A personal method, built and tested again on a new subject This is not a PhD study, and I am not trying to prove a theory. It is a personal method I built before several years, just after finishing my postgraduate studies, for learning by writing: put the question on paper first, say in advance […]
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Delay Analysis: Definition, Theory, and an Example from Practice
What is delay analysis? Delay analysis is the systematic examination of delays to a construction project to establish when the delay occurred, what caused it, how it affected the project completion date, and which party may be contractually responsible for its consequences. Construction projects rarely proceed exactly as planned. Design information may arrive late, approvals […]
The Birth of Architecture: Creators, Principles, Establishment, and Examples from Practice
Architecture did not begin as a profession. Before schools, licences, and textbooks, there were people decorating tools, drawing on cave walls, and carving figures in stone. Over time, those same people were asked to design shelters, homes, and places of worship, and in doing so they became the first builders and architects. The profession came […]
How Ten AI Agents Reviewed the Same Research Plan: A Comparative Case Study
Introduction Researchers now have a long menu of AI tools for academic work: general chatbots, literature-search assistants, and research-workspace products. They all claim to help with research, but they do not behave the same way when asked to do the same job. This study tests that directly. Ten AI agents were given one task: act […]
Devolution in the UK: Origin, Development and Central Government Supremacy
Devolution in the UK is the transfer of powers from the Westminster Parliament to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly. It changed how Britain is governed. Yet it did not change who holds the final word. This article traces the origin of devolution, follows its development from the Home Rule […]
Float and Delay Analysis in Project Management: The Realities of Construction Practice
Float is one of the first concepts a student of project management learns and one of the last a project team learns to use honestly. On paper it is a simple number: the time an activity can slip before it delays something else. On a live construction site that number is argued over, quietly consumed, […]
Politics of Urban Planning: Ideologies, Reforms and Outcomes — The UK Parties Case
Introduction: Is Urban Planning Really Politics? There is a comforting fiction in modern government: that planning is a technical craft, separable from the clash of values that fills the debating chamber. On this view, politicians argue about ends — who deserves what, how society should be ordered — while a neutral machinery of rules, plans, […]
The Architect’s Role from Design to Construction Close-Out: Gulf Practice vs the American Procedure
An architect’s role does not stop when the drawings are done. It runs from the first client meeting to the day the last payment is released. Yet most writing covers only one part of that path: design, or site work, or handover. In this article I follow the whole path, from design to construction close-out. […]
Urbanism Role in Professional Practice: How Research Became Hidden Rules
In more than 25 years of practice, I have worked on projects that reached four billion dollars in cost. In all that time, urbanism never came up in a meeting with a developer or an authority. No brief asked for it. No approval depended on it. Yet I have also written 17 articles on urbanism, […]
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Architecture, Urban Planning & Urban Design Management in Practice
Introduction People often describe urban development by what gets built: buildings, streets, and public spaces. They rarely describe who manages the process, or what that management involves at each level. This piece answers that question. It traces the management work in one real development. The trail starts with a political decision to develop a site. […]