By Ken Maher Following is the AS Hook Memorial Address delivered by Australian Institute of Architects 2009  Gold Medalist, Ken Maher. FAVOURITES: 29 October 2009 - I believe designing in the future will need to be an organic process, an ecological process, where landscape and nature are integrated and interpreted. This will ...Read More > >

Green roofs, massive wetlands with nesting boxes to attract birdlife, locally generated power, on-site bore water and the creation of local employment these are just part of the mix in the regeneration practiced in the UK by Tom Bloxham. By Lynne BlundellFAVOURITES: 29 April 2010 -Tom ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell In the six years since Melbourne-based LAB Architecture Studio started working in China the sustainability landscape has changed dramatically. Other Australians too have found the country moving fast on its sustainability agenda- especially once the authorities get behind an initiative. Nanjing,  for instance, is almost a forest of ...Read More > >

25 August 2010 - It's not often that a building exceeds its targetd NABERS Energy rating, but the five-star building at 66 Waterloo Road, at Macquarie Park in Sydney has done just that after a workout by PC Thomas'  Team Catalyst consultancy. Develped by Stockland and designed Team Catalyst, the 10,000 ...Read More > >

    By Lynne Blundell 20 July 2010 - A small Australian manufacturing team is bucking the trend with its linear fluorescent light fitting, using what many consider outdated technology to achieve what it says is a 70 per cent reduction in lighting energy use and more effective lighting. Some large property owners, ...Read More > >

A carbon market targeted to the end user might succeed where an emissions trading scheme failed. In property, Landcom's "powerful" Precinx tool might come in very handy for such a scheme. By Peter Newman and Vanessa Rauland,  of Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Western Australia say 12 August 2010 - An Emissions ...Read More > >

Brief - 11 August 2010 - A twin tower development in Singapore designed by designed by Denton Corker Marshall and Architects 61 has been awarded the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design Core & Shell Platinum certification by the US Green Building Council (click here to view the case study). Developed ...Read More > >

11 August 2010 – A lift that generates kinetic energy is one of the features that helped the Asia Square twin tower development in Singapore win a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design Core & Shell Platinum certification by the US Green Building Council. Developed by MPGA and designed by Denton ...Read More > >

13 July, 2010 - The number of rating tools, policies, reports, incentives and legal rulings on sustainable residential  development has proliferated in recent years. In this comprehensive work, legal firm Herbert Geer has created clear and focused guide through the maze. At least for the eastern seaboard. In 2020, Australian greenhouse ...Read More > >

4 August 2010 - The winners of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects international ideas competition SEA-CHANGE 2030+ have been announced. The competition invited design proposals to protect the Sydney harbour foreshore from rising water or to make modifications to the environment to ensure sea level rise does not adversely affect ...Read More > >

By Michael Baker 4 August 2010 - There’s an old joke that speaks to the reliability of information received through our own senses compared with that received from what we think are trusted secondary sources. A man named Andy comes home and finds his wife and best friend Pete in bed together. ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 28 July 2010 - Design team Woods Bagot and Buro Happold have launched a zero energy, carbon neutral sustainable development project to be piloted on China’s Yangtze River. Zero Emissions Design (Zero-E) is designed as a new model for large-scale sustainable developments, aiming to advance the construction industry’s contribution ...Read More > >

By Nicola Woodward ANALYSIS - 26 July 2010 - It isn’t every Monday you wake up to the fact that a Sunday press release by the incumbent Government in the run up to a general election contains a promising policy. Yesterday the Labor party announced its Tax Breaks for Green Buildings initiative ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 28 July 2010 - The introduction of tougher energy standards for housing has spurred a huge jump in demand for sustainable kit homes for one Queensland company. According to Southport based Nathan Lude, his company Advantage Lifestyle which markets a sustainable kit home package, experienced a massive 3000 web-based ...Read More > >

Tina Perinotto 23 July 2010 - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott this week said he would scrap the Green Building Fund and cut back on other green initiatives if he was elected. Green groups were predictably unimpressed but in the property industry there are hopes that incentives for greening existing buildings will ...Read More > >

