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Late last year, to the alarm of many, a 12-storey apartment block in North Melbourne, built just five years prior, was approved for demolition. Just one example of the average 100,000 buildings that get approved for demolition in Australia each year, it demonstrates what can happen when a short-sighted approach to the urban planning of our cities takes hold — the proliferation of low-grade buildings with short lifespans.
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The most recent upgrade to the NCC / BCA included requirements for houses and apartments to meet higher thermal comfort standards in NatHERS. NSW, ACT, Tassie and the NT brought it in last year. Queensland and Victoria only started yesterday (May 1) despite the latter promising it in 2022. SA and WA will adopt it sometime later (news travels slowly going west).
The dangerous impact of plastics goes way beyond landfills and the environment – it’s no longer just about billions of plastic items choking our waterways, littering our land and getting into our soil.
While the Federal and NSW State Government recently implemented an all new ‘cost of living’ package to take the burden off thousands struggling with their power bills, there is a large portion of Australian households who are ineligible and still looking for other ways to save.
Quantity surveyors have a proud reputation and powerful skillset for understanding project costs, keeping track of budgets and expenditures, verifying claims, and adding value wherever possible. But our profession, like some other elements of the construction sector, hasn’t fully embraced the digital revolution.
We’re being urged to go all-electric. Saul Griffith in The Big Switch, and the website Rewiring Australia, argue that we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels to address climate change and energy security.
Sydney’s architects and planners have been bemused by a controversy over noise complaints made by residents of the far northern suburb of Palm Beach.
Paris or Penrith? The 5-star Pullman Penrith opened in August 2023, bringing a luxury hotel experience to Western Sydney for the first time. With its 153 rooms, modern European restaurant and stylish lobby bar, the Pullman Penrith has quickly established itself as a go-to destination for locals and visitors alike.
Over the last two decades, sleek skyscrapers encased in glass have been a common sight on our city skylines. An international trend projecting an element of prestige and power, the façades of these gleaming towers were relatively cost-efficient and straightforward to replicate and so began to proliferate.
Ideas and issues on design process, design policy, design and politics.
Modular or prefab housing is the latest thought bubble from the Federal Government to help solve the current housing crisis. It’s a beautiful idea, to make a whole house or apartment in a factory, and yet it’s failed to take off for 75 years. Why? First, the upside.
A column about design process, design policy, design and politics.
