By Tina Perinotto 17 March 2010 - Australians could be on the cusp of “getting it” in terms of downsizing their houses to more sustainable and affordable levels, if you take note of Stockland chief executive Matthew Quinn. Mr Quinn, who heads Australia’s biggest residential developer, said the evidence was coming through ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES - 26 August 2010 - 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, ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES - 10 August 2009 - Winner of the Sustainable Architecture Award at the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) Victorian Chapter Awards was Lend Lease building, The Gauge. Located in Victoria Harbour in the Docklands precinct, construction of the project commenced in 2005 and was completed in April 2008 and achieved ...Read More > >

Pixel on Grocon's Melbourne Carlton brewery site, designed by Studio 505: a laboratory for new green architecture ... “Nobody can tell you accurately what the financial impost will be of the cost of a carbon constrained economy,” says David Waldren by Tina Perinotto FAVOURITES - 6 May ...Read More > >

25 February 2010: If you are confused about the difference between a Green Star rating for buildings and a NABERS rating, you are not alone. One rates the design of a building - the Green Star - and other rates the performance - NABERS - so the numbers of stars ...Read More > >

- By Brian Moore - FAVOURITES - 27 July 2009 - Sustainability is at the forefront of every significant commercial development. Building owners understand only too well that there is no point building projects for the future using yesterday’s technology and a sustainable building represents the future more than ...Read More > >

CASE STUDY - 27 August 2009 - Who says a fast-designed, fast built school constructed under the federal government’s Building the Education Revolution program, can’t be sustainable and innovative. At Ultimo in Sydney’s inner west a new primary school library and multi-purpose hall designed by Allen Jack+Cottier will feature a “kit ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto - FAVOURITES: 6 April 2010 -Property owners can raise their NABERS energy rating to 4 stars  by better management practices and no major capital investment, the Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering at Sydney University has found in its Low Energy High Rise Building Research Report. The project, which called ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 21 December 2009 - Australia’s urban survival strategies in 2050 might include cities whose urban growth boundaries are at the centre, vertical cities that produce energy and food at the top for those below, or cities built from Noosa to Geelong. At least if the architects, engineers even the ...Read More > >

By Andrew Pettifer FAVOURITES - 20 June 2009 - Fans of Dr Seuss who have looked past the Cat in the Hat may be familiar with the story of the inept Sneetches and the competitive instincts aroused between those with “stars upon thars”  and those whose bellies are not so endowed. I ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES: 11 December 2009 - Sydney could soon have its own amazing Frank Gehry building, with today’s announcement that the UTS would engage the master architect, designer of the famous Bilbao Guggenheim Museumand the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (pictured) in talks over a new creation for  the ...Read More > >

-By Tina Perinotto FAVOURITES- 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 ...Read More > >

Perth officer tower Central Park has offset carbon emissions generated by the building's core services through the purchase of greenhouse friendly carbon credits,  the owners of the building, Perron Group and Frasers Centrepoint, say in the following case study: The building’s Carbon Neutral Program, which excludes areas occupied by the tenants, ...Read More > >

3 October 2009 - The new headquarters for a state water agency in Adelaide, VS1/SA Water Head Office designed by HASSELL, has won the  the National Award for Sustainable Architecture, announced last week (29 October in Melbourne). “VS1/SA Water is the first building in South Australia to achieve a GBCA 6 ...Read More > >

BRIEF- 3 November 2009 - Australian architects who claim their creative juices are stifled by planning laws and conservative clients are on notice: the creative directors for Australia’s submission to next year’s Venice Biennale are looking for imaginative and dramatic visions of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in 2050. The two part ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 6 November 2009 - One of Australia’s most magical, charming and sustainable buildings, designed for a  very low budget, has won the prestigious World Architecture Festival Awards, sports section, announced today in Barcelona. Two other Australian firms also won in their categories - Sydney based Choi Ropiha, with ...Read More > >

CASE STUDY - Architects for the new Faculty of Law  building at the University of Sydney, Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp say this  "international competition-winning proposal transforms the public domain of the heart of the University through the integration of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture. "The project redefines the historic relation­ship of ...Read More > >

"I believe designing in the future will need to be an organic process, an ecological process, where landscape and nature are integrated and interpreted," says the Australian Institute of Architects 2009  Gold Medalist, Ken Maher, chair of HASSELL, in this year's AS Hook Memorial Address. This will be ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 26 October 2009 - Bond University’s Mirvac School of Sustainable Development on the Gold Coast has won the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors global Award for Sustainability announced last week at a gala ceremony in London. The building on Queensland’s Gold Coast, is carbon neutral, water efficient, healthy, financially ...Read More > >

From Edie.net - 22 October 2009 - A project helping New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina, fronted by Hollywood actor Brad Pitt, will build what's being dubbed as the 'largest and greenest community of single-family homes' in the world. The post-Katrina housing initiative Make It Right New Orleans has already built ...Read More > >

FAVOURITES- From The Atlantic magazine, some excerpts from the article, The Elusive Green Economy, by Joshua Green: “The best way to get an idea of what a green future might look like is to visit Silicon Valley. It’s impossible to convey how otherworldly the place felt this spring. While the rest ...Read More > >

A sustainable and colourful redesign of an Adelaide building has helped to both reposition the building and rebrand the city’s Light Square precinct, according to the building’s designers. Designed by Adelaide architects Hames Sharley, the refurbished building at 70 Light Square is the first in Adelaide to receive a 4 star ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto Last summer 374 people died in Victoria, almost certainly because of heat stress, more than double those who died in the tragic bushfires of 7 February. This year Melbourne has its hottest day on record with a temperature of 46.4C and maximum temperatures in the state were 12-15 degrees ...Read More > >

BRIEF - 23 September 2009 - At last curious householders can go and see what a real live green house looks like and talk to the architect, thanks to the City of Sydney’s sustainable house project which will be open to the public 15-18 October at Taylor Square in inner ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell Despite widespread criticism, some innovative designs are starting to emerge in the Rudd Government’s schools construction program, with the private and independent schools sector making the most of the funding opportunity to push through concepts that may otherwise have been stymied by red tape. Chris Johnson, former Government Architect ...Read More > >

Two winners of the prestigious Australian Award for Urban Design were announced last week (11 August) at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra in a prelude to the Built Environment Meets Parliament conference. They were the Paddington Reservoir Gardens, designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects with James Mather Delaney Design and City ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell As the effects of global economic conditions continue to impact across Australian office markets, with rising vacancies and increasing incentives, two government departments in Melbourne are taking the opportunity to strike new property deals and move to more sustainable buildings. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Melbourne Water are ...Read More > >

by Genevieve Lilley One often wonders, in a murder trial, how juries actually work – how draining is the process, what happens if juries can’t agree? How does one cope with the responsibility of making such permanent decisions, which will profoundly affect the lives of those being assessed? These are questions the ...Read More > >

BRIEF: 15 July 2009 - Two Victorian Green Precinct projects have received funding for their water and energy-saving initiatives through the Rudd government’s Green Precincts funding program The Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES), located on the banks of the Merri Creek in East Brunswick, Melbourne has received ...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 ...Read More > >