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Category Archives: News

20
Nov 2020

Five Architectural Design Failures That Are Known For All The Wrong Reasons…

It’s all very well talking about the great and the good. We love nothing more than to watch an Oscar-winning performance, take in an unspoiled mountain vista or marvel at the brilliance of one of the old masters’ paintings. After a while, though, it can get a bit, well, dare we say boring? Variety is the spice of life, so they say. The world would be a pretty dull place were we not to have the bad to contrast the good! Architectural design is no different from this, and whilst there have, of course, been a huge number of staggering […]

The word mistake to represent architectural design failures.
12
Nov 2020

The Continued Growth Of Degree Apprenticeships

There was a time when attaining a good university degree from a prestigious university was perceived as being the zenith of ‘success’ for young adults. In recent times, however, this attitude has been increasingly challenged, and whilst a – what we would probably term – ‘conventional’ university degree is still a valid and much-vaunted pathway to follow, it’s certainly not the only one. Practical, vocation-based qualifications (apprenticeships, for example) have been gaining on their traditional counterparts for some time now, and show no obvious signs of slowing down. There are pros and cons to both, which is what makes the […]

A lecture hall to represent degree apprenticeships.
6
Nov 2020

The Current Trends Within Project Management

Behind every great project is a manager (as any PM will take delight in telling you) and the success of any and every scheme hinges on the ability of these professionals to plan, procure, coordinate and oversee how different strands of a project come together. These managers work across a multitude of sectors and areas, covering everything from the construction of smart cities to the commitment to a greener, cleaner future. It’s worth noting that project management is far from an immutable discipline – it’s not an ancient practice from time immemorial, never to be changed. It’s constantly evolving and […]

A wall reading 'projects' to represent project management.
28
Oct 2020

Don’t Get Caught Out! DIY Building Surveying Tips From Munday + Cramer

When you’re looking to purchase a home, it can be easy to get lost in the romance of the situation. When you’re thinking with your heart and not your head, the broken becomes ‘characterful’, the money-sink a ‘project’ and the overgrown ‘enchanting’. In short, we run away with ourselves a bit. The reality is that if you’re not careful then you might end up with years of expensive maintenance costs ahead. You’ve got to think to yourself – do you really want that extra space at the expense of a functioning boiler? Probably not. The team here at Munday + […]

A plug socket to represent electrical building surveying.
23
Oct 2020

Architectural Design: What Is BREEAM And Why Is It So Important?

The built environment is shaped by its regulatory frameworks and assessments; rules, guidance and standards that, in being met, ensure that buildings around the world are designed and constructed in the most efficient and sustainable way possible, not just from an environmental perspective, but from a socio-political standpoint as well. There’s one assessment method more than any other, however, that’s helped divert the previously often muddied waters of the built environment towards a greener, cleaner future – and that’s BREEAM. The team here at Munday + Cramer, a leading Essex-based architectural design and building surveying firm, wanted to explore this […]

A leaf and droplet to represent greener architectural design.
16
Oct 2020

Drones Have Become A Mainstay Of The Building Surveying Industry – Here’s Why

Every so often, a technology will come along that has a truly disruptive effect on an industry’s shape; a technology which not only tackles a sector’s existing limitations, but dismantles them altogether. The proliferation of drone technologies within the world of building surveying, in recent years, is one such disruptive technology. These unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may often be small, but the impact they have can be quite profound. The team here at Munday + Cramer, whose firm boasts a renowned building surveying department in Essex, wanted to examine the technology’s current applications, as well as what we might expect […]

An image of a drone to depict its usage in building surveying.
9
Oct 2020

4 Major Factors Affecting UK Property Value

In Boris Johnson’s recent address to the Conservative Party Conference, the current Prime Minister laid out his vision to get an increasing number of younger people onto the property ladder and buying homes. This, as opposed to being stuck within an endless cycle of rentals. It’s a dream held by many people, both old and young alike. The price of that dream, however, very much depends on the market conditions at the time. The housing market is an inherently changeable one, and its fluctuations have frustrated both buyers and sellers for decades. There are, however, some more ‘universal’ value drivers […]

Our building surveying team looks at the current property value drivers.
2
Oct 2020

Facilities Management: 6 Autumn Tasks To Keep Your Building In Perfect Working Order

As the nights draw longer and the days grow colder, it can be all too easy for businesses to push their facility’s maintenance tasks to the bottom of the pile – a job to ‘get around to later’. However, this time of year, potentially more than any other, is when jobs such as these especially need to be carried out – both inside of a property, and out. The team here at Munday + Cramer, an Essex-based facilities management firm, wanted to walk you through some of the most important tasks to take care of this autumn, so that you […]

A picture depicting fallen autumn leaves to represent the facilities management work needed during the season.
25
Sep 2020

What Is Modular Design And Why Is It So Popular?

Like many toddlers growing up, I would often sit for hours at a time enthralled by little wooden building blocks. In a quasi-flow-state, I would arrange and re-arrange them into various shapes and structures, utterly transfixed. A young child, sat with an almost comic intensity of concentration, toiling away at his magnum opus. Whilst I didn’t know it at the time, that approach was actually surprisingly similar to a form of construction today. A discipline known as modular design. In many ways, in fact, modular architectural design is more akin to that simplistic block-building approach of childhood in than it […]

A building block to represent the repeating 'units' used in modular design.
18
Sep 2020

Architectural Design Through The Ages: Part 3 (Modern)

Superlatives are bandied about nowadays with careless abandon, their impact and value somewhat lessened by their overly-frequent usage. When it comes to modern architectural styles, however, you’ll find that superlatives are still very much appropriate. Contemporary architectural design (from the turn of the 20th century to present day) includes some of the most innovative, most provocative and most daring structures ever to have been conceived. Some of the styles we’ll cover in this post built on the rules laid down by their forebears. Others, however, ripped up the rule book entirely. All of them, however, left their own distinct mark […]