When it comes to diversity in real estate, it is all about starting early. If we want to create a more diverse sector we have to teach kids about the many opportunities for a career in the built environment.
Who knows if it will win The Man Booker Prize, but Taylor Wimpey certainly gets points for trying.
The housebuilder has published “How we build your home with Millie Mortar and Handy Andy”, a children’s book aimed to educate the next generation about the house building process.
Diary hopes it has a touch of the Famous Five about it as Millie and Andy undertake the country’s biggest adventure: how to fix the housing crisis.
On your Marks…
In its full year results, M&S announced that it would seek to close 100 of its stores by 2022, dragging itself into the 21st century, reducing its footprint and modernising its existing portfolio.
Certainly a bold move. But what Diary didn’t expect to find out was that the retailer has had its “worst performing stores” in the same locations for 75 years.
In perhaps the slowest transformation in retail history, where consolidation comes a full three-quarters of a century later than needed, it begs the question, what might we expect in 2100?
Self-service checkouts? Perhaps this is a masterstroke, the greatest race between the Tortoise and the Hare in retail? Slow and steady wins the race, right?
Back to the future
From a high street veteran to an entirely new way of thinking when it comes to the world of retail.
The overuse of plastics is the hottest topic right now.
Pubs, bars and restaurants are banning straws, coffee shops are giving you money off your daily caffeine fix if you bring your own cup, and now one store in Singapore is offering consumers a “zero waste” shopping experience.
No packaging, no bags. A shop that sells food, household products and toiletries out of self-service bins. Unpackt has gone back to the pre-packaged days of shopping. Could the future be found in the past?
I see your bid…
Last month, veteran auctioneer John Barnett calmly took to the rostrum just a few days before his 79th birthday and brought the hammer down on a record-breaking £20m lot.
Now we hear that he may not be a phenomenon so much as part of a growing trend.
Another veteran of the auction room contacted Diary to let us know he is one bid ahead of Barnett as he will be 80 in November.
“Whilst not in the same league, I have been hammering away for many years,” says David Nesbit of Hampshire auctioneer Nesbits. “There is no substitute for experience.” Indeed.
Space race
First it was Elon Musk wanting to colonise Mars (EG might have written about how space development is the next big thing in real estate), and now Amazon boss Jeff Bezos wants to build a manufacturing hub on the moon.
Through his Blue Origin space venture, Bezos will work with NASA and the European Space Agency to create a settlement on the moon where millions of people can work.
He admits it might take 100 years, but he believes earth will eventually be zoned for residential and light industrial use, with heavy industrial use moved off-planet.
The moon, reckons Bezos, is the perfect place to create a manufacturing hub as it is conveniently located. A mere few days away in the right rocket.
Getting to the art of the matter
We all know the value of iconic street art. Thanks Banksy.
And at Acton Gardens, the 2,500-home development in West London, developers Countryside and L&Q are hoping a piece by graffiti artist Stik will raise as much as £150,000 for local art projects.
The Acton Gardens team plan to remove a 2m x 2m section of Charles Hocking House, a 1960s tower block, to save the artwork.
The piece, called Family Group, will be put up for auction, with proceeds donated to local charity ARTification.
