Subterms
The Western Australian government seeks six new members to appoint to the state’s heritage council. The council makes recommendations to the heritage minster on entries to the state heritage register, determines the state’s heritage strategy and policy, and advises relevant bodies on the management and development of heritage places. The council comprises nine members with […] More
Construction of a landmark tower complex on the Brisbane riverfront will begin in earnest after the existing structure has been dismantled.
The $2.5 billion Waterfront Brisbane project, designed by FJMT (now FJC Studio) and Arkhefield, will occupy the site of the former Eagle Street Pier restaurant complex.
The development comprises two towers of 52 and 44 storeys, a 9,000-square-metre public open space, and a new 280-metre-long riverwalk connecting Waterfront Place and the nearby Riparian Plaza, which was designed by Harry Seidler.
“We want to revitalize the iconic Brisbane River, and Waterfront Brisbane’s strong river connectivity will deliver vibrant retail and public space for locals and visitors alike,” said Brisbane deputy mayor Krista Adams.
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Waterfront Brisbane designed by FJMT (now FJC Studio) and Arkhefield. Image:
Courtesy Dexus
Queensland acting premier Steven Miles added, “Queensland is in a golden decade of opportunity in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It’s significant developments like this one that will unlock investment, create jobs and put Brisbane on the map as we’re in the global spotlight.”
Brisbane design studio Five Mile Radius has been tasked with repurposing the construction waste cleared from the site. The dismantling of the Eagle Street Pier began in January 2023, and the project team aims to recycle 95 percent of the 7,600 tonnes of material, some of which will be made into new furniture for the precinct using slabs, stainless steel balustrades, and timber decking.
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Future for Waterfront Brisbane by Five Mile Radius made from recycled material from the dismantled Eagle Street Pier complex. Image:
Courtesy Dexus
“Repurposing material from the site was a central part of the project’s sustainability objectives,” said Matt Beasley, project director of developer Dexus. “We have been able to harness leading-edge technology and innovative supply chains to minimize the development’s environmental impact.” More
Australian speculative architect, filmmaker and BAFTA-nominated producer Liam Young will stage his first solo Australian exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Young’s work imagines the future of cities through images and animated films that prompt audiences to examine urgent environmental questions.
The exhibition includes the Australian premier of Young’s newest moving image work, The Great Endeavour, which is currently showing at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale.
The work depicts construction infrastructure powered by renewable energy sources, which could be substituted for fossil fuels to prevent vast quantities of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.
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A still from Liam Young’s The Great Endeavour depicting a desert solar field. Image:
Liam Young
Another animated short film, Planet City, will also be on display. Originally commissioned for the NGV Triennial in 2020, the film portrays an imagined city that houses the world’s entire population – 10 billion people – while the remainder of the planet is allowed to regenerate, recover and return to wilderness.
NGV director Tony Ellwood said, “Operating in the space between fact and fiction, Young’s work presents extraordinary visions of an imagined future that aim to inspire real collective action in our present. With a practice spanning moving image, installation and performance art, Young draws on his extensive network of collaborators – including choreographers, costume designers and global think-tanks – to create spectacular imagined worlds that are very much based in the realms of possibility.”
The exhibition also features photographic works and costumes for Young’s cinematic worlds by Ane Crabtree, the acclaimed costume designer of The Handmaid’s Tale.
These displays imagine clothing in both the world of The Great Endeavour and the 10-billion-person metropolis of Planet City. The latter’s workwear was designed to conceal workers’ racial and gender identities: an effort to foster cooperation and overcome cultural and social differences.
“Young’s exhibition speculates that addressing the climate emergency is no longer a technological problem – it is now a social, cultural, and political one. It offers hope that through creativity and collective action, we can move together towards ecological balance on earth,” said NGV senior curator of contemporary art, design and architecture Ewan McEoin. More
Deborah Ascher Barnstone has been appointed new head of discipline for architecture at the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Ascher Barnstone was previously head of school of architecture at University of Technology Sydney. She also held academic positions at Washington State University, Ball State University, Fachhochschule Cologne, and the Boston Architectural Center. She […] More
The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the shortlist for the 2023 National Architecture Awards and among them are 13 houses that have each received awards in their home states. The national jury will be visiting each of these homes to determine which ones will be most deserving of the Robin Boyd Award for Residential […] More
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield will create a new Aboriginal Culture Centre in the heart of the city.
To be located on a riverbank site formally known as Western Region Park Reserve, the centre will create an open space for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people that directly connects to the Yerta Bulti Country of the Port River.
The centre is designed by Ashley Halliday Architects and Wax Design in collaboration with the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, Port Adelaide Enfield Aboriginal Advisory Panel and the local First Nations community.
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Image:
City of Port Adelaide Enfield with Ashley Halliday Architects, Wax Design and the Yitpi Yartapuultiku Custodian Group.
The centre will accommodate a range of activities with indoor and outdoor performance spaces, public amenities, offices, meeting rooms and extensive landscaping.
It will also be a culturally safe space to gather, practise, share and record culture and connect with Country.
In August 2022 at a naming ceremony, the centre was given the name Yitpi Yartapuultiku, meaning “soul of Port Adelaide.”
