by Michael Day It’s spring. And no-one welcomes the lengthening days more avidly than our household. Cat sprawled in a sun patch, chickens in the veggie patch and kids clambering on the swing set. And the wife and I, shod in old jeans and oversized gardening gloves, planting and sowing, raking and mulching. So what’s wrong with this picture? Well, it has been suggested that detached houses with large gardens are the culprit behind Australia’s sprawling suburbs and urban gridlock, but get this: our entire block is only 250 square metres. The average new subdivision, at around 450 square metres (according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics), is almost twice that size. Wow. If we can find enough room in our inner-suburban garden to squeeze in a swing set, a veggie patch, courtyard, compost bins, water tank, fruit trees and native shrubbery, think how colossal those new yards must be. Like parks, I bet. Think again. The yard in your average new subdivision is far more... 
Read More

-By Tina Perinotto 3 December 2009 – It came out of left field but Landcom’s Precinx, the sustainability assessment tool that looks at a whole neighbourhood to assess its overall sustainability, may in time be available nationwide with a modelling system that its developers say is world class. Launched at Homebush in Sydney’s west on 18 November at a conference [see photos ]that included some of the country’s leading luminaries in climate change and thought leadership, Precinx, takes a step into a wider social measure of sustainability by incorporating factors such as weekly cost of housing in the final equation. It even looks at the increasingly important issue of how long people spend travelling in a vehicle. Precinx examines six key inter-related factors: onsite energy embodied CO2 potable water Stormwater housing diversity transport These are then fed into four key performance indicators: Greenhouse gases (tonnes CO2/year) Potable water (kL H2O/year) Total affordability... 
Read More

By Tina Perinotto 2 December 2009 – The charming work of vertical garden artist created by French botanist Patrick Blanc was spotlighted  in Sydney this week when he dropped in to check on his new installation at Trio, the Frasers Property apartment project in inner city Camperdown on Monday and the next day was guest speaker at a City of Sydney Business Forum Luncheon at Customs House. Blanc, who calls himself a botanist first and an artist second, – because, first, the “plants have to remain alive”- managed to be as charming and exotic as his green walls. His hair is tinted green, his shirt was white with green plant motifs, his pants were a fine green corduroy. And to seal the look, even his leather shoes were a strong- and maybe a little strange – tone of green, just in case we missed the point that he loves plants. Blanc seemed delighted to explain how each vertical garden is different and must be approached as a unique work of botany-art. In the Trio... 
Read More

by Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES – 5 May 2009 – Caroline Noller of GPT is second in our series of profiles on the new breed of sustainability managers…. When Caroline Noller was constructing cities out of soap boxes as a child she thought only about the excitement of creating buildings and roads. The displacement of communities and forests or the energy consumed by her wondrous creations was definitely not on her mind. These days, as head of corporate responsibility for GPT these issues are daily preoccupations. And becoming more so each year, as the urgency to reduce the ecological footprint of buildings increases. Noller began her career in property as a quantity surveyor working on major building sites in Sydney, her favourite job during this time working on-site at the Sydney Opera House forecourt. “What a great place that was to work – what better office could one have?” she says. She looks back at this period as perfect training for a sustainability manager. “I... 
Read More

By Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES: 5 November 2009 – The Southport Broadwater Parklands project may well be a blueprint for adaptive planning solutions to combat sea level rise and storm surge on our coastlines. It involved some creative methods, including raising ground levels in some places by two metres. With its spectacular Nerang River frontage and proximity to the Southport CBD, Southport Broadwater Parklands has long been a popular community gathering place on the Gold Coast. It is the location for many Gold Coast major public events. The Gold Coast City Council applied for funding through the Queensland 150th Legacy Infrastructure program (Q150 LIP) for master planning works and the first stage of construction. Following the allocation of funding from the Queensland Government, matched by the Council, EDAW (AECOM) was commissioned to develop the master plan for the Parklands, through to the delivery of the first stage of construction. Stage One is now complete and includes a... 
Read More

By Lynne Blundell [UPDATE 14 November 2009] 5 November 2009 - The recent report on sea level rise from the House of Representatives committee on climate change has one very clear message – the impact of climate change and rising sea levels is happening now and urgent action is needed. In particular, swift and decisive action from the Federal Government. This is no surprise to property professionals who spoke to The Fifth Estate on the subject, many of whom fear a crisis is on the horizon. The report, Managing our Coastal Zone in a Changing Climate: the Time to Act is Now, is the culmination of a comprehensive inquiry by the committee. It calls for insurance and legal issues relating to climate change impacts on the coastal zone to be addressed and for building codes to be updated to ensure homes are more resilient. It also recommends an agreement between federal, state and local governments to define their roles and responsibilities in coastal zone management. [A new report on the... 
Read More

