One of the most hotly debated questions in Vanuatu has been about how communities can rebuild so that they are safer and more resilient to future cyclones. That’s not as simple as you might think.
The skies aren’t all blue.
gui jun peng/from shutterstock.com
Melbourne’s new landmark building celebrates the Indigenous leader William Barak. But what should we make of the overt association between its luxury apartments and Barak’s lifelong struggle over land?
Annually, the Australian Institute of Architects nominates top buildings from across the country to recognise advances in design. From England to Thailand, this year’s shortlisted projects in the category…
Housing needs to be adaptive over our lifetimes.
sean dreilinger
Important challenges are facing our society as the population globally ages thanks to higher life expectancy, better housing and living conditions and improved healthcare. For individuals this is of course…
The government’s announcement of a second phase of its Priority School Building Project demonstrates a commitment to around £2 billion of capital investment in the UK’s school stock. But it also reveals…
John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Cement production is one of the dirtiest industrial processes on the planet. It produces nearly 9% of global carbon emissions. This increases every year with the extraordinary demands for building materials…
Buildings in New York are given an environmental energy rating. Less than 750 buildings in Australia have been similarly rated.
L C Nottaasen/Flickr
Improving the health of our building operations is one of the most effective, current ways to reduce our impact on climate change. And just as in medicine, being able to diagnose and improve health requires…
Office temperature regulations are bad for comfort and the environment.
Kim n Cris Knight
I have a challenge for the next time you’re at work. Take a look around at your colleagues. Now look at yourself. What are you wearing? It’s still winter (just), so if you’re in the southern states you…
Other countries laugh at the energy performance of Australian buildings.
purplemattfish/Flickr
A mere 26 years after appliance energy labelling was first introduced in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia is about to move to a national legislative framework for appliance energy efficiency. A…
Set the controls for the heart of the sun: recycled, programmable timber shutters on the City of Melbourne’s CH2 building.
City of Melbourne
There may be no belching smoke stacks to be seen, but every time we thoughtlessly put up a poorly designed structure or resort to energy-intensive solutions to cool, heat, and operate an inefficient building…
Recent articles on low carbon homes and life cycle measurement difficulties left carbon groupies concerned about the complexity involved in measuring our emissions. Measuring emissions isn’t as hard as…
Research says Melbourne could benefit from less black.
mugley/Flickr
Can a whiter roof make your home cooler? What about your whole city? The existing literature and theory suggests that increasing the albedo - or reflectiveness - of a building will reflect incoming sun…
A new generation of architects is needed to build our cities.
Flickr/MorBCN
The “future” is something which manifests nowhere more potently than in our cities. Yet a substantial transformation over the past twenty years in the way cities are being made – both in terms of their…