Construction experts explain the various factors that likely came into play, leading to the collapse of a building which had reportedly been sinking for some time.
People love to connect with nature and that’s possible with vertical gardens on high-rise developments. But gardens need a gardener to keep things under control.
If more people work from home and shop online, many commercial buildings won’t be needed any longer. What will be needed is affordable housing, and these buildings can be converted to meet this need.
These birds were killed by flying into a set of surveyed buildings in Washington DC in 2013.
USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab/Flickr
The problems of demolishing high-rise buildings in busy cities point to the need to prepare for unbuilding at the time of building. We’d then be much better placed to recycle building materials.
Towering canyons of concrete and glass are an increasingly dominant feature of fast-growing cities like Melbourne.
ymgerman/Shutterstock
Planning controls in Melbourne were eased 20 years ago, with mixed results, and new limits are now in place. Will other cities that have eased height limits, like Adelaide, avoid the same mistakes?
Flames spread rapidly up the external wall cladding at the Lacrosse building in Melbourne in November 2014. More than four years on, the combustible panels are still in use.
MFB
Architects, certifiers and engineers who work as consultants to builders are on notice about potential liability for the use of flammable cladding, but governments are also culpable for their actions.
Combustible cladding on the Neo200 building facade allowed the fire to spread quickly from floor to floor.
MFB/AAP
The risks of combustible cladding on high-rise buildings have long been known. And audits have identified hundreds of Australian buildings with this cladding. Delay in replacing it is inexcusable.
Residents evacuated from the Neo200 building in Melbourne were unaware of the fire risk posed by its cladding.
Ellen Smith/AAP
As more and more Australians live and work in high-rise buildings, their responsibilities and roles in ensuring all occupants’ safety must not be neglected.
The fire in the Melbourne CBD on Monday was a reminder of the urgency of developing a system that guarantees only materials that meet building safety standards are used.
Bekah Jane/Twitter
Fortunately, no lives were lost in the latest cladding fire in Melbourne, but it’s a stark reminder of the urgent need to track and verify that building materials comply with safety standards.
Q1 on the Gold Coast is currently Australia’s tallest building.
Flickr/Ben Low
Tall buildings are an increasing feature of Australia’s city landscapes, although they’re still relatively small compared to overseas. But is there a limit on how high we can build?
Can technology free elevators from their up-down cages?
SIAATH/Shutterstock.com
New technology could make it practical to build skyscrapers far taller than even today’s highest – and change how people live, work and play in tall buildings.
Executive Director, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat; Visiting Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University Shanghai; Research Professor of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology