One of Australia’s first residential buildings with Onyx Solar photovoltaic glass integrated into the facade has been built in Melbourne’s inner suburb of Northcote.

Terry Leckie’s Flow Systems has entered into a partnership with Norsk Hydro and a number of other developers to to redevelop 2000 hectares of land at a former aluminium smelter at Kurri Kurri in NSW’s Hunter Valley.

A joint submission from Cox Architecture and Dutch practice UNStudio has taken out developer Beulah International’s design competition for a $2 billion mixed-use skyscraper on the BMW site at Southbank in Melbourne.

Marketing executive Sandra Brewer has been appointed executive director of the Western Australian chapter of the Property Council, replacing Lino Iacomella, who has stepped down after 13 years. Meanwhile, the Urban Development Institute of Australia WA’s chief executive Allison Hailes has resigned.

It was designed with the highest of green ratings in mind, but the City of Canning in Perth is taking design firm Christou and consultant Aecom to court over alleged “misleading or deceptive” conduct regarding the $37 million Cannington Leisureplex’s ecologically sustainable design.

The Australian construction industry has among the lowest rates of investment in research and development in our economy.

Apartments that can be easily adapted into various living arrangements may be the future of sustainable high-density living.

Here’s a practical handbook pitched to those familiar with modular building – and those not so familiar – from the highly regarded James Murray-Parkes at Brookfield Scientific Solutions Group and Monash University’s Yu Bai.

Western Australia is joining the timber trend sweeping the eastern seaboard with its first timber-framed building, a 10-storey hotel at inner city Northbridge.

The United Kingdom hopes to cut the time taken to construct a new building in half by pouring £420 million (AU$753m) into “bytes and mortar smart construction”, putting pressure on the Australian construction industry to invest in its own innovation efforts.

Docklands in Melbourne has solidified its reputation as a test-bed for engineered timber, with developer AsheMorgan announcing Melbourne’s first cross-laminated timber (CLT) office building.

Housebuilders should be “ashamed of themselves” for failing to build to high energy efficiency standards, according to UK government climate change watchdog chair John Gummer.

On the back of growing anxiety around rising energy costs, Frasers Property Australia is targeting operational cost savings across resi, retail and community sites at Ed.Square.

What do you think the missing middle would look like if it were to become a serious movement in Australian housing formation today?

Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has plans underway for an art-studded five-star hotel, and news just in is that it’s going for Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification.