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Selfridges Building, Birmingham
The Selfridges Building is a landmark building in Birmingham, England. The building is part of the Bullring Shopping Centre and houses Selfridges Department Store. The building was completed in 2003 at a cost of £60 million and designed by the architecture firm Future Systems. It has a steel framework with sprayed concrete facade. Since its construction, the building has become an iconic architectural landmark and seen as a major contribution to the regeneration of Birmingham. It is included as a desktop background as part of the Architecture theme in Windows 7. Architecture The architecture firm Future Systems were appointed by Selfridge's then chief executive, Vittorio Radice, to design only the third store outside London. Although Selfridges was physically integrated with the Bullring Shopping Centre the client wanted a distinct design approach which would set the store apart from the rest of the development and become an instantly recognisable signpost for the brand. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Department Store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the 19th century, and permanently reshaped shopping habits, and the definition of service and luxury. Similar developments were under way in London (with Whiteleys), in Paris (Le Bon Marché) and in New York ( Stewart's). Today, departments often include the following: clothing, cosmetics, do it yourself, furniture, gardening, hardware, home appliances, houseware, paint, sporting goods, toiletries, and toys. Additionally, other lines of products such as food, books, jewellery, electronics, stationery, photographic equipment, baby products, and products for pets are sometimes included. Customers generally check out near the front of the store in discount department stores, while high-end traditional department sto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sprayed Concrete
Shotcrete, gunite (), or sprayed concrete is concrete or mortar conveyed through a hose and pneumatically projected at high velocity onto a surface, as a construction technique, first used in 1907 invented by Carl Akeley. It is typically reinforced by conventional steel rods, steel mesh, or fibers. Shotcrete is usually an all-inclusive term for both the wet-mix and dry-mix versions invented by Akeley. In pool construction, however, ''shotcrete'' refers to wet mix and ''gunite'' to dry mix. In this context, these terms are not interchangeable. Shotcrete is placed and compacted/consolidated at the same time, due to the force with which it is ejected from the nozzle. It can be sprayed onto any type or shape of surface, including vertical or overhead areas. Shotcrete has the characteristics of high compressive strength, good durability, water tightness and frost resistance. History Shotcrete, then known as gunite, was invented in 1907 by American taxidermist Carl Akeley to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures In Birmingham, West Midlands
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much artistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Retail Week
Retail Week is a London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...-based news website, data service, events producer and magazine covering the retail industry, primarily in the United Kingdom. History and profile Founded in 1988 by financial journalist Patience Wheatcroft and her husband Tony Salter, Retail Week is now owned by the business information and events company Ascential."Emap Brands: Retail Week" ''Emap'', n.dat. Retrieved 10 April 2013. Subscribers are primarily retail company board directors and senior managers, as well as suppliers to retailers and investment analysts. Retail Week l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Institution Of Civil Engineers
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, while the rest are located in more than 150 other countries. The ICE aims to support the civil engineering profession by offering professional qualification, promoting education, maintaining professional ethics, and liaising with industry, academia and government. Under its commercial arm, it delivers training, recruitment, publishing and contract services. As a professional body, ICE aims to support and promote professional learning (both to students and existing practitioners), managing professional ethics and safeguarding the status of engineers, and representing the interests of the profession in dealings with government, etc. It sets standards for membership of the body; works with industry and academia to progress engineering standards a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Constructional Steelwork Association
BCSA Ltd is a trade association for the structural steel industry in the UK and Ireland. It lobbies on behalf of its members, and provides them with education and technical services. A subsidiary, Steel Construction Certification Scheme Ltd, runs the UKAS accredited Steel Construction Certificate Scheme (SCCS). It provides certification for steelwork contracting organisations under ISO 9001, ISO 3834, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001. The association, its marketing initiative Steel for Life Ltd, and the Steel Construction Institute manage online resource, Steel Construction Info. In addition to London headquarters, it maintains offices near Doncaster Sheffield Airport. History The association arose from a series of mergers involving regional and sector specific associations. Five steelwork contractors in Manchester began to collaborate in 1906, and then formally established the Steelwork Society in 1908. The Rules were only finalised in 1911. Steel producers had benefited fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concrete Society
The Concrete Society is a UK based non-profit company that was founded in 1966 in response to the increasing need for a single organisation embracing all those interested in concrete. On its formal inauguration, on 13 October 1966, the Society took over the work of the four organisations (the Reinforced Concrete Association, the Prestressed Concrete Development Group, the Pavings Development Group and the Formwork Development Group), by then in the process of dissolution, in order both to carry on their work and to extend it to cover the entire field of concrete technology and use. Today The Concrete Society is an Independent Concrete Advisory company. Over the years the company has become a provider of information serving the needs of clients, architects, engineers, specifiers, suppliers, contractors and users of concrete. The Society is an individual membership body, without trade affiliations, which exists to provide information to exchange information and experience and to pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Institute Of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supplemental charters and a new charter granted in 1971. Founded as the Institute of British Architects in London in 1834, the RIBA retains a central London headquarters at 66 Portland Place as well as a network of regional offices. Its members played a leading part in promotion of architectural education in the United Kingdom; the RIBA Library, also established in 1834, is one of the three largest architectural libraries in the world and the largest in Europe. The RIBA also played a prominent role in the development of UK architects' registration bodies. The institute administers some of the oldest architectural awards in the world, including RIBA President's Medals Students Award, the Royal Gold Medal, and the Stirling Prize. It also ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anodised
Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. The process is called ''anodizing'' because the part to be treated forms the anode electrode of an electrolytic cell. Anodizing increases resistance to corrosion and wear, and provides better adhesion for paint primers and glues than bare metal does. Anodic films can also be used for several cosmetic effects, either with thick porous coatings that can absorb dyes or with thin transparent coatings that add reflected light wave interference effects. Anodizing is also used to prevent galling of threaded components and to make dielectric films for electrolytic capacitors. Anodic films are most commonly applied to protect aluminium alloys, although processes also exist for titanium, zinc, magnesium, niobium, zirconium, hafnium, and tantalum. Iron or carbon steel metal exfoliates when oxidized under neutral or alkaline micro-electrolytic condition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Roman Empire, Romans as ''Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city#National capitals, Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national Government of the United Kingdom, government and Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the Counties of England, counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windows 7
Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly three years earlier. It remained an operating system for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs and media center PCs, and itself was replaced in November 2012 by Windows 8, the name spanning more than three years of the product. Until April 9, 2013, Windows 7 original release included updates and technical support, after which installation of Service Pack 1 was required for users to receive support and updates. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time. The last supported version of Windows based on this operating system was released on July 1, 2011, entitled Windows Embedded POSReady 7. Extended support ended on January 14, 2020, over ten years af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desktop Background
A wallpaper or background (also known as a desktop background, desktop picture or desktop image on computers) is a digital image (photo, drawing etc.) used as a decorative background of a graphical user interface on the screen of a computer, smartphone or other electronic device. On a computer, wallpapers are generally used on the desktop, while on a mobile phone they serve as the background for the ''home screen''. Though most devices come with a default background image, modern devices usually allow users to manually change the background image. The term "wallpaper" was used in Microsoft Windows before Windows XP (where it is called the "desktop background"), while macOS refers to it as "desktop picture". On older systems which allowed small repeated patterns to be set as background images, the term desktop pattern was used. History The X Window System was one of the earliest systems to include support for an arbitrary image as wallpaper via the xsetroot program, which at le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
