel, with experts in design, law, and manufacturing.

Technical

15 November 2022

Technical Explainer: Passivhaus

In the first of a new series of NLA Technical Explainers, Gwilym Still of Max Fordham takes us through an explanation of Passivhaus, featuring exemplar projects and useful insights.

Technical

23 September 2022

Technical Competency: Retrofit

Bringing together experts and practitioners from across the built environment to discuss the latest methodologies and technical innovations in retrofitting, Tal Ben-Amar reports.

Technical

12 August 2022

A year in summary: Technical Competency

As we wrap up the latest cycle of NLA Expert Panels, Arita Morris summarises strategic areas from the Technical Competency Expert Panel that they will take forward into the next cycle.

Technical

19 July 2022

Using BIM to Create the Best Possible Design

Retha Swanepoel, Associate, Regional Design Technology Manager, Gensler recently spoke at NLA’s ‘Technical Briefing: Building Information Modelling’ webinar to give the audience an Architect’s view on...

Technical

19 July 2022

MMC: innovation in housing delivery

Stephen Workman, Associate Director at Atkins provides an update on advancements in MMC in the last year that is helping to deliver the housing London needs.

Technical

14 June 2022

Expert Panel on Technical Competency

Federico Ortiz, Head of Research at NLA, reports from latest Expert Panel on Technical Competency.

Technical

28 March 2022

Going back to the future

Lukas Thiel of White Arkitekter London reports from NLA's recent modular construction briefing

Retail & Hospitality, Technical

11 February 2022

Trusses, ‘good citizenry’, and creating the right culture

The building team behind One Crown Place explained the main highlights and technical aspects of the mixed use scheme at an NLA Project in Practice last week

Technical

29 November 2021

What next for social value?

Clare Richards of ftwork and Roland Karthaus of Matter Architecture argue for a new way of thinking about social purpose of development.

Technical

08 November 2021

Supporting the Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy

Steve Richmond, Head of Marketing and Technical at REHAU Building Solutions writes in favour of the government's recently announced Heat & Buildings strategy.

Technical

12 October 2021

Further clarity needed on responsibilities and accountability for fire safety, expert panel finds

Arita Morris, Director of Child Graddon Lewis, reports from the first meeting of the new NLA Expert Panel on Technical Competency.

Technical

13 September 2021

Five Minutes with…Leni Popovici, founding director and partner, KAP Studios

David Taylor meets Leni Popovici to hear about her practice, KAP Studios, is importing and exporting ideas and key lessons for London from projects in the US and Romania

Technical

31 August 2021

Moving to a Circular Approach to Regeneration

Michael Woodford, Director of White’s London Studio and Anna Graaf, Director of Sustainability, write for NLA on the need to move beyond the current ‘materials’ focus of circular economy, to a compreh...

Technical

23 August 2021

Lifting the Lid: how ceilings have become the new battleground in the War for Talent

Structure Tone have gathered a number of very different perspectives who have devoted an inordinate amount of their careers thinking about ceilings to help us understand why inspirational lids are big...

Technical

09 August 2021

Five minutes with...Camilla Siggaard Andersen

David Taylor talks to Hassell senior researcher Camilla Siggaard Andersen on measuring the success of cities, encouraging behavioural change towards the global climate crisis, the need for leaders wit...

Technical

09 August 2021

Practitioners call for wider timber use in sustainable push

Think tank attendees at HTS’s Chart Street offices unveil ‘magic wand’ list to get timber use further up the agenda

Technical

12 July 2021

Five minutes with...Gerard Maccreanor, director, Maccreanor Lavington

David Taylor catches up with Gerard Maccreanor to talk masterplanning in the COVID age, 15-minute cities, life in Rotterdam, trust in governments and a growth in London schemes with a ‘complicated’ mi...

Technical

11 June 2021

Improving technical competency for building a better future

NLA Expert Panel on Technical Competency reflects on the past 12 months and plans for the next year.

Technical

08 June 2021

Quality must be the cornerstone of the façade industry

Chris Hodgkinson of Errigal discusses how quality must be a key cornerstone of the façade industry going forward.

Technical

04 June 2021

Product showcase: Vestre

In light of NLA's sustainability report, Zero Carbon London, Vestre Commercial Director Romy Rawlings writes about the company's sustainability-first approach to design, with a keen focus on the futur...

Technical

09 March 2021

Transforming procurement culture: NLA Expert Panel on Technical Competency

This week the government’s “Green Paper: Transforming public procurement” consultation came to a close. In this context, the NLA Expert Panel on Technical Competency discussed issues around public pro...

Technical

18 February 2021

Rebuilding London's legacy building stock

In 2020, polymer manufacturer REHAU installed 1,000 windows at Kelson House, a high-rise block owned by One Housing on the Isle of Dogs in London. The project has not only supported wider regeneration...

Technical

06 January 2021

Professions face ‘juggernaut’ towards fire safety culture change

The built environment professions must work together to tackle the new Building Safety Bill ‘juggernaut’ to build trust and respect through better competence, appropriate insurance and smarter procure...

Technical

09 November 2020

NLA Expert Panel on Technical Competency

Reports of the proceedings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry continue to make sobering reading. The recent evidence of the overworked building control officer, under intolerable pressure and now the refus...