微密圈

Financial incentives

Apparently the RIBA鈥檚 attempts to market itself in the Middle East have received a bit of a boost. It鈥檚 not because the architects don鈥檛 need the institute鈥檚 services, but rather because 鈥渞iba鈥� means moneylender in Arabic. In these dark financial times, perhaps the architectural body will get more inquiries than it was expecting 鈥�

Job swap

The construction industry donned its finest bib and tucker last Saturday for the annual Alliance Ball in Battersea Park, London, organised by Stanhope and Bovis Lend Lease in aid of Unicef. The event raised more than 拢300,000 for the children鈥檚 charity last year and it looks like this year鈥檚 total will be pretty hefty as well, with a motorbike donated by Ewan McGregor being sold for 拢30,000 and Madonna鈥檚 handbag and a trip to New York to see her in concert going for 拢20,000.

An equally glamorous lot was scooped up by Ramboll Whitbybird, which bought the chance to guest edit this esteemed publication for 拢16,000. The engineering consultancy will take the reins at for a week later in the autumn. Watch this space.

Fire and ice

Now that summer is well and truly over, thoughts are naturally turning the winter holidays, and whether to opt for sunbathing in warmer climes or a spot of skiing. Well, in Saudi Arabia you will soon be able to have both. And although Dubai may already have a snowdome, the Riyadh alpine village will have actual falling snow (I鈥檓 not sure if gl眉hwein is included though). Apparently anything Dubai can do the Saudis can do better, but there鈥檚 one slight hitch 鈥� the projects needs a few hundred million quid to get it off the ground. Anyone interested in a timeshare?

The road to Oblivion Industry veterans may be reaching for the roller-coaster metaphor more often than they used to these days when asked to describe the state of the market, but Curtins Consulting has taken this one step further. In a bizarre response to the chill winds sweeping the construction world, the engineer recently whisked its 180 staff off to Alton Towers for the weekend. According to chief executive Rob Melling the idea was to 鈥済ive staff something to smile about鈥� and 鈥渒eep them feeling as secure as possible鈥�. So staff shouldn鈥檛 read too much into the names of rides such as 鈥淣emesis鈥� and 鈥淥blivion鈥�.

You鈥檙e not buying, you鈥檙e stealing!

Incredulity abounded in the industry last week as news broke that Vinci had paid just 拢74m to relieve beleaguered housebuilder Taylor Wimpey of its renowned Taylor Woodrow subsidiary. 鈥淭hey paid how much?鈥� gawped one senior executive at a rival contractor. 鈥淲hen they came knocking on our door the price was about four times that!鈥�

In this bear market, housebuilders are obviously no strangers to offering incentives for deals, but I can鈥檛 quite see the selling price of new homes being knocked down by three-quarters in the same way.

Totalitarian housing

In the week that Liverpool limbers up for the launch of its Le Corbusier exhibition, there has been a resurgence of interest in other big names in 20th-century construction. Yes, that鈥檚 right 鈥� Mussolini, Stalin and Ceausescu have been cited by arts organisation London Fieldworks and architect Consarc as the inspiration behind an installation at King鈥檚 Wood in Kent. Commissioned by Stour Valley Arts, Super Kingdom is a development of animal habitats for native and migrant species. Apparently, they think that Stalin鈥檚 palace of science and Ceausescu鈥檚 people鈥檚 palace would make perfect 鈥渁nimal showhomes鈥�. Next week: Robert Mugabe鈥檚 tips on dealing with tender price inflation.