BRIEF – 26 October 2009 - One in every two Australians want to switch to solar hot water in the next two years, according to a survey by Newspoll commissioned by solar hot water supplier Solarhart. Newspoll surveyed  1062 home owners aged 18 to 64 to find that 55 per cent intended to take the plunge, up from the 8 per cent of householders that currently have solar hot water. Environmental scientist and commentator, Tim Flannery,  said the results were exciting. “Australians are among the highest greenhouse polluters on a per capita basis in the developed world, caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels for energy,” Professor Flannery said. “Electric water heaters are a major contributor to the problem, accounting for roughly a quarter of household energy consumption.  By comparison, using a solar water heater saves about 3 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year,” he added. Solahart’s National Manager, Stephen Cranch said the company expected the uptake... 
Read More

By Adrian McGregor FAVOURITES: 18 October 2009 – All the evidence points inexorably to the unsustainability of contemporary cities, especially in a fossil-fuel constrained future, coupled with predicted – and unpredictable – impacts of climate change. Our urban future may lie with a new kind of city – the biocity. Landscape architect and urban designer Adrian McGregor explains how reconceptualising cities as interconnected ecosystems is the surest way forward. “The so-called global economy was not a permanent institution, but a set of transient circumstances peculiar to a time, the Indian Summer of the fossil fuel era”. James Kunstler, The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century.(2005). Stone, bronze, and iron have defined the key technological ages of our civilisations and as a technocentric race we like to think that we are now living in the age of silicon. Truth is, the defining material of the last 150... 
Read More

- Simon Wild – Cool Wall workshops foster knowledge sharing and a better green building industry By Tina Perinotto Residents near Glebe in Sydney’s inner west will be invited to be part of a “Cool Wall” workshop to flush out innovative sustainable ideas for a major urban redevelopment on the site of the Harold Park Paceway. The workshop will strive to “uncover innovative, cutting edge green solutions” that will be presented to Sydney City Council in the hope that they are included in the final planning controls for the site. But there are much bigger ambitions for the Cool Wall concept than a single project. According to its originator, consulting engineering firm, Cundall, the Cool Wall could be a way to re-invigorate the entire green building movement, which critics say has stalled., with  an over-dependence on star ratings to prove sustainability and by the tendency for green innovation to be used as a competitive edge rather than for the benefit of the industry... 
Read More

In the midst of a densely urban setting in downtown Pasadena, California, radical change is taking root. For over 20 years, the Dervaes family has transformed its home into an urban homestead and a model for sustainable agriculture and urban living. Calling this project, “Path to Freedom,” the Dervaes Family shows that change is possible.click here www.foodmatters.tv  
Read More →

By Tina Perinotto A company that has pioneered low cost solar desalination systems for industry and the home is about to start production of the units by November and already has around 5000 units on order. Peter Johnstone, the inventor of the Carosell desalination system and owner of F Cubed Pty Ltd which will commercialise the units,  said his company has signed a lease over 5000 square metres of factory space at Melbourne’s Somerton Logistics Centre through CB Richard Ellis senior negotiator, Matthew Sampson. Mr Johnstone said the units were capable of producing 12-15 litres of distilled water for the home every day for a fixed one-off cost of $300. In commercial quantities the cost would be around $2 per 1000 litres. He said the South Australian government was considering a plant to supply all of the water for a remote town of around 3300 people. Even in major urban facilities such as Sydney’s desalination plant, FCubed’s product could be installed for a similar price but have... 
Read More

By Tina Perinotto The ambitious and potentially world-transforming website  www.biocitystudio.com made its debut on the global stage just two weeks ago.  Its aim? No less than to measure the sustainability of the world’s cities and predict their likely survival rate as environmental conditions turn nasty. In a radical and very savvy way, this website wants to unleash the competitive dragon from the clutches of its carbon masters. Its data will be available to citizens so that that leaders can be pressured to compete with other cities on scores for sustainability instead of financial strength or ephemeral “lifestyle” indices. The brainchild of award-winning Australian landscape architect Adrian McGregor, biocitystudio.redefines cities as ecosystems. At the same time it cleverly capitalises on the instinct of city leaders worldwide  to compete by revealing how well each city is scoring on a range of 12 critical systems that add up to a healthy city,  thereby empowering citizens... 
Read More

