solid performers
Summer
2012/13
$8.50
g mi d
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2013
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inside brief
there it begins
“Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks
together. There it begins.” Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(German-born American architect 1886-1969).
reporting – instead assigning concrete evidence of climatechange ramifications to the pavement of pedestrian news.
Bricks are regarded as the one of the oldest known
manufactured building materials, dating back to 7000BC
when they were found to be a popular structural
component of buildings in southern Turkey and around
Jericho.
Richly connected to the heritage of our natural
environment, Trevor King continues the journey that
introduces us to the elements of locality – encouraging
us to consider the unique foundation and fabric of our
country to become an inherent factor of our home-grown
design work.
From ancient European buildings detailed in our Foreign
Perspectives feature to award-winning contemporary projects
undertaken by Australian building designers, our summer
issue takes a long, hard look at these solid performers.
We also feature the first in a series of articles by BDA
development executive and economist Martin Farley
aimed at adding tangible value to practice management
procedures in the pursuit of solid business foundations.
Our masonry feature, Rock of Ages, tracks the resurgence
of brick as a reliable and sustainable superstructure and
focuses on some inspirational designs that exemplify the
strength and aesthetics of masonry construction.
And BDA’s own doctor of sustainable futures, Chris
Reardon, emerges from the ruck that put the boot into
the Queensland Government’s decision to repeal the
Sustainability Declaration Bill by adding a little more fuel to
the fire.
Our front cover leads us into a design feature ‘stronghold’
which highlights the solid attributes of a spectacular project
by multi award-winning building designer Gerard Smith.
As usual, we absorb the latest sticking points of the big
ESD picture, courtesy of resident commentator Dick Clarke
who takes an alpine view of our critically changing world
and shines a light on the apathy that drives our reluctance
to cover the biggest news item in the history of media
When it comes to a choice between complacency and
active debate around the loose barrow of responsibility we
all push, perhaps it’s time to take a firm hold.
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation
with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David
Brinkley.
Enjoy.
Rochelle
Managing Editor:
Rochelle James
0402 853 989
rochelle@themediapond.com.au
Contributors:
Dick Clarke
Trevor King
Chris Reardon
Martin Farley
Consulting Editor:
Gary McGay
0407 981 911
gary@themediapond.com.au
Building Designers Brief Australia
Advertising:
Aleshia Bowes
(08) 9228 0698
aleshia@themediapond.com.au
Cartoonist:
Greg Smith
Pre-press:
Melinda Sandosham
Published by Pond Publications
Suite 6, 199 Bulwer Street, Perth WA 6000
www.themediapond.com.au
Printed by Vanguard Press
26 John Street, Northbridge WA 6003
Distributed by Quickmail
1714 Albany Highway, Kenwick WA 6107
Disclaimer, terms and conditions: Any advice printed in this publication is produced in good faith but strictly on the understanding that neither
the BDAA Ltd, nor Pond Publications or persons contributing to the publication incur any legal liability whatsoever for the correctness or accuracy
(including liability for negligence). Should the information be incorrect or otherwise defective, all liability is disclaimed. All advertisements are accepted
on the following terms and conditions: BDAA Ltd. and Pond Publications have the right to refuse to publish any advertisement or material. No liability
shall be incurred by the BDAA Ltd. or Pond Publications by reason of any error, inaccuracy or amendment to, or the partial or total omission of any
advertisement or by reason of any delay, or default or from any other cause whatsoever. Neither BDAA Ltd nor Pond Publications can be held responsible
for any errors in multiple insertion material after the first issue of publication. The views expressed by guest columnists are entirely those of the author.
4 building designers
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Summer 2012/13
contacts and contents
Contents
president’s preamble
6
solid performers
8
design feature
12
foreign perspectives
16
the big picture with dick clarke
20
solid performers
Summer
2012/13
$8.50
spirit of place with trevor king
24
walking the talk with chris reardon
28
practice management: with martin farley 32
brief observations
35
product features
38 – 42
Front Cover:
Nestled between the Noosa River and the headlands of
the Noosa National Park this stylish home designed by
Gerard Smith has achieved ultimate peer recognition for
its design excellence in two States and also nationally.
A solid performer in many ways, it’s a great example
of the versatility, sustainability and low-maintenance
durability of masonry construction.
Platinum National Partner
Building Designers Australia
T: 1300 669 854
F: (02) 4968 9981
E: admin@bdaa.com.au
Gold National Partners
W: www.bdaa.com.au
A: PO Box 592, Hunter Region MC NSW 2310
President – Ian Bassett
Vice President – Phil Ker
Development Executive – Martin Farley
National
Tas
Tas
NSW NSW
WA WA SA
SA Councillors
Monty East
Theresa Hatton
Ian Bassett
Chris Reardon
Phil Ker
Ian Ogborne
John Bryant Bill Adams
Summer 2012/13 (03)
(03)
(02)
(02)
(08)
(08)
(08)
(08)
6223
6334
6584
4822
9367
9384
8362
8381
6740
7144
2601
1342
1636
4282
8860
7758
National Partner
building designers
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president’s preamble
BDA signed an agreement with ADNZ that supports mutual
co-operation and sharing between our associations
a new chapter
At the recent BDA National Council annual meeting in
Adelaide I was elected president following Monty East’s
decision to step down from that role. I would like, on
your behalf, to thank Monty for the time and effort he
put into the role as we restructured the BDA into a more
dynamic association that has as its foundation the mutual
respect and co-operation of its member State Chapters.
Monty’s leadership was vital to the success of this, and
we will always be indebted to him. Monty will continue on
as immediate past president and I am sure that he will
not be allowed to put his feet up just yet.
Recently, BDA signed an agreement with Architectural
Designers New Zealand (ADNZ) that supports mutual
co-operation and sharing between our associations. We
both believe that working together will be of worthwhile
benefit to our respective members as we look forward to
exchanging information and resources. The next step is
for our respective executives to meet to discuss issues of
mutual interest – a joint conference being one item high
on the agenda.
Looking forward to 2014, it is the aim of the National
Council (NC) to encourage Chapters to maintain the
provision of services to members with the NC acting
as the facilitator for the sharing of resources between
the Chapters. The NC will also be the main contact for
national issues that arise and will manage liaison between
BDA and federal authorities.
In respect of this, the NC realised that we needed a
combined approach to national issues and has invited
both BDAV and BDAQ to form an alliance with BDA so
that we have a collective voice when dealing with the
various federal groups and committees that BDA deals
with. We have also extended an invitation to BDAV and
BDAQ members to join us in the 2014 National Design
6 building designers
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Awards. We trust that this move will allow all members
the opportunity to be assessed alongside their peers from
all over Australia, which could only be a win-win situation
for all members, regardless of their affiliations.
Our aim this coming year is to make our national subcommittee structure work efficiently under the chair of
the respective National Councillors. These committees
cover Marketing and Promotion; CPD and Education;
Government Liaison and Policy; MyDesigner and Eco
Smart.
In relation to MyDesigner, we are working to make
MyDesigner the entry portal to all things BDA – where
the public can go to get the best possible advice when
selecting a building designer, and where members can
go to get the latest information on BDA activities and
resources, both at a National and Chapter level. One
important initiative is to provide on-line CPD through
MyDesigner.
