I often get asked whether you need a set of plans to sell your house  here in South Africa.  I also get called a lot to get illegal / 'as built' additions and buildings approved at Council.  Fortunately Johannesburg Council is a lot more relaxed than elsewhere in the world and usually will only order demolition if you have built over a servitude or the building/addition is unsafe or poorly built.

Increasingly banks and mortgage lenders are making it a requirement for a seller to have a complet...

Ever since the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was called the first "skyscraper" in 1885, architects have been striving to create ever-taller buildings. Ten stories quickly became 20, 20 became 50, and on and on. In 2009 the Burj Khalifa in Dubai became the world's tallest building, with its 154 floors towering above ground level.

So why is the mayor of Portland, Oregon, calling a modest 12-story tower set for completion there next year “a true technological and entrepreneurial a...

Rice husks used to be considered a waste product good for nothing but fire or landfills, but now enterprising companies are beginning to realize their potential as a sustainable building material. A group of students from the Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering at University of California used waste rice husks to manufacture termite-resistant composite boards with help from a $75,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and build affordable housing in the Ph...

A study by the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland finds that straw bale buildings are carbon neutral. Engineer Adrien Chaussinand conducted extensive testing of ECO-46, a straw bale building that houses the Department of Parks and Gardens in Lausanne.

He conducted a life cycle analysis of the building, which accounted for all the energy that went into its construction — from planting the grass to the eventual destruction of the structure. “If all of the b...

Spend five minutes in humid Ho Chi Minh City and you'll probably be running for cover into the nearest air-conditioned refuge.
In the Vietnamese city -- and many developing subtropical countries across Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines -- air conditioning (AC) is increasingly being considered a necessity.
But one architecture firm is advocating a different way to keep cool.
T3 Architecture Asia, which has offices in Vietnam and France, specializes in back-to-basics "bioclimatic archite...

Our climate is changing. A shift in the number of wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, and heavy rainfalls has been attributed to climate change. These changes have had an impact on agriculture and wildlife, including the introduction of new pests and depleting habitats.

Humans and our current life style practices remain the leading contributors to climate change, with carbon being the main culprit.

To read more go to :- https://www.bebee.com/producer/@claire-cardwell/green-building-and-...

People working in green buildings think better in the office and sleep better when they get home, a new study has revealed.

The research indicates that better ventilation, lighting and heat control improves workers’ performance and could boost their productivity by thousands of dollars a year. It also suggests that more subjective aspects...

There are two options that you can follow. The first is to see if you can find out from the current owner who designed the house when it was built, because they should be able to give you a copy of the original plans. If they know who the builder was, he may be able to tell them if they don't know. If the house is an old one then the above is unlikely to be helpful and the only way to get a set of plans is to have someone measure the house and draw them up for you. If you are planning to alte...