INSTALLATION – 8 October 2009 – “Today 2/6/09 it was reported that the oceans are becoming more acidic. This is yet another in a series of markers on the road to irreversible damage of our environment. “When the oceans reach a certain point in this cycle all life within the water dies leading to death on such a large scale that the decaying bio-mass will create a future store of liquid oil equal to the stores we have burnt. The cycle is thus completed and we as humans may not survive. “So do we raise the bar? “Do we build a bar? “Do we measure the bar?” These are the questions asked by  Richard Goodwin – public art, Russell Lowe – digital gaming/architecture and Adrian McGregor – landscape architecture, in their design of a public art installation to mark the start of the “7 metre Bar” in Underwood Street, Circular Quay Sydney for the start of the Art and About Exhibition last week. “At an elevation of seven metres the bar marks... 
Read More

MOPOKE – A series on habitat by Liz Morgan FAVOURITES – 6 April 2009 - “When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.” -   Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher and leader of the American transcendentalism movement in the early 19th century When I go into my community garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration that I am lucky enough to have a teeniest patch of land, in inner-city Sydney, that provides nourishing organic food; somewhere to take my kitchen scraps to be composted; spend hours exercising in fresh air and sunshine, not to mention the companionship of fellow gardeners and a strong sense of community belonging — all for a paltry $30 a year. I am one of the lucky ones: my partner and I chanced upon the garden in 2000, and within a month or so of putting... 
Read More

LETTER – 16 September 2009 – Following  the article in The Sydney Morning Herald of 14 September “Architects deride Keating’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ vision” the NSW Group of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects responds: As open space design professionals we welcome this latest debate relating to Barangaroo [development site adjoining the Sydney CBD] and the design of open spaces/parks in Sydney. Sydney in particular is undergoing a renaissance in its public spaces and places led by good governance primarily at the local government level. Landscape architects have been leading this transformation of Sydney’s city spaces and post industrial sites into parklands such as the Paddington Reservoir, the Former Water Police Site, Glebe Foreshore, Ballast Point, Beare Park, Redfern Park and Cockatoo Island, to name a few which have become much-loved community assets. These new major city park projects exhibit design excellence, sustainability initiatives, and... 
Read More

by Lynne Blundell Summer is on the way – well it certainly feels that way with Sydney last week experiencing the warmest August temperatures on record – and we haven’t even got to spring yet. And there’s a lot of talk of record high temperatures, low rainfall and more bushfires again this summer. But isn’t this how we always talk as winter comes to a close, our fear of drought and bushfire ever lurking? Well, if we do, these days there’s good reason – in the words of Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’”. The statistics tell the story. The last few years in Australia have been dry, particularly in the southeast. In Melbourne in each of the past three years only about 450 mm of rain fell in the city centre, down from the long-term average of about 650 mm. Last summer’s catastrophic Victorian bushfires were a harsh warning of things to come, say scientists, with climate change causing increased incidence of extreme weather events and an alarming decline in... 
Read More

- Germaine Greer has been at it again, prodding conventional thinking. This time she says old houses in the Scotland need to be knocked down and rebuilt sustainably because the building fabric is too poor to be retrofitted. And she makes a case for high rise. Following is her article published in Scotland’s Sunday Herald. Do you have a response? Please send it to editorial@thefifthestate.com.au -  Now that Britain has become a property-owning democracy like Australia, the major part of its wealth is locked up in bricks and mortar, which is mad. Regardless of silly house prices, decaying housing stock is a steadily depreciating asset that will depreciate even faster when new and essential regulations about energy efficiency come into force. At present, three-quarters of the Scottish housing stock falls below the Scottish Quality Housing Standard. Half of it does not satisy the seven out of 10 energy standard. The solution is not to tart it up, but to knock it down. With the best... 
Read More

By Tina Perinotto - 21 August 2009 – For a “former feminist theologian with a funny accent” Kristina Keneally sure knows how to hold the rapt attention of the property industry’s core players. As NSW planning minister for nearly 12 months, the industry generally acknowledges – as it’s done with every planning minister for the past 10 years – that she’s been “doing OK”. Making reforms,  working on slashing red tape and speeding up approvals. Creating the “country’s best planning system,” as she put it. Just what the property doctor ordered you might think. But for Property Council members and guests crammed into the Hilton Hotel planning breakfast last Thursday morning, the frustration that lies just beneath the surface of the always polite, ever-smiling industry, managed to break through, thanks to panelist Sylvia Hrovartin As a planner with a postcode’s worth of housing development under her belt (as PCA NSW chief executive Ken Morrison put it)... 
Read More