As the initiatives mentioned above come to fruition we
will keep members
informed of progress.
All members are
encouraged to
make contact with
their Chapter’s
National Councillor
as we appreciate
all comments and
suggestions.
Ian Bassett
President
Building Designers Australia
Summer 2012/13
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solid performers
Therein lies a moral which should elevate the unique properties
of masonry in the building design mindset
rock of ages
Solid performance has never been more conclusively
documented than in the annals of masonry
construction.
The history books brim with remarkable feats of
durability – and ancient reminders of man’s earliest
obsession with masonry as the building material of
choice have transcended civilisations.
There are a multitude of well-founded and wellresearched reasons why the solid foundation to
which the world’s most time-proven building design
ingredient is rooted continues to curry favour with
forward-thinking home builders.
S
In an historical sense, the ancient, veteran and vintage
examples of masonry’s durability have placed the sector
in good stead as a tough, reliable and resilient method
of construction, acknowledged also for its effective
insulation properties. So that’s a constant.
And therein lies a moral which should elevate the unique
properties of masonry in the building design mindset.
What has shifted contemporary thinking even more in its
favour has been a combination of the energy-efficiency
revolution and the explosion in popularity of the lowmaintenance lifestyle in a time-poor society.
omeone famously, and anonymously, once
proclaimed: “I’m here for a good time, not for a
long time.” Which is true of many houses – as well
as larrikins.
Technology has given rise to the evolution of such
exacting treatments and innovative construction techniques
that there are many and varied natural and composite
building materials available to create an attractive and
sustainable palette of options with which to roll out the
good times.
But only one genre has amassed a powerful enough
combination of historical and contemporary research data
to confidently boast that it is here for both a good time
and a long time.
The masonry structural range of clay brick, concrete
block, prefab panel, rammed earth and stone products,
has had plenty to be thankful for as time has gone by.
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Ongoing development of masonry aesthetics, especially
in the clay brick industry, has also helped to project
the notion of design diversity when solid performance is
central to the brief.
The Australian brick industry’s Think Brick initiative
provides a wealth of information for building designers on
the advantages of brick in residential construction.
“The latest trends in open-plan living are easily achieved
with brick and there is the added benefit of excellent
sound insulation,” Think Brick Australia CEO Elizabeth
McIntyre said.
Summer 2012/13
Opposite page: Designed by Adrian Fratelle and Kylee
Schoonens, a flash new bakery in the township of
Bindoon, WA incorporates a retro lounge area with a
facebrick feature wall.
This page: Daniel Cassettai has used classic red bricks
and tuckpointing in this superb addition to a small postwar cottage in Shenton Park, WA.
“There are now over 800 colours to choose from and
many different finishes from sleek glossy blacks and
metallics to rough-hewn rustic bricks with a hand-crafted
appearance.
“Brick is blessed with a high thermal mass and, combined
with insulation, will keep the home comfortable while
cutting annual energy bills by about 25 per cent.”
Summer 2012/13 building designers
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Situated at Salter Point, WA on the Swan River foreshore,
this solid home was designed to last a lifetime and
cater for the needs of a young family growing through
to adulthood. Maximising views of the river, Gary Keen
designed a striking three-storey residence using classic
materials such as limestone, copper, timber and slate to
give the residence a timeless appeal. The residence is
finished with a grand deck entry flanked by large ponds
and landscaped gardens.
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Summer 2012/13
Top: One of two buildings situated on a subdivided lot
in Mount Hawthorn, WA, this rendered home with feature
brickwork was designed by Daniel Cassettai Design. A
cantilevered fully glazed stairwell is bordered by a striking
white masonry frame.
Above left and right: Another Cassettai design also uses a
mix of masonry materials to achieve texture and interest.
Situated in Scarborough, WA, elevations of the four-dwelling
development are treated with various finishes such as
Georgian facebricks, concrete masonry blocks and rendered
brickwork to produce a modern well-balanced facade.
Right: Clever design using feature concrete block-work in
this $14 million development creates a great aesthetic
and interest. Designed by Mark Baker (Meyer Shircore and
Associates) and situated in the education hub of Joondalup
WA, the Motor Industry Training Association building provides
training facilities and an administration headquarters.
Summer 2012/13 building designers
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design feature
The Hideaway has been a solid performer in more ways than
one... it is a masterpiece of concrete craftsmanship
secluded stronghold
There is something about Noosa Heads that gives
rise to many of Queensland’s – and Australia’s –
most refreshing residential building designs.
With such a comfortable climate to accommodate, it
could be something in the air, or something in the
water – or a combination of both – that brings out
the best in designers fortunate enough to practise in
this jewel of the Sunshine Coast.
Nestled between the Noosa River and the headlands
of the Noosa National Park about 135km north of
Brisbane, Noosa Heads has become a sub-tropical
magnet for “southern staters” looking to relocate for
the relaxed beachside lifestyle if offers.
But building in Noosa is not all beer and skittles.
The townsfolk are sensitive about what new built form
may or may not pass the litmus test of development
approval as they strive to preserve the ambience and
character of their little piece of paradise. There have
been several monumental tussles between developers
and conservationists as the town has evolved as a
desirable holiday haven in recent years.
Noosa Heads is home to about one-third of the
Noosa region’s 35,000 permanent residents. Its
climate is tempered by the ocean and its topography,
allowing for comfortable summer and mild winter
temperatures.
Which may go some way to explaining why building
designers like Gerard Smith enjoy the luxury of being
able to express their creativity with a broad-based
palette of materials unfettered by the challenges of
climatic extremes.
12 building designers
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T
he Hideaway has been a solid performer in more
ways than one for Gerard Smith Design (formerly
Mojo Design) in Noosa Heads.
As well as paying homage to the versatility, sustainability
and low-maintenance durability of masonry, this stylish
project has achieved ultimate peer recognition for its
design excellence in two States, and nationally, winning
a BDAQ regional award commendation, a BDA NSW state
design award and a BDA national design award in the
category for new homes between 351 and 450 square
metres.
It is a masterpiece of concrete craftsmanship, from the
tastefully rendered masonry blockwork that underpins its
structural soundness to the thermally inviting expanses of
polished concrete flooring that define its contemporary
minimalism and accentuate its clean, simple lines.
Cleverly designed to incorporate passive solar design
principles throughout, The Hideaway’s piece d’eco
Summer 2012/13
resistance is a strategically located internal circulation
hall that wraps around a landscaped water garden to
allow maximum access to northern light for the peripheral
rooms while embracing parkland views to the rear and a
resort-like outlook over the swimming pool and garden
area to the front.
The contemporary form delivers large open spaces that
enable these visual delights to be enjoyed from almost
anywhere within the home.
A double-storey grand living zone is seamlessly connected
to two large alfresco areas through large sliding glass
doors that open completely clear of the aperture, allowing
these areas to spill fore and aft onto both the scenic
parkland and the landscaped pool zone.
