Wed 5 Nov 2008
October
Winners of a recent competition to design "A Kitchen for the Future" are working with sponsors, Paula Rosa, to develop exciting new concepts for the kitchen in years to come. Paula Rosa set a challenge for students of Nottingham University School of the Built Environment, to bring a fresh approach to this most traditional heart of the home. Competition entrants were encouraged to give free rein to their creativity while, at the same time, taking into account such practical considerations as sustainable materials, low carbon impact, energy use and recycling.The panel of six judges was drawn from Paula Rosa, Stoneguard Limited, Electrolux plc and Nottingham University. Joint winner, Richard Stokes, focused his ideas on the social use of the kitchen, ideal for families, with a creative concept encouraging interaction between everyone using the kitchen, whether cleaning or preparing food, cooking or eating. With a similar emphasis on warmth and sociability, joint winning team, Annie Marston and Lucelia Rodrigues, created a stylish kitchen design with the application of considerable research into sustainable materials and recycling.
www.paularosa.com
Property marketing agency Think BDW has enjoyed a successful first six months for its Think Digital and Think PR operations, new divisions launched in January by Rob Bosher and Caroline Coskry respectively.
Rob Bosher, Director of Think Digital comments: "During our first six months we have taken the development of touchscreen technology to the next level, developing systems for flagship schemes such as Millgate Homes, Sundridge Park, Urban Solutions, Serne Park, and Explore Living, New Meridian Village. Our two products; "in-touch", an alpha numeric touch system, enables the sales agent to key in a plot number and simply display plans on a large LCD screen for viewing or printing, and "in-touch+", a bespoke apartment finder system, incorporating a range of our in house resources including CGI, animation, web and videotechnology providing our clients with the full multimedia experience. Both products can be linked to a scale model that can be illuminated as a plot is searched for added effect."
Think PR has also had a successful first six months by acquiring a number of key niche developers and housebuilders across the country.
www.thinkbdw.co.uk
Taylor Wimpey plc has signed a national agreement with Rocksure Systems for its highly acclaimed Peoplesafe lone worker service. Peoplesafe devices have been distributed throughout the George Wimpey and Bryant Home Regions and will be used solely by the company's sales personnel.
Taylor Wimpey chose the Peoplesafe service after research by a Director who was given the task of carrying out a feasibility study on the use of alarms for lone worker protection. Deciding between fixed alarms or mobile devices, it was decided that a personal alarm would offer greater protection as it could be worn outside the office and moved from site to site.
The Peoplesafe device resembles a normal ID holder but is in fact packed with the latest mobile technology. It enables a lone worker to discreetly raise an alarm if threatened and also allows a third party to listen to what is happening and record events whatever the distance. The device can also support the pinpointing of a worker's location using GSM/LBS technology.
www.peoplesafe.co.uk
Western Red Cedar Cladding from John Brash has been selected by David Wilson Homes to help create 75 brand new Code level 4 homes in Greenfields, Hampshire.Western Red Cedar cladding was an integral part of helping these properties meet their green build requirements, as part of the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH). This is because Western Red Cedar recently achieved an 'A' rating for sustainability in the BREs 2008 Green Guide to Specification. This is the highest environmental rating awarded by BRE.
Offering a selection of leading eco-features to help reduce homeowners' carbon footprints, the Greenfield homes are fitted with solar panels and rainwater recycling with extra space being designed within the houses to accommodate conventional recycling. The homes also boast 'solar spaces' - a unique take on the more traditional conservatory, sunlight is allowed to flood into the home from ground to ceiling providing a naturally bright interior.
www.johnbrash.co.uk
Smarthomes, Ireland's fastest growing home technology company has announced it will be entering the UK market in partnership with one of the UK's leading intelligent technology specialists, Faith & Gantry.
The move signals yet further expansion for Ipswich-based Faith & Gantry who, like their new partner, have seen accelerated growth in the last few years.
In the last couple of years, Faith & Gantry has seen its orders soar - particularly within the new build sector. This is set to increase yet further as the collaboration will also enable Faith & Gantry to offer Smarthomes' extensive product portfolio to clients across the UK. With Property Developers feeling the effects of the slow down in the UK economy, adding a simple TV / data / telephone network means homes are sold faster.
www.faithandgantry.co.uk/ www.smarthomes.ie.
The UK's top house builders including Barratt, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Bellway, have all recently adopted the Intelligent Property mobile service as part of a strategy to find cheaper and more effective media channels and streamline their marketing. Intelligent Property provides a text response service that means users can have property details delivered to their mobile phone wherever they are, whatever time of day it is. The technology works by delivering pictures, floor plans and property details to mobile phones on instant request, adapted to suit the users handset.
Users simply text a brand name or a unique property code (chosen by the developer) to 84840, and the system will return details and pictures of the developers' properties that are located nearest to the user.
www.intelligentproperty.com
Vencel Resil, manufacturers of Jablite expanded polystyrene insulation (EPS), has released a new brochure designed to help anyone involved in the construction industry to meet the latest building regulations requirements.
Released in response to the ever tightening legislation, the Insulation Solutions brochure provides information and advice on creating more energy efficient buildings, whether new builds or refurbishments. With the increasing need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from dwellings, the brochure shows how the Jablite range of expanded polystyrene products can be used to improve the thermal performance of all elements of a building's construction, including walls, floors and roofs. This is particularly relevant now with the increasing importance on creating sustainable homes.
The new brochure contains details of how the Jablite range is ideal for both commercial and domestic buildings.
www.jablite.co.uk.
Posted by Show House
in Annie Marston, Barratt Homes, Bellway, Bryant Homes, Caroline Coskry, David Wilson, Electrolux, Explore Living, George Wimpey, Intelligent Property, Lucelia Rodrigues, Millgate Homes, Paula Rosa, Persimmon Homes, Richard Stokes, Rob Bosher, Rocksure Systems, Smarthomes, Stoneguard, Supplier News, Taylor Wimpey, Think BDW, Vencel Resil on Wed 5 Nov 2008
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