Construction Research and Innovation

In times of economic, political and social uncertainty the need to look ahead is profound, and yet the pressure to focus on next quarter's results has never been greater.

Construction Research and Innovation

The latest journal from the Chartered Institute of Building, CRI probes the topics of today and the possibilities of the future to help busy leaders in the built environment sector develop better strategic blueprints. With a focus on practical and technical innovation and progressive management thinking, and featuring research and analysis by experts and successful practitioners, CRI can help you understand the evolving needs of clients and how the structure of the industry is changing. As such it provides valuable CPD for you and powerful intelligence for your company.

Rooted in learning and sharing the best ideas of reflective practitioners and career researchers, CRI is an invaluable tool for both CPD for you and trend spotting for your company.

CRI is written and designed so that you can get quickly to the heart of challenging new research and ground breaking innovation. It is an invaluable source of professional development and practical insight.

In the March 2012 issue:

• Fighting FIT: Josephine Smit assesses where we are now in the conflict surrounding the UK's Feed in Tariff scheme (FIT), launched in 2010 to encourage people to generate their own power. It was cutting carbon emissions, encouraging a new industry, boosting skills and creating jobs, but then a new government decided the incentives were too generous
• Victory for the sparks: The shock abandonment of their sweeping new labour agreement in February by the UK's major mechanical and electrical contractors suggests a resurgent organised workforce and casts doubt on how a key construction sector can modernise in response to new technology and methods of working. Kristina Smith reports
• Inside the minds of the 'heritage police': Keith Emerick of English Heritage traces the evolution of conservation thought since 1954 to show that, while the rulings of conservation officers may seem arbitrary and inconsistent, the principles behind them are getting clearer and more responsive to everyone's needs
• Strategies for maintaining ancient buildings: Juergen Klemisch describes a holistic approach to saving, restoring and maintaining vulnerable ancient buildings, developed in Germany after unification. The philosophy and practicalities address preventing further disintegration, preparing the buildings for new lives and establishing a robust maintenance regime, all with limited resources
• Looking back on 55 years of industry reform: As the first book to analyse the last six decades of attempts to “improve” the industry, self-styled contrarian Stuart Green's Making Sense of Construction Improvement is a refreshing critique of the pieties of the past, writes Alan Mossman. But why, he asks, is Green so mean about lean?
• How to join the construction industry and survive: Now that manufacturers are being brought in as “specialists” to install their products and systems, they are having to leave the comfort zone of the old, one-page conditions of sale and enter the confusing and treacherous world of construction contracts. Richard Hawkins offers this rough guide
• BIM and waste control: The best way to deal with construction waste is to avoid creating it in the first place. With the government promoting BIM to make construction more efficient, Alistair O’Reilly investigates how we might integrate waste control into this versatile, project-wide design tool
• The curse of meetings: New research suggests that we spend two out of five working days in meetings and that less than half of them help us do our jobs. Here, Dave Stitt explores why meetings waste so much time and outlines how they could be so much better

The Editors welcome submissions including investigations, reports and case studies for inclusion in CRI, click here for details.

For further information please email Rod Sweet: cri@ciob.org.uk

Why subscribe?

If you're starved of time and swamped with information, CRI is there to help readers:

1. Understand the changing needs of clients;
2. Grasp how the industry is evolving;
3. Build better teams and companies.

Weeks Free online access – Why not register and receive a week’s free online access so that you can see for yourself. Simply click here and complete the registration.