Summer 2012/13 building designers
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australia 13
A deliberately refrained colour palette has been used
throughout the house to promote the warmth and texture
of natural products such as timber and stone that
distinguish the home’s sympathetic interior detailing.
In addition to the open-plan living zones and scullery,
two bedrooms, an office or third bedroom, a large
laundry, a music and games room, a retreat and a twocar garage with storage space are also incorporated
under the main roof.
Adding to the thermal comfort afforded by the lowmaintenance materials palette, optimal ventilation has
been achieved by the installation of ceiling fans in
conjunction with ample use of louvre and clerestory
louvre windows to capture the prevailing breezes which
give Noosa Heads its enviable summer ambience.
14 building designers
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Summer 2012/13
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foreign perspectives
The old station outhouse usually presents
as a proud reminder of brick’s longevity
built like a what?
Near and far, the humble brick has played a defining
role in the setting of solid foundations for social
evolution, as GARY McGAY discovers, both at home
and abroad.
I
t is testament to the durability of the brick that
wherever you go in this world there remains evidence
of man’s enduring love affair with clay masonry as the
one building material that will not only serve to house
generations, but civilisations, such is its structural and
thermal sustainability.
In Australia we have an old saying to describe someone
of solid build as being “built like a brick dunny (or words
to that effect)”. It could be argued that this is a direct
reference to the ability of such a structure to withstand
the violent forces of nature. And it is significant that
when you venture off the beaten track, especially in rural
and remote regions of outback Australia, the old station
outhouse usually presents as a proud reminder of brick’s
longevity alongside the solid ruins of an abandoned
homestead.
It is also significant that the oldest existing building in
Australia is one such brick homestead, though preserved
for posterity as a museum rather than abandoned.
Designers with an interest in colonial architecture, and
in particular a classic example of our earliest convict
brickwork, should add Elizabeth Farm to their itinerary
when next visiting Sydney.
Built in 1793 on a hill overlooking the upper reaches of
the Parramatta River in Sydney’s west for wool pioneer
John Macarthur, and named after his wife Elizabeth,
the long, low brick building with a steeply-pitched
shingled roof is described as the archetypal Australian
farmhouse. The small, solid three-roomed brick cottage
16 building designers
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was transformed by the late 1820s into a smart country
manor, surrounded by ‘pleasure grounds’, orchards and
more than 400 hectares of semi-cleared land. Enveloped
within later extensions, the early cottage remains intact,
making it Australia’s oldest surviving European dwelling.
Although Elizabeth Farm still stands as a tribute to its
colonial materials palette, the very first brick building in
the new colony was the original Government House in
Phillip Street, Sydney, designed and built in 1788 within
a few months of the landing at Sydney Cove by prolific
convict brick maker James Bloodworth, using bricks and
moulds carried as cargo in the First Fleet.
A shortage of lime for making mortar confined the use
of brick to only important buildings in the very early
years of settlement. In fact, archaeologists have since
discovered that the lime used in the first Government
Summer 2012/13
Opposite page: The most visible remains of this historic
castle built in the early 10th century in Malaga, Spain,
are the solid ramparts that rise majestically from dense
woods of pine and eucalyptus.
Above: Built on the banks of the Thames River in London
during the 11th century and modified over time, the White
Tower, as it is now called, became the centrepiece of a
complex of fortifications, courtyards and buildings that
came to be known as the Tower of London. The massive
walls were made from Kentish limestone, with ashlars of
Caen stone laid at the corners and around the doors,
windows and arrow-slits.
Right: The display of texture and colour of these
brick buildings built in Brugge, Belgium in 1747
features intricate relief work within stepped arches that
portray strength and character. Such brick godshuizen
(almshouses) first appeared in the 14th century when
wealthy families chipped in to build houses for poor and
needy widows and widowers. Most of the complexes also
have a chapel where the inhabitants were supposed to
pray for the souls of their benefactors.
House was made from oyster shells. Government House
was used for 57 years before the old building was
demolished and its foundations disappeared beneath the
pavement. Remnants were gathered, however, and remain
preserved at the Sydney Museum, which now stands on
the original site.
For more adventurous designers with a fascination for
bricks of global significance, all roads lead to northern
Europe – with a stopover in Sri Lanka.
Although the oldest domestic bricks were found in
Greece, it was in northern Germany in the 12th century
Summer 2012/13 that they came into their own as a signature material,
culminating in the rise of so-called brick Gothic, a
reduced style of Gothic architecture that flourished in
the regions around the Baltic Sea where natural rock
resources were scarce. Gothic buildings built almost
exclusively of bricks can be found throughout Denmark,
Germany, Poland and Russia.
When visible brick walls went through an ‘unfashionable’
phase during the Renaissance and Baroque periods,
brickwork was often covered with plaster, and it was
only during the mid-18th century that face brick regained
popularity, as evidenced in the Dutch Quarter of Potsdam.
Among the world’s most imposing and historically
significant brick structures are the brick tower of St
Martin’s Church in Landshut, Germany, completed in 1500
building designers
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australia 17
Above: The well-known chapel and almshouses of Exeter,
in Devon, England, were founded in the 15th century to
house 13 poor men, but were destroyed during a World
War II bombing raid of May 1942. Rather than clear the
ruins, the City Council landscaped the site as a memorial
to that dreadful night.
Top right: The brick tunnel of the Hill Lift, a funicular
railway opened in 1891 in the English seaside town of
Hastings, in Sussex, which provides access to Hastings
Castle and St Clement’s Caves from George Street on the
town’s sea front.
Bottom right: A fine example of original brickwork around
the window of a medieval building in the old town area
of Hastings.
as the tallest brick building in the world at 130.6 metres,
surpassing the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, Belgium, by
8.6 metres; Malbork Castle, in northern Poland, completed
in 1300 as the biggest brick castle in the world and
the largest fortified Gothic building in Europe, with the
outermost castle walls enclosing 21 hectares, four times
the acreage of the enclosed space of Windsor Castle;
and the Jetavanaramaya stupa, located in the ruins of
the Jetavana Monastery in the sacred world heritage city
of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, one of the tallest structures
in the ancient world at 122 metres with 93.3 million
baked bricks used in its construction.
Or you can simply step back and admire the myriad
uses of brick, both old and new, that define so many
fascinating urban landscapes as you travel from city
to city and country to country, as we have on these
pages.
18 building designers
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Summer 2012/13
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the big picture with dick clarke
The story of the century is unfolding before our eyes, yet we still
turn to the cricket or footy as a baby turns to the boob
degrees of urgency
Faced with the stark reality that climate change is
not sexy, and is therefore flying under the media
radar, resident ESD guru DICK CLARKE has issued a
call to arms for building designers across the country
to take a leadership role in the debate by making
the consequences of climate-change apathy headline
news in their design solutions for clients who might
otherwise remain ignorant of contemporary research
findings.
“H
orse with 15 legs becomes US President, wins
Nobel Prize and discovers cure for cancer”.
