Blog

Welcome to our blog, written by members of the QED team.

This is an outlet for news, observations on renewable energy, sustainable development, urban regeneration and movable buildings and even the occasional rant! (Please note these do not necessarily represent the opinions of QED as a corporate entity).

We hope you enjoy what you read and feel free to give us your feedback. If you would like our latest blogs delivered directly to your inbox please subscribe by clicking the 'subscribe' link below.

A Fairy Tale for our times*

Once upon a time lived a family– there was Mummy and Daddy Pig who had three children – Paris, Pepper and Phoenix, who had all soooo long that Mummy Pig finally declared:

"Enough is enough! You now have to go and stand on your own four trotters. We have approved a loan (from the Bank of Mum and Dad) to go and build houses for yourselves. But take care… if you want to build homes that are fit for the future… you must at first defeat the ogre that is climate change – the biggest threat to our civilization.

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Why circles are better than lines

Well I don't hold anything against lines really, but when it comes to our society, economy and ecosystem, well the circular argument has it.

Since the Romans, we’ve enjoyed ‘taking, making and then disposing’ of stuff – particularly the buildings in which we live and work. It’s a linear process for which we are now counting the cost and more importantly, seeking a different philosophy.

"We are on the cusp of a third industrial revolution, where a convergence of new technologies in communication, energy and transport will completely change the structure of the economy from linear to circular." Richard Boyd, April 2015,

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Errr.... Houston we have a problem

Errr.... Houston we have a problem

Statutory homeless – sounds horrible doesn’t it – a household is considered homeless if they no longer have a legal right to occupy their accommodation or if it would no longer be reasonable to continue to live there, for example if living there would lead to violence against them – certainly not getting any better.

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Friends of Brighton Greenway

The Brighton Greenway now connects New England Road and Brighton train station. QED Property managed the development process of the New England Quarter and saw this green corridor as a key part of its urban regeneration. Check out this video on its history and community importance produced by the Friends of Brighton Greenway.

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Shipping Container Accommodation - not 'Ugly Ducklings' anymore

The old adage ‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’ has engrained the innate desire for home ownership
into the centre of the British psyche. It has seen unsustainable developments spring up all over the country, creating hordes of identical soulless housing estates where lush green fields once were. These
developments built from generic nationwide blueprints and corporate design templates show little
appreciation of site specific design aesthetics, detailed infrastructure needs and environmental factors in
favour of a quick fix wholesale solution which, granted, is needed, however in the long term is a detrimental approach, putting profit before ethics. Hence the search for a rapid, sympathetic and cost effective
modular building system is all the more pressing.

 

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