By Rebecca Pearce 22 July 2010 - Tackling the fundamental problem of carbon emissions from older style buildings is one of the key issues for the property industry. However, one Australian fund manager has proved that existing buildings can be upgraded to target a 5 star NABERS energy rating at a ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 20 July 2010 - Four teams have been shortlisted by Architectural Review Australia to continue through to stage two of Proposition 2065, an ideas competition asking entrants to design a mixed-use development for a site in St Leonards, Sydney. Carterwilliamson Architects in association with Studio Zanardo, Hayball in association ...Read More > >

Artists impression of an Icebergs site in New York City Brief – 13 July, 2010 – Woods Bagot New York has initiated a  “super-green” building system that reimagines and revitalises stalled construction sites as 100 per cent recyclable, high performance inflatable temporary “Icebergs” that can be used for a variety of ...Read More > >

Brief: 9 July 2010 - Paddington Reservoir Gardens has continued to notch up major awards, the latest an international architecture award from the The Chicago Athenaeum and The Urban Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architect's and JMD Design the gardens now have a place as ...Read More > >

By Lynne Blundell FAVOURITES - 15 April 2010 -Susan Roaf doesn’t have much time for architects. She thinks that most are little more than “building hairdressers” and she accuses the profession of undermining the fight against climate change. Roaf, a well known architect, author on sustainable buildings, and a professor of architectural ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 29 June 2010 –Westfield Group’ refurbished 100 Market Street commercial tower, part of its major Sydney CBD redevelopment project, has achieved a six-star Green Star Design v2 rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. With a total area of 30,000 square metres of office space below Sydney Tower, ...Read More > >

Brief – 25 June, 2010 – SA Water House, which won the Development of the Year at the Property Council’s annual Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation and Excellence Awards, was developed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide in collaboration with architecture firm HASSELL and builders Hansen Yuncken,. SA Water House was the ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 25 June 2010 - Bond University’s Mirvac School of Sustainable Development building has been awarded the United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Szencorp Green Building Award. The first educational building in Australia to achieve a 6 Star Green Star – Education Pilot Certified Rating for its sustainable ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 22 June 2010 - The Green Building Council today announced a new product certifier has been added to its Green Star Assessment Framework, The Australasian FurnishingResearch and Development Institute Limited. AFRDI now joins the Carpet Institute of Australia’s Environmental Certification Scheme and Ecospecifier’s GreenTag GreenRate in the scheme. ...Read More > >

From CBS - 22 June 2010 - The gusher unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spew crude oil. There are no reliable estimates of how much oil is pouring into the gulf. But it comes to many millions of gallons since the catastrophic blowout. Eleven men were killed ...Read More > >

by Lynne Blundell 17 June 2010 - The Senate committee conducting the inquiry into the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Bill last month delivered its final report, recommending that the Bill be passed, with some changes. In doing so it appears to have glossed over opposition to the proposed scheme, claiming it ...Read More > >

20 June 2010 - Sustainability was a key feature of the Australian Institute of Architecture Awards currently under way. Following are some of the highlights so far. NSW The Milo Dunphy Award for Sustainable Architecture was won by Surry Hills Library and Community Centre by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt) which also won the ...Read More > >

By Tina Perinotto 18 June 2010 - The Federal Government has ceded ground in the battle to water down the provisions of the mandatory disclosure scheme for commercial buildings, which is about to face Parliament in the final two weeks of sitting before the long winter break, and possibly a federal ...Read More > >

By Andrew Starc 18 June 2010 - Investa has released its latest sustainability report,  with findings from seven years of data revealing the energy and greenhouse emissions of the group’s tenants. The sustainability report, Investa’s eighth, is presented in a new online format with interactive graphs that allow the user to view ...Read More > >

Brief – 15 June, 2010 – HASSELL has been awarded the two top honours at the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2010 Northern Territory Architecture Awards for its work on the Charles Darwin University chancellery building. Announced 11 June, HASSELL was awarded both the Tracey Memorial Award and the Reverend John Flynn ...Read More > >