Would that get your attention? Or perhaps:
“Ancient race of pre-humans with six breasts discovered
living under Antarctica”. How about: “Alan Jones finds
God, engages in polite debate based on logic and facts;
Tony Abbott becomes Buddhist, accepts all points of view
as being of equal worth; Julia Gillard joins silent holy
order of nuns”.
droughts are becoming deeper and longer (in spite of
localised respite), bushfire risk days are becoming more
numerous and more extreme, just as we predicted 10
years ago. This is all on the public record, even if it’s
buried on page 8. And yes, this is all by either direct
observation, or peer-reviewed research, or in the process
of being peer reviewed.
Yet, in the face of this growing evidence and effects,
cynicism and ‘let’s not talk about climate change any
more’ has taken hold of the policy debates, and buildings
generally are relying on artificial heating and cooling
more than ever before. There are notable exceptions –
more on them later – but generally we have seen air
conditioning become accepted as the norm in the past
10 years. This has had a dramatic effect on our total
emissions, and has a painful and dramatic effect on
infrastructure costs, which have made up the vast bulk of
recent power price rises (the much maligned carbon tax
being responsible for only about 9 per cent).
What about the truth: “Climate change is happening more,
and faster, than previously predicted.” When a story is
too big, too threatening, too unsettling to our entrenched
ways, we bury it. The story of the century is unfolding
before our eyes in ever more undeniable detail, yet we
still turn to the cricket or footy as a baby turns to the
boob for comfort. The time to face facts was actually 10
years ago. Now it is past time.
The psychology of non-unresponsiveness (which includes
both active denial, passive unresponsiveness, and
everything in between) has been identified, studied, and
written up many times. Essentially it has to do with
our response to any impending disaster which we feel
disempowered to avert or control. A bit like how the
orchestra played on until the Titanic slid beneath the icy
waves. But that is a foolish response, and betrays our
best nature, which can be so inventive when needs must.
The permafrost is beginning to melt, just as we predicted
10 years ago. The ice caps are losing ice, the summer
melts are deeper, the winter freezes smaller, just as we
predicted 10 years ago. Sea level rise is accelerating,
and sea surface temperatures are rising, just as we
predicted 10 years ago. Weather extremes are becoming
more extreme, big storms are becoming super-storms,
Let’s restate the basic parameters of what was required
to avert a high-risk tipping point, being more than 2C
of global average temperature rise. Note that 2C is not
a ‘safe’ target, it was just the ‘least unsafe’ target that
the world’s economies could have reasonably achieved,
although now unlikely, as the most recent scientific
reports are showing. We are actually likely to see more
20 building designers
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Summer 2012/13
than 4C by 2100. More on that in future columns – for
now let’s stick to the fast-fading 2C target.
From 2009 to 2050 we had a carbon budget of about
190 billion tonnes of carbon – the amount that might
have been added to the atmosphere with a 75 per cent
chance of not tipping us past 2C warming. If we assume
the current disproportionate national share of emissions,
and if global emissions keep growing at the present rate
of 3 per cent a year, then the global carbon budget
for 2C runs out in 2021. That’s nine years. What does
that mean in human terms? For me, my new baby
granddaughter will be nine years old. On her birthday,
emissions would have to immediately drop to zero to
have any chance of not exceeding 2C. Even if emissions
were to drop by 2 per cent a year starting now, the
2050 carbon budget total will run out in 2030.
“This is the stark science with which the political elite
wish to negotiate, at our collective peril,” says David
Spratt from Climate Code Red. “The alternative is to
head towards 3 or 4 degrees of warming, which is where
present international commitments are taking us, and a
planet fit to support less than a billion people by 2100.”
Clearly this is not an option we would choose, and its
importance should put it on page 1 every day. But if we
don’t choose another course of action, that is exactly
where we will end up.
So where does that leave building designers? We must
do three things – and we have the tools we need to do
all three:
Commit to passive design like there’s no tomorrow
– without it, there may not be. Do not compromise,
Summer 2012/13 and make it clear to clients (or whoever pressures us)
what’s at stake. If you want more design tools, sign
up for more professional development.
Lead by example and be consistent in our own lives
– commit to targets for our own emissions reduction
and make it fun for our families to get on board.
Make our political representatives aware that we
demand emissions targets with the necessary bite
to achieve the target. This includes empowering our
various BDA committees with the confidence that they
speak for the members in boldly calling for the same
thing in the political realm.
It’s past time to put the shallow nay-saying and political
gain-saying behind us. Time to re-engage with the
reality and the urgency of the situation. Time to turn
the problem into the solution. Like BDAV’s “Ten Star
Challenge”. We are
building designers
– we are presented
with problems and we
create solutions. This
is the design challenge
of the century – we
can do this.
Dick Clarke
Building Designer NSW
Master of Sustainable Futures (ISF)
Dick welcomes your comments to the editor.
building designers
BRIEF
australia 21
Design Studio 22 (BDANSW)
Eastern Solar Design (BDANSW)
Yael K Designs (BDAWA)
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BDB12
spirit of place with trevor king
No matter how connected we may feel in other ways, there is a
special meaning of community that relies on locality
richly connected
Building designers have the privilege of being in a
position to engineer a renaissance in the Australian
mindset about demonstrating a belonging to a unique
community. Placeless design, as discussed in previous
articles by heritage consultant and building designer
TREVOR KING, has for too long blanketed the true
potential of our urban design palette to deliver
something special. Here he argues that only by
embracing the visual richness of our natural heritage
can designers make a meaningful contribution to the
development of a built form that is in touch with the
spirit of its place.
I
n recent articles I have made comment on the bland
placelessness of much of our architecture. It’s a critique
that is set within a wider inquiry around the possibility
of developing flourishing and more richly connected
communities.
Elsewhere I’ve also advocated that we take inspiration
from natural heritage as a way of engaging with Australia
as the ‘land of our living’ and as a means to encourage
the development of an authentic aesthetic language made
in response to our emerging knowledge of Australia as a
richly complex and diverse continent.
George Seddon pointed out that, with the exception of
Melbourne, all of our capital cities are deeply influenced
by their natural environment – the bush still has a
powerful presence. In regional areas this relationship
usually seems obvious. Nature’s bountiful legacy is always
there, providing the platform setting within which land use
activities occur and where communities form. It provides
the deep underpinning for all that happens.
24 building designers
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australia
People in pre-industrial societies had, by necessity, an
intimate knowledge of their environment. The connections
ran deep. Much of their naming of things went beyond
purely utilitarian considerations. Symbolic and emotional
values also found expression in place names. The
learning of place names was an act of cultural belonging
– emotionally, spiritually and through knowledge of the
sustaining landscape.
By way of contrast, the colonial act of naming places
was essentially an act of possession and alienation.
Naming the landscape may have tied the unknown to
the known, but memories from faraway places provided
only limited connections to such a ‘foreign’ land.
Nowadays many such place names often seem quite
odd and the same name is frequently repeated across
multiple locations. In addition to these culturally inherited
relationships, we now commonly move through landscapes
at speeds that distance us. This activity acts to prevent
the development of close familiarity, intimacy and
affection.
“The need for a sense of place that is both secure and
familiar is strong within us; no matter how connected we
may feel in other ways, there is a special meaning of
‘community’ that relies on locality.”1
Our understanding of ‘community’ has, over time,
expanded to become more fluid than was probably the
case for past generations. Today we have a richness of
opportunity for belonging to all sorts of communities.
