And Finally

Sir Robert McAlpine has been awarded the scaffolding contract and pre-construction service agreement (PCSA) for a three-year programme of essential works to restore the Big Ben tower at the Palace of Westminster. The firm’s special projects division will begin work in the New Year on £29m of repa

A 'beautiful' Dutch construction worker has found internet fame and a modelling contract after being stopped by a stranger in the street for a photo. Danika (@MaddoLuu), a 21-year-old photography student from London, BuzzFeed reports, stopped him in the Dutch capital and asked him for a photo.

A retired surveyor and construction company boss has been given the go-ahead to build a mausoleum that will hold six bodies in the back garden of his family home, according to the Daily Record. Jim Campbell had asked for permission to be allowed to erect the monument at his £600,000 property in Bot

A church in Edinburgh is to install a 10ft illuminated cross after winning an appeal against a council planning decision that had ruled it would ruin the view of the area. Bristo Baptist, on the Capital’s Queensferry Road, had previously applied for permission to hoist the aluminium cross adorned

The Iraqi postal service has paid tribute to the late Zaha Hadid by featuring her on a new stamp, Deezen has reported. The Iraq-born architect, who died earlier this year aged 65, is one of two architects honoured on the new postage stamps, along with Mohamed Makiya, who passed away last year at the

A 90-year-old Canadian has made headlines for digging his own grave. "I love digging," Jimmy Kickham, from Prince Edward Island, told CBC News, saying he feels pride in his personal project.

An underwater tunnel linking Mull to the mainland is being proposed as a solution to the island’s continuing transport problems, the Herald has reported. Islanders have long campaigned for ferry timetable improvements and, although ferry operator CalMac has put on extra summer sailings, the winter

Students will be able to take a theme park-style slide between floors rather than the stairs at a Glasgow halls of residence, according to The Herald. The 15ft-high slide features twirling loops and looks like something out of a water park rather than a traditional hall of residence.

Cable Wynd House – Copyright @ Historic Environment Scotland The Edinburgh flats made famous as the home of one of the main characters in Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’ could be in line to become the latest iconic capital building to receive ‘listed’ status.

A giant 30-metre sinkhole that opened up in the Japanese city of Fukuaka was repaired within 48 hours. Following undergoing emergency repair work to the 15 metre deep hole that included repairs to sewage pipes, utility poles and traffic management systems, the hole was filled within two days.

US President-elect Donald Trump has won a battle over a flagpole on the grounds of one of his Scots golf courses. The billionaire tycoon erected the 80ft pole flying a Saltire outside his Menie Estate clubhouse at Trump International Golf Links last year. But Aberdeenshire Council ordered him to rem

Workmen building a high school in southern China were dynamiting through bedrock – and when the dust settled, they found they had inadvertently uncovered a well-preserved dinosaur skeleton. It turned out to be the first example of its species, which scientists have named Tongtianlong limosus – w

The Forest Green Rovers’ football club will soon be the owners of a football stadium made almost entirely out of wood. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the new 5,000-10,000 seater stadium will be the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

Locals in Pitlochry and visitors to the Perthshire town will welcome news that a proposed dualled section of the A9 between Pitlochry and Killiecrankie will have no impact on the venue for the hugely popular “Enchanted Forest” event held in Faskally Wood every autumn. The preferred route for the

A developer in England has applied for planning permission to build an experimental house that could rise on jacks above flood waters If tests are successful the house could provide a model that would enable housebuilding on thousands of sites across the UK which at present cannot be developed becau