By Philip Pollard Philip Pollard’s Phd thesis, Campus as Place, on the transformation of Newcastle University into one of the world’s leading sustainability exemplars, is a rare insight into the enormous complexities – human and technological – that need to managed, nurtured and coaxed into a creative outcome. In the last issue of The Fifth Estate, the thesis together with new observations by Mr Pollard, backed by Glenn Murcutt, one of Australia’s leading architects, formed the basis of an explosive story that claimed recent actions by the university administration had caused vast environmental damage. Following is Chapter 1 of Campus as Place From garbage tip to bio-diverse wetlands Chapter Two Chapter Three The former University of Newcastle was amalgamated with the Hunter Institute of Higher Education and the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music in late 1989, a move strongly encouraged (in essence compelled) by the Federal Minister for Education at the time, John Dawkins.... 
Read More

The cylindrical skeleton of a former giant oil tank stands sentinel at the newly opened Ballast Point Park in Sydney’s inner west Balmain. Encrypted into the metal through punctured holes are the words of poet Les Murray: Stone statues of ancient waves, tongue like dingoes on shore. It’s an artistic finial to a harbourside park with more creative feeling than most, designed by landscape architects McGregor Coxall. But it comes after a lengthy and bitterly fought battle by residents to stop development on the site and an equally bitter battle by Lang Walker’s Walker Corporation for compensation after he bought an option to develop the site. And the compensation matter is still not resolved. In 2004 it was set at $43.4 million but was subsequently challenged in the High Court which sent the matter back to the NSW Land and Environment Court for reconsideration. Walker Corporation declined to comment on the issue. Today, you can picnic on the spot blissfully unaware of its tough and... 
Read More

From the New York Times - 10 August 2009 -  GDP measures activity not benefit, like a cheque book that records all activity, including repairs to damaged property. It tells you nothing about whether you are better off this year or worse. And the value of natural capital, such as drying your washing in the sun, or the lost New Orleans wetlands, carved up for development, that could have prevented some of the $82 billion of damages from Hurricane Katrina, is not counted at all, argues Eric Zencey  Read more >>>  
Read More →

FAVOURITES – 23 July 2009 – Biochar, a system of carbon capture by turning organic matter into charcoal, has been storming the news circuit as a breakthrough technology. But it’s controversial. Australian author and leading scientist in the climate change debate, Tim Flannery explained the system to the ABC’s Lateline program on 30 June, and is strongly positive about its potential. Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull is a fan. Australian carbon farmers say there is a more practical integrated way, (see our recent posting from Michael Kiely of the Carbon Farmers of Australia). And in the UK Guardian journalist and blogger George Monbiot has stirred up a response from the world’s leading scientific voices on climate change, NASA scientist, James Hansen and James Lovelock. Following are some highlights of key views: From a transcript of ABC’s Lateline on 30 June, on the program’s website: TIM FLANNERY: Look, the specific technologies, I think, are yet to be debated,... 
Read More

By Tina Perinotto 30 July 2009 – [Updated 9 August 2009] -  One of Australia’s leading architects, Glenn Murcutt, has described as “unbelievable” that one of his earliest and most important buildings at the University of Newcastle campus has been “destroyed” by alterations carried out without his consent or consultation. Professor Murcutt, winner of the international Pritzker prize and the Australian Institute of Architects gold Medal Award, also said the current administration at the university had “desecrated sculptures” and the ”most beautiful landscape” and called for the site to be listed. The comments come as Philip Pollard, chief designer and leader of the university’s sustainability agenda, which gained world renown during his tenure between 1990 to 2005, claimed that the university had failed to maintain its leadership position in key areas of sustainability such as energy and respect for design integrity of buildings. In addition, Mr Pollard said that... 
Read More

The Ecovillage at Currumbin on the southern Gold Coast is in its final development phase, 14 years after the idea was first hatched by Landmatters’ Chris Walton, Kerry Shepherd and Colin Bear. Located in the Currumbin Valley, The Ecovillage claims to have “pioneered how we must live today, and in the future, at a time when climate change and sustainable economics are the number one global issues.” Primarily, the development emphasises living in harmony with the surrounding environment…and fellow human beings all through the simple mantra of design excellence. According to Chris Walton, The Ecovillage is essentially just a well designed sub-division. It uses innovative, yet practical, sustainable principles that encompass orientation, design of the home, water conservation, and insulation. Walton believes the Ecovillage development is the future of the housing industry. “The community based model that we have created at The Ecovillage, which is essentially just a very well... 
Read More