Yet, as Hugh MacKay’s statement suggests, our physical
locality does provide a context for belonging that may
be unique in the depth of its emotional reach. Unspoken
social bonds can arise that are based upon sharing the
same space, seeing the same things, and being subject
to the same environmental changes and weather as
others.
Summer 2012/13
spirit of place with trevor king
To successfully demonstrate a place-based connection, the
variety of available sensory experiences needs to be increased
It’s no big stretch to imagine that the foundation of
sustainable communities lies in promoting conditions
that stimulate both a collective sense of belonging and
a personal identification with ‘place’. Design that can
stimulate such social outcomes needs to be able to
demonstrate its connections to places. Placeless design
will fail this test.
Australia is renowned for the high degree of specialisation
that its plants and animals have made in adapting to a
changing environment, as the world’s youngest continent
drifted north from Antarctica over the past 40 million
years. Successful biological solutions are often placespecific and unique. It’s a land that is full of variety. So
how do we reflect this in what we do?
visual richness as a constant in the natural world
Visual richness enhances the culture/nature connection
and it is a means of connecting culture with ‘place’. To
successfully demonstrate a place-based connection, the
degree and variety of available sensory experiences, and
visual interest in particular, needs to be increased. The
overall quality of richness is most likely to be enhanced
through a focus on details that, used in combination,
are able to produce identifiable linkages to the natural
setting.
Increased visual richness can therefore form an
antidote to the bland anonymity that results from the
industrialised production of the components that make
up our buildings. Comparing the appearance of planar
surfaces in our contemporary buildings with the planar
surfaces found in nature, we find a striking difference
in the degree of visual richness that is present. High
degrees of surface articulation, patterned presences, and
the mutual embedment of colours are found throughout
the range of naturally formed surfaces.
Christopher Alexander2 has described 15 fundamental
properties of nature, including Levels of Scale, Strong
Centres, Boundaries, Alternating Repetition, Positive Space,
Good Shape, Local Symmetries, Deep Interlock and
Summer 2012/13 building designers
BRIEF
australia 25
spirit of place with trevor king
An under-rated vegetal element suddenly
became a place-derived motif of startling beauty
Ambiguity, Contrast, Gradients, Roughness, Echoes, The
Void, Simplicity and Inner Calm, and Not-Separateness.
His far-reaching analysis identifies all of these qualities
as existing within the natural world, and he demonstrates
their ubiquity further by using beautiful examples drawn
from the pan-cultural sphere. His own designs reflect
a lifelong search for meaningful social and artistic
engagement. Decorative tessellations, softly textured
surface treatments and the skilful use of colour pervade
the work. The resulting spaces resonate with a calm,
humanist, and timeless quality.
Predictably, yet still for me somewhat astonishingly,
Alexander has been criticised by modernists for being
backward looking in his approach to design.
Frank Lloyd
Wright’s
Stained Glass
& Lightscreens.
Thomas A. Heinz.
Publisher: Gibbs
Smith 2000.
Page 73
3
frank lloyd wright’s windows and lightscreens
Also disparaged for bringing nineteenth century aesthetics
into the ‘modern’ world, Frank Lloyd Wright3 experimented
with a rich vocabulary of forms, colours and personalised
decorative elements that were designed to reflect his
clients, and their interests, as introduced elements within
the building.
Describing glass and light as two forms of the same
thing, he used them to great effect in successive
innovations over a 60-year period. By 1900 he had begun
to develop his own more abstract style and occasionally
utilised plant forms as a means of directly connecting the
building to its environmental context.
In the Susan Dana Lawrence house (1904) he used
Sumac, a mid-western plant regarded as a weed and
nuisance, as a primary motif for ornamental art-glass
windows, lampshades and upper-storey lightscreens
(hanging glass screens set adjacent to the interior
face of windows). His design took the usually drooping
leaves and branches, set them in an upright form
and accentuated the plant’s pollen, seed head and its
fleeting autumnal colours. An under-rated vegetal element
suddenly became a place-derived motif of startling
beauty.
26 building designers
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australia
Summer 2012/13
spirit of place with trevor king
These new means have the potential to produce connections to
the land of our living, that are totally without precedent
development of mathematical descriptions for regional
and localised branching patterns, including water-based
and vegetation types, phyllotaxis angles in plants, and
streamlines in hydrodynamics;
use of digital technologies, including computerised
graphic design, the capacity to replicate naturally
occurring colours through RGB analysis, and 3-D
printing;
the emerging field of Biophilic design, a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates the inherent
human affinity with natural systems and processes into
the design of the built environment;
democratisation of contemporary artistic expression,
and;
a traditional approach?
But does the use of natural heritage as a primary source
of artistic inspiration simply re-represent what is, after all,
a traditional approach to design?
The use of natural themes has been a vital influence
within pan-cultural artistic expression. While utilising
natural heritage for artistic interpretation does echo this
traditional approach to achieving place-based culture,
our contemporary society affords us with a set of
revolutionary conceptual and technological tools for
achieving new and enhanced levels of integration.
changes to political structures, including freedom of
information, freedom of speech, and gender equality.
Using natural heritage may, at first sight, appear to
follow a traditional artistic approach, but these new
technological and social means have the potential to
produce an authentic visual aesthetic and rich cultural
connections to natural places, and thus to the land of
our living, that are totally without precedent.
Advance Australia…Where?
Hugh Mackay 2007
Christopher Alexander. The Nature of Order. Book 1: The
Phenomenon of Life 2003 – 2004. Pages 246 – 290
1
2
These tools include:
the scientific description of Regional Ecosystems and
their potential for use in the formation of a regional
aesthetic;
recognition that natural heritage has existence value
that is entirely independent of human interpretations
and usage;
recognition of the fractal geometry of nature;
the capacity to test, via statistical analysis, people’s
preferences in order to establish an impartial basis for
aesthetic appreciation (for example, fractal dimension
of D1.3 – 1.5 is clearly preferred);
the discovery of Deep Time in the appreciation of
Earth’s morphological processes and formations;
Summer 2012/13 Trevor King
Building Designer NSW
Heritage Consultant
building designers
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walking the talk with chris reardon
To withdraw from CoAG mandatory disclosure of environmental
performance commitment is nothing short of luddite nonsense
dancing with the stars
BDA’s champion of sustainable futures, and passionate
Blues rugby league supporter, CHRIS REARDON, has
regathered the ball after copping a hospital pass in
the last passage of play and is taking it back up to
Queensland in the wake of further analysis of what
he sees as some dodgy local rule changes in the
mandatory disclosure game.
‘
Queensland’s environment minister has confirmed
he doubts the role of humans in causing climate
change, but says he believes society should act to
curb pollution and find renewable power sources. Premier
Campbell Newman today backed his minister, Andrew
Powell, saying it was “refreshing” to have someone in
charge of the portfolio who was prepared to tell the
truth.