“At the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, we are conscious of our sphere of influence and aspire to be a City that values its diverse community and embraces change through innovation, resilience, and community leadership. This vision can only be fully realized through the strengthening of identity, wellbeing, and sense of belonging for First Nations people in our community,” the council said.
“Our approach to this project over the past two years has allowed for cultural exchange, with Council and Aboriginal Custodians working together to co-design Yitpi Yartapuultiku in a shared and respectful way. It will be a safe and nurturing community place for healing, connection and reconciliation, for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people to learn, experience and be immersed in Aboriginal culture.”
The project received the Planning with Country Award from the South Australian chapter of the Planning Institute of Australia in 2022.
A tender for a principal is underway. The project is anticipated to be complete in 2025. More
Households across Australia are struggling with soaring energy and housing costs and a lack of housing options. Mixed with a climate crisis, economic volatility and social inequality, it’s a potent set of policy problems. Australia needs a circuit-breaker – a bold national project to tackle the climate crisis and support households by shifting to a more sustainable housing industry.
This is a project based on circular economy principles. The emphasis is on reducing materials and resources, optimising building lifespan, designing for reuse and zero waste, and regenerating nature. By getting the most out of finite resources, we can minimise waste and shrink our carbon footprint.
Our research for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) applies these principles to housing. We developed a comprehensive strategy for the sector’s transition to a circular economy. It gives priority to local jobs, access to affordable housing, resilient and functional design, and carbon-neutral, energy-efficient operation.
Solving two problems at once
The circular economy offers answers to the dual challenges of housing affordability and sustainability. These solutions work across households, renters and owners.
Both the climate crisis and the human right to adequate housing demand urgent policy responses. Despite this, new energy-efficiency standards that the nation’s building ministers had agreed would take effect in October this year have since been delayed in a majority of states.
Standards are the key to unlocking the shift needed to deliver housing that is both affordable and sustainable. In combination with fiscal and financial policy frameworks, business support schemes and education and training, the housing industry can develop its capacity to embrace and exceed standards. Australian households and the planet will benefit.
How can Australia lift its game?
Housing policymakers across Asia and Europe are actively pursuing circular economy goals. As a result, Australia can learn from a wide range of circular economy approaches. Using better designs, techniques and materials, we can readily reduce the carbon footprint of our housing.
As the AHURI report details, a step change of comprehensive housing reforms that lead to more affordable housing and energy bills can also deliver greater resilience and social justice. The strategy identifies four areas of reform:
assign a higher value to the sustainability of housing
shift market processes
tilt investment flows by providing incentives for circular housing designs and projects
build the sector’s capacities to deliver sustainable outcomes.
Our research also recognises the specific forms of housing and the supply chains of materials to build them. These forms include residential neighbourhoods and precincts, new and renovated apartments, and social housing.
Internationally, we see a growing number of “eco-precincts” – walkable, sustainable, mixed-use developments. However, these are still seen as niche experiments, individual and not joined together across neighbourhoods.
Australian apartment building standards also leave much room for improvement. Robust and specific regulations to embed the circular economy in the construction, use and reuse of apartment buildings would provide clarity for the industry.
Apartment projects typically involve major developers and lenders. As a result, success with circular economy practices in this part of the housing sector can be a catalyst for adopting them more widely.
And because a high proportion of apartments are rented in Australia, higher energy standards for rental properties can help counter increasing energy poverty.
In social housing, tenant preferences are rarely considered in sustainable retrofits. Circular economy retrofitting delivers benefits for both landlords and tenants, through better design and lower bills.
Energy efficiency and alternative energy technologies have largely driven sustainable retrofit activity in Australia. Less attention has been paid to other circular economy housing priorities. Much more work must be done to extend housing lifespans and ensure passive design as standard practice, drawing on natural sources of heating and cooling such as sunshine and ventilation.
We lack adequate data tracking material stocks and flows through the housing sector, including for retrofits. This applies to both new and recycled/reused materials in the construction and demolition waste streams.
Our analysis shows the use of concrete in housing continues to increase. This means concrete-related emissions are increasing too. Better data systems to track material flows would give us a clearer picture of where to target efforts to reduce embodied carbon in housing.
Towards a national strategy
Radical decarbonisation is needed. It won’t happen without big shifts in practices and materials.
Circular economy housing is a social project as much as a regulatory reform. Success depends on buy-in to the whole process across all levels of government, civil society, private sector and education and training institutions.
Simply relying on market demand to drive the supply of circular goods and services neglects the nature of current supply chains and the weakness of consumer voices. In particular, the one in three households that are tenants have little say in how sustainable their housing is. Stronger partnerships between governments, private developers and local communities are needed to deliver the scale of change required.
The housing industry can step up, with the support of policy incentives, to embrace leading circular economy practice. Housing has a big role to play in the economy-wide changes needed to achieve sustainable use of materials and net-zero emissions.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. More
Entries have opened for the 2024 AA Prize for Unbuilt Work, the only public recognition for unrealised designs in Australia. The jury for the 2024 prize comprises influential industry voices who have been appointed based on their expertise, professional standing and profile. Nigel Bertram is a director of NMBW Architecture Studio in Melbourne, which he […] More