Work on Sydney Olympic Park for the V8 Supercar race in December was in “resolute conflict with the designs and outcomes of the site” - By Tina Perinotto - 28 July – The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects has accused the NSW government of turning its back on Sydney’s Green Olympics by allowing destructive and potentially risky work to proceed in order to accommodate the V8 supercar race in December this year. Sacha Coles, President of the AILA NSW Group, said work at the park, which involved removal of trees and risks including potential damage to the innovative water treatment system, was in “resolute conflict with the designs and outcomes of the site.” His words were contained in a strongly-argued letter sent to the state government’s Homebush Motor Racing Authority chief executive officer, Bryan Hardman, and copied to Minister for Planning Kristina Keneally and Chief executive officer of Sydney Olympic Park, Alan Marsh. ( see full text of letter here.) Asked... 
Read More

By Liz Morgan Let me ask you a question: what do you think is the best way to help tackle global warming? It can be a behavioural or technological/scientific solution; your imagination is the sole limiting factor. It’s a really worthwhile question to ask, but it’s not mine, sad to say. I don’t know who first posed it, but the Manchester International Festival in England, in conjunction with The Guardian newspaper, is in search of the brightest and best ideas for saving Earth from overheating (or should that be saving us from ourselves?). On July 13, the proponents of 20 different ideas each got 15 minutes to spruik their vision before a panel of experts, who will whittle down the list to 10. These 10 ideas will form the basis of the Manchester Report that will be sent to (presumably British) policy-makers, as food for thought, before December’s global summit on climate change in Copenhagen. The top-20 ideas are as follows: 1. Methane and artificial photosynthesis: feed carbon dioxide... 
Read More

10 July 2009 -  BRIEF – Michael Pawlyn, founder of British architectural practice Exploration, took on climate sceptic Bjorn Lomborg at the British Council for Offices 2009 conference in Edinburgh held on 20-22 May. Speaking after Lomborg, who did not agree to his session being videod, Pawlyn tackled Lomborg’s arguments head on in a three part video posted on You Tube. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 For instance Pawlyn shows the figures used by Loborg and his Copenhagen Consensus made up of economists, were out of date. Instead of the US$2 cost of damage per tonne of carbon assigned by by Lomb to the damage caused by a tonne of carbon, the Stern Report quotes a cost of around US$80. And instead of the assumed $20 to clean up a tonne of carbon, a report by leading global consultants McKinsey showed that the biggest quickest savings in carbon would create savings rather than cost. Significantly Pawlyn points to the important role that architects are now able to play in helping to shape the... 
Read More

by Perentie Sydney’s Cumberland Plain is often cited in anti development cases. So why is it so special? Partly it’s the value of its underlying soil type. The geology of the Sydney Basin commenced nearly 300 million years ago as a shallow seabed, followed by river and swamp environments.  These marine sediments formed what we now call Hawkesbury Sandstone and the river and swamp environments resulted in shale soils plus the economically important coal deposits. As a sweeping generalisation the two main soil types of the Sydney Basin are the sandstones and the shales. Of the two, the shales are better suited to agriculture; consequently, following the initial European settlement, they were extensively cleared. The sandstone soils around the original Farm Cove, now part of the CBD, were a contributing factor in the crop failures of early European settlement. When the European settlers arrived the Cumberland Plain Woodland was estimated to cover 30 per cent of the Sydney Basin.... 
Read More

-  with best regards to Paul Keating By Peter Droege… The audience in the near-full auditorium expected turmoil, demonstrations and heckling after calls from the “modernist” camp to boycott the event. The Prince had written to Sheikh Hamad bin Jaber Jasim al-Thani, urging the Quatari Prime Minister and member of its royal family to seek withdrawal of investment support for the controversial Richard Rogers designs for a scheme at Chelsea Barracks, without success. But except for a single, somewhat reluctant call for “end the monarchy now” at the end of the speech (prompting another audience retort of “certainly not”), and some placard-waving in support of Charles’ position on the project at the entrance of 66 Portland Street, no protest surfaced. Prince Charles gave a fine speech at the175th anniversary this month. It came across as differentiated, elegant, poetic and funny. The 45 minute address managed to connect his placelessness critique of 1984 (remember his... 
Read More

By Liz Morgan Mopoke left the comfort of her warm, but sparsely lined, nesting hollow high up in a towering she-oak after a letter arrived by pigeon post, inviting her to attend the NSW Sustainable Development Conference in Sydney this month (May 12 and 13). Being a principally solitary soul, this was an intimidating proposition to consider: flying six kilometres into the CBD; finding the Cockle Bay venue and making sure to enter through an open door and not go splat into a plate-glass window; introducing herself to other delegates; minding her manners at lunch (would there be anything live to eat, she wondered) and thinking of something wise to ask the speakers. Her instinct was to tuck her head under her wing and stay in her safe, known world, but after reading what the conference was about, she had to go; no question. The future of her own small universe depended on decisions made by the kinds of people who attended such important functions. Here was an opportunity to hear, at first... 
Read More