Source: Brisbane Times, June 12, 2012
In the last issue of the BRIEF – at the urging of the
BDAQ executive – I cut the newly-elected Newman
government in Queensland some slack by presenting an
alternative perspective to that of my erstwhile colleague
Dick Clarke on its decision to repeal the Sustainability
Declaration Bill.
increase the energy efficiency standard for new multiunit residential buildings from 5 stars to 6 stars
introduce mandatory disclosure of existing residential
buildings at sale or lease.”
Source: Building and Plumbing Newsflash – 506 Building
Codes – Queensland Department of Housing and Public
Works – October 11, 2012
To repeal the well-intentioned but poorly-conceived
Sustainability Declaration Bill was one thing, but
to withdraw from CoAG mandatory disclosure of
environmental performance commitment is nothing short
of luddite nonsense.
Just how many stars
are we meant to follow?
While I am still offended by DC’s football analogy, he
was on the money with his criticism of the Newman
government’s environment policy.
“The Newman government has announced its intention
to withdraw from the 2009 Queensland Government’s
commitment to measures in the Council of Australian
Government (COAG) National Strategy of Energy Efficiency
(NSEE) to:
28 building designers
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Summer 2012/13
walking the talk with chris reardon
The additional investment would pay for itself three times
over in the life of the building
Come on, Mr Newman, this is 2012 – not 1912! How are
Queensland home buyers supposed to make informed
decisions about reducing their energy bills without proper
information?
As for the decision to take Queensland back in time on
multi-residential energy efficiency – ludicrous!
As most readers are aware, I am not a huge supporter
of NatHERS star ratings because they can be misleading.
However, house energy rating software (HERS) is among
world best practice thermal simulation software, and
its predicted heating and cooling energy use for every
climate zone in Australia – and that included Queensland
the last time I checked – is irrefutable.
The difference between 5 and 6 NatHERS stars in
Brisbane is 12 mJ/m2/annum; Townsville 26 mJ/m2;
and Cairns 123 mJ/m2. Clearly, we won’t save the world
by raising the bar to 6 stars for a 50-80 m2 unit in
Brisbane, but the savings are still worthwhile and increase
dramatically in other climate zones.
The notoriously conservative Regulatory Impact Statement
costing by the Australian Building Codes Board in
December 2009 showed that there would be an additional
construction cost of $1200 to increase the standard
to 6 stars for a unit in Brisbane, with an estimated
annual saving of $54 resulting from reduced heating and
cooling costs. Not a huge saving, but for $1200 added
cost it’s an absurd decision to dump it – especially in
Queensland.
What about the predicted doubling and tripling of
electricity costs within the lifespan of the building, Mr
Newman? Based on a conservative doubling of electricity
prices and a 40-year lifespan for the unit, the additional
$1200 investment would pay for itself three times over
in the life of the building. These estimates take no
account of predicted trebling or quadrupling of time-ofuse electricity costs under smart metering during periods
of peak demand, driven almost entirely by household
cooling. They also take no account of increased heating
Summer 2012/13 and cooling loads from
climate change (2-4
degrees C).
A short-sighted decision
by the Newman
government? I’ll leave
that judgment to you.
The Newman government
has cited a need to
“reduce red tape”
to get the struggling
Queensland property
industry back on its feet
while largely ignoring the
following:
AAP/John Pryke
Major national real
estate chain LJ Hooker has launched a sustainability
push and is calling out for reliable disclosure metrics.
The Real Estate Institute of Australia is also highly
supportive. The Ray White real estate chain is also
moving in this direction.
The Fourth Assessment Report by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported
that:
a) the global average sea level has risen since 1961 at
an average rate of 1.8mm per year, and since 1993
at 3.1mm per year;
b) changes in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse
gases and aerosols, land cover and solar radiation
have altered the energy balance of the climate
system;
c) global greenhouse gas emissions due to human
activities have grown with an increase of 70 per cent
between 1970 and 2004.
The CSIRO’s State of the Climate 2012 report key
findings:
building designers
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australia 29
walking the talk with chris reardon
The world’s 13 warmest years on record have all
occurred in the past 15 years
a) sea level rises of up to 750mm are probable by 2100
and rises of more than one metre can’t be ruled out
b) long-term warming trends unchanged;
c) each decade warmer than the previous decade since
the 1950s;
d) increase in global sea level;
e) sea-level rise around Australia since 1993 greater than
or equal to the global average;
f) sea-surface temperatures around Australia have
increased faster than the global average;
g) concentrations of long-lived greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere reached a new high in 2011;
h) annual growth in global fossil-fuel CO2 emissions
between 2009 and 2010 was 5.9 per cent;
i) global-average surface temperatures were the warmest
on record in 2010;
j) 2011 was the world’s 11th warmest year – the world’s
13 warmest years on record have all occurred in the
past 15 years;
frequency and intensity come with an uncertainty range,
what is certain is that Queensland will be affected
because it is part of the rest of the world.
Finally, the Newman government has thumbed its nose at
the UNESCO warning that if “threatening” developments
(coal and gas export infrastructure) are allowed to
proceed within our World Heritage-listed Great Barrier
Reef, it would likely be listed as “in danger” within eight
months. If reducing the cost of units by $1200 is an
important consideration for the building sector, what price
does Mr Newman put on protecting the Great Barrier Reef
and risking its World Heritage status for the tourism and
hospitality industries?
Mr Newman’s response to the UNESCO warning was:
“Queensland is in the coal business … we will protect the
environment but we are not going to see the economic
future of Queensland shut down”.
I have received many emails from BDAQ members
who are concerned at BDAQ’s limited response on
these issues. Let’s hope that BDAQ picks up the baton
and lobbies its government in the interests of future
generations of Queenslanders.
k) a general trend to increased spring and summer
monsoonal rainfall across Australia’s north during
recent decades;
l) decreased late autumn and winter rainfall across
southern Australia.
The Queensland Government’s Office of Climate
Change (currently being closed) outlined the impact of
sea level rise on the State in its Climate Change in
Queensland report two years ago. A half-metre rise in
sea level would likely increase the chances of extreme
events such as flooding from occurring once every
100 years to several times a year.
While the complex world climate system means that
maximum temperature estimates, sea level rises, rainfall
pattern changes, extreme heat wave and super-cyclone
30 building designers
BRIEF
australia
Chris Reardon, Building Designer NSW
Doctor of Philosophy in Sustainable Futures
Chris welcomes your comments to the editor
Summer 2012/13
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practice management
At the end of the day, designers also need to
meet their business and financial goals
worthwhile practice
Like dedicated practitioners in so many professions,
building designers are passionate about what they
do best … often to the detriment of what is best
for their business. With the vast majority of design
practices operating in a ‘sole trader’ business
environment, it is easy for creative professionals to
become so immersed in project development that
they neglect to stay across the business ‘smarts’
needed to underpin growth and personal prosperity.
Economist and BDA development executive MARTIN
FARLEY explains how getting the financial foundations
right can make a big difference to design practice
viability – adding real value to esoteric values.
B
uilding design is one of the creative sectors.
Designers have a passion for design, creating
something that meets a client’ aesthetic, liveability
and other social and economic needs and values. It
provides the ability to stand back and be pleased with
the final results.
