The Birds Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing - incredible use of steel to produce a complex shape.

The Millau Viaduct in South West France, the highest road bridge in the world – designed by a British architect.

The Burj Al in Dubai. Designed to look like a sail. This is the worlds first seven star hotel.

The Gherkin in London. Designed to look like a Gherkin - ! ? The building is used as office accommodation for insurance companies. It was designed by the famous British Architect Sir Norman Forster

The tallest building in the world. The Burj Dubai

Some of the worlds tallest buildings. There are plans to construct a building one mile high.

Construction is not just about buildings, the Thames Flood Barrier was a major civil engineering challenge and prevents London from flooding.

A footballers paradise the man-made Palm Island in Dubai. ( David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen all own houses here.) One mans dream made possible by the Construction Industry.

Sports stadiums can present complex construction problems. Above are two of the most famous, Wembley and the new Olympic stadium.

The World Trade Centre in Bahrain. Architects and Engineers are now designing building that can generate their own power.

The Hoover Dam in Arizona, America. Built from mass concrete to control the flow of the Colorado river and produces electricity to power major cities in America.

Something closer to home, The Sage at Gateshead, designed by Sir Norman Forster and built by Laing ORourke.( An International Construction firm who also provide Construction Ambassadors who help to support the construction courses we run )

Example of a large infrastructure project used to get people and supplies between cities and buildings

Example of hospitals and schools constructed by the construction industry

New Terminal 5 at Heathrow Army garrison at Catterick

Types of clients that use the construction industry

Private clients use their own funds to employ the construction industry to build things for them. This may include employing an Architect to design the building and a contractor to build it. Contracts could range from new kitchen refurbishments to new houses.

Commercial clients use the construction industry to build premises from which they can run their businesses from

Examples of Central government buildings ( the new Welsh Assembly and a tax office in London ) These buildings are funded from tax payers money.

Local government rely on funds from central government so they can employ the construction industry to build things like new leisure centres and libraries. When there is a shortage of funding, some of these schemes have to be stopped and cancelled.