This counts for a lot in the selection of these creative
career paths; however, at the end of the day, designers
also need to meet their business and financial goals,
whether it’s about a stable income stream, generating
strong profits or preparing a business for expansion or
sale.
At differing stages in your professional and business
lifecycle, your priority will vary around these specific
objectives. This article is to get you thinking, not like an
accountant, but as a business owner who understands
how to consider the relationship between business
and financial decisions, thinking about them within the
context of your objectives, understanding the impact of
the tweaks available to allow you to adjust business
performance to achieve those objectives.
32 building designers
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australia
As we all know, “cash flow is king”, but underpinning
financial success are three key elements:
Revenue;
Fixed costs – these are costs that you face whether
you turn a dollar of revenue or not and are difficult
to reduce in the short term; and
Variable costs – these are the costs you directly incur
in producing a design and its documentation.
Understanding how these combine to result in your
level of comfort or discomfort with your business is
the basis for good financial decision making.
We will use a fictitious design business for our example.
This example is based on a number of assumptions.
We will look at the business over a one-year period. It
is owned and operated by a principal and employs 2-3
designers. They rent a good quality space and keep up
to date with technology and standards. The firm has
a revenue of $550,000 per annum. The designers are
employed on an hourly basis, as work requires.
For the business, the costs are identified as:
FIXED COSTS (such as….)
Rent
28,000
Depreciation (equip, software etc)
10,000
Insurances
15,000
Software licences
3,600
Car lease
6,000
Principal salary & overheads
75,000
Rates and utilities
6,900
Codes and standards updates
2,500
Total fixed costs
147,000
Summer 2012/13
practice management
Standard accounting is only of limited assistance when thinking
about where you can tweak to improve performance
To open the door for a year, the costs facing the
principal are $147,000 before they generate a dollar.
Now, we recognise that only the supreme optimist would
keep paying their salary in these circumstances. The
fixed costs provide only part of the picture. To generate
revenue, the principal needs to employ and use inputs.
These costs are classified as variable costs and include
categories such as:
VARIABLE COSTS (such as…..)
Direct labour
295,000
Travel and fuel
8,500
Advertising
3,000
Computer maintenance
2,000
Communication
7,500
Subscriptions
800
Security
500
Specialist technical consultants
25,000
Total variable costs
342,300
with the business processes increases; for example, more
advertising, preparing more designs and increasingly
complex documentation and so on leads to spending
more on variable costs.
The following approach uses the above information to
help you combine revenue, fixed and variable costs to
develop understandings of your:
Contribution margin – the percentage of each dollar
of revenue that is available to cover fixed costs
and contribute to profit (this is also a very useful
productivity measure, the higher the percentage the
better);
Break-even revenue point – the revenue level at which
point you have covered all of your fixed costs for the
year and are moving into profit;
Margin of safety – the difference, in either dollar
or percentage of revenue terms, between your total
revenue and your break-even revenue; and
Projected profit – what proportion of your margin of
safety dollars will return to you as profit.
These costs and their categories are for demonstration
purposes only, but they highlight the costs of doing
business.
These dimensions of your business can be demonstrated
as both calculations and as a drawing.
At the simplest level (revenue – costs = profit), these
figures demonstrate the practice is making a profit
($60,700). It doesn’t guarantee the practice is cash flow
positive. Depending on your terms of trade, it may be
that there is $80,000 outstanding when you combine both
work in progress and current receivables. Consequently,
the principal may still be under stress, particularly if there
is not a lot of work in the pipeline. Standard accounting
is only of limited assistance when thinking about where
you can tweak to improve performance and reduce stress.
contribution margin
Fixed costs for the year are just that, fixed for that
period. They can increase but are difficult to reduce.
Variable costs rise as the level of activity associated
break-even point
Summer 2012/13 (Revenue-Variable Costs)/revenue: This is the slope of
the line in the diagram below. The higher the number
(steeper the line) the better, because it means you break
even more quickly. For our fictitious practice this is
($550,000 – $342,300)/550,000 = 0.378. This means that
for each $ of revenue you bring in, 37.8c is available to
cover your fixed costs, and once you reach break-even,
contribute to your profit.
So what is the practice’s break-even revenue level?
This is calculated by dividing the Fixed Costs by the
building designers
BRIEF
australia 33
practice management
This toolkit allows you to model what-ifs that reflect your current
position and where you want to be
Contribution Margin: $147,000/0.378 = $389,000. So far
so good, the firm has a break-even revenue less than the
total revenue; it’s margin of safety.
Am I at a stage where a higher personal draw is
important;
margin of safety
Do I want to get the business ready for sale?
As identified above, the practice has a margin of safety
of ($550,000-$389,000) equalling $161,000 or 29%. This
is a good result, indicating an ability to absorb some
downturn without putting the business at too much risk,
particularly if you critically monitor your results, work in
progress and control your variable costs.
profit
Unfortunately, not all of this $161,000 stays in your
pocket. An amount of 62c in each dollar will still flow
out in variable costs associated with each dollar of
revenue, so at the end of the year, you will enjoy or
invest, or service your cash flow with $60,700 in profit if
the $550,000 revenue level is achieved.
Do I want to expand the business;
By altering your practice’s variable costs by increasing
advertising, how much revenue will you raise (or need
to cover the costs) and how much is probable? If you
increase your advertising expenditure by $10,000 (a
variable cost increase), you will need to generate around
$28,000 in additional revenue to pay for it before you
start to see a return on your investment.
If you have a rush of blood and lease some great new
technology, what will that do to your fixed costs, breakeven point, margin of safety and profit? For example,
a $10,000 increase in your fixed costs, if you have
no short-term improvement in productivity, moves your
break-even revenue out from $389K to $415K, reducing
your margin of safety by $26K (16%) and of course your
profit by $10,000.
This is included to indicate the degree of impact which
relatively minor alterations can have on your financial
performance. By logging onto MyDesigner you can access
the article and also a spreadsheet linked to the diagram
so you can have a play.
This is a toolkit to play with. It allows to you to model
what-ifs that reflect your current position and where you
want to be. The way you use it will reflect where you are
in your professional and business lifecycle:
34 building designers
BRIEF
australia
In the next article we will consider fee structures.
Martin Farley
BDA Development Executive
Summer 2012/13
brief observations
Without a reasoned debate about our ultimate population, we will
get what we get and it will be too late to do anything else
future shock
We all have a stake in the future. It just depends
on how far ahead we choose to project it. In DICK
CLARKE’s mind, there is no choice. We are in it for
the long haul. We may not all be around by the end
of the 21st century, but some of our children may,
and our children’s children will. Then, if you believe
in reincarnation, there’s every possibility we will be
back to bear the brunt of the extent of our own
vision. Will we suffer the consequences of a politically
retarded urban planning outlook, or will we, as Dick
urges, enjoy the fruits of a responsible take on a
rapidly-approaching social dilemma?
T
he 21st century will end before we know it, and
we must create a national systematic and nonpolitical planning authority to avoid a very chaotic
and utterly unsustainable Australia. Recurring discussions
around population growth, airports, very fast trains and
urban sprawl highlight the urgent need. Here is one vision
for making it work.
$
Building designers design buildings, right? But who designs
the towns and cities they sit in? And who designs
nations? Sadly, the answer is usually no-one in particular.
Or perhaps everyone, in a poorly controlled free-market
process that operates in a framework that is in parts
arbitrary and rigid, and in parts poorly controlled.
It has been said that markets make wonderful servants
but poor masters, and our citywide planning shemozzle
bears witness to that. Free markets are responsive to
consumer demand – by definition they almost never
lead by vision. Steve Jobs may have proved that wrong
in recent years (although some argue even Apple was
merely responding to an unspoken demand), but it is
generally true. There are winners and losers, and the
Summer 2012/13 building designers
BRIEF
australia 35
brief observations
One suggestion is the creation of a statutory planning
commission as a fourth arm of government
system is wide open to corruption – as recent events in
the NSW ICAC have revealed. We need a much better
system, separated from direct political influence.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics makes predictions
based on existing evidence. With no national population
policy to limit growth, the ABS predicts the nation’s
population will be 37 million by 2050, and 65 million
by 2100. Without a reasoned debate about our ultimate
population – the farm’s carrying capacity – we will get
what we get and it will be too late to do anything else.
Given the standard of political debate in Australia at
present, I’m not holding my breath that we could begin
such a debate without it spiralling into a shallow series
of xenophobic fear-mongering sound grabs.
Assuming that we don’t limit our population, then
we must plan now for 65 million. Demographers at
the ABS have suggested the best and most practical
way to accommodate this growth is in a series of
closely connected megacities of 2 to 4 million people,
surrounded by satellite towns. The logical place for these
is strung out between Newcastle and Melbourne, spaced
such that nobody is more than two hours from a major
centre, and the bulk of the population less than 30
minutes from a major CBD. Having superfast transport
links between all of these is another critical piece of the
jigsaw.
The location of the urban areas, of power, water and
sewerage treatment systems, must balance destruction of
productive farmland, water catchments, national parks and
bushland with the optimal landform for efficient urban
forms. Correct orientation of residential sites is critical
for achieving passive solar designs; room must be made
for wetlands and parks. Hard decisions must be made –
there will be winners and losers in the short term, but
if these big-picture planning decisions are not made in
the national interest, and effectively divorced from vested
interest, then the nation will be worse off for centuries
to come. I’m not sure Eddie Obeid or Joe Tripodi think
that far ahead or in the national interest, but, then, most
governments can be criticised for the same reasons.
36 building designers
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australia
One suggestion is the creation of a statutory planning
commission as a fourth arm of government. This
commission would be comprised of people with a
broad range of skills, nominated by all three tiers of
government (assuming we still have state governments)
from around the nation. The details of its structure will
be the subject of further debate, but its function and
powers must be agreed from the start. It operates on a
100-year horizon, and it has the power to “justly” rezone
land for the sustainability and long-term benefit of the
nation. Hard decisions, indeed – but essential.
The current structure of government has three functional
arms: the legislature (parliament) creates the policies
and laws; the executive (bureaucracy) administers their
implementation; the judiciary (courts of law) ensures
conformance and punishes non-conformance with the laws
and policies. The judiciary is the most independent of
Summer 2012/13
brief observations
This model solves so many problems by its relatively autocratic
nature that more democratic models get bogged down
these from the whims of politics. Judges are appointed,
and while they each have their own biases, those biases
are constrained by the letter of the law, and they are
duty-bound to apply it. But the judiciary is not free
to make laws, nor to create policy. We need a fourth
arm that is both able to create policy free from direct
political interference, within clear guidelines, and which
has the powers to enact it.
How we deal with the winners and losers – the land
owners well placed and those not so well placed – needs
careful consideration. Certainly “just terms”, as the late,
great Bud Tingwell so eloquently argued in The Castle,
must be set and adhered to. We don’t want people
needlessly suffering in their jocks.
Yet there is already a fourth, establishing the principle,
in its own small way. This body sits just beyond the
reach of the day-to-day populism that characterises our
parliamentary democracy: it is the Reserve Bank. The
RBA sets monetary policy by setting the cash rate for
borrowing. This has a large (but not complete) effect on
the commercial rates for savings, borrowing and mortgage
and so on, thus having a significant effect of speeding
up or slowing the economy. It is a very simple, though
blunt, instrument to control a very complex beast.
The important principle here is the way the RBA acts
as a fourth arm of government: it both sets policy
and enacts it. Politicians can say what they like, but
the independence of the RBA has been established by
Parliament, and will remain until Parliament decides
otherwise. It is therefore still subject to the legislature,
but not on a daily basis. Its independence is further
guaranteed beyond single parliamentary terms, except in
the event of a double dissolution. This would also be a
very important safeguard for a planning commission to
ensure continuity of planning policies, especially once
plans are laid.
Continuity, however, does not mean inflexibility. A planning
commission would need to set a series of horizon goals:
100 years for overall population targets and general
geographic locations; 50 years for new city locations; 20
years for major infrastructure and urban establishment;
10 and 5 years for specific site planning and minor
infrastructure. These targets must be restated or revised
as circumstances change, and that may be on a 5 or
10-year cycle.
Summer 2012/13 I am attracted to this model of a planning commission,
as it solves so many problems by its relatively autocratic
nature that more democratic models get bogged down
in. Yet that is also its potential fatal flaw – that we
would find ourselves dealing with a too-powerful central
organisation which echoes a Soviet Russia or modern-day
China. But whatever happens, without a plan, we will end
up in chaos.
building designers
BRIEF
australia 37
product feature
From a design point of view it’s a far cry from heavy construction,
because the building must be framed and light in weight
prefabulous proportions
A
crumbling beach house is now a light-filled home
that’s twice the size, thanks to a prefab solution
that dealt with the challenges of an awkwardly
shaped block, tight timeframe and modest budget.
When asked to double the size of this quintessentially
Australian beach house in the NSW central coast suburb
of MacMasters Beach, while at the same time retaining
the home’s generous garden area, architect Dianna
Thomas knew the project would be a challenge.
“The house needed to grow, and quickly,” Dianna said.
“There were a number of challenges that needed to be
overcome, including a triangular shaped block bordered
by a main road, western orientation, and working with
the existing kit home, which was far from a high quality
building to start with.”
Her solution was to custom design a modular addition,
prefabricated in a factory by Parkwood Homes in nearby
Somersby.
classy connection
the unconventional build
“Prefabs are built so quickly so there’s no time to make
any changes,” Dianna said. “It was very different to our
normal experience building on site with a builder who will
call up with questions, or will invite you to go and have
a look at something before it’s completed.”
From a design point of view it’s also a far cry from
heavy construction, according to Dianna, because the
building must be framed and light in weight. A masonry
house cannot be transported.
“There are many other parameters to do with engineering,
assembly and the whole factory process,” she explained.
“And of course, the dimensions have to fit on the back
of a truck.”
38 building designers
BRIEF
australia
The short timeframe means there’s also virtually no
construction site: “In this project the concrete footings
were poured and a couple of weeks later the building
arrived and the owners could move in,” Dianna said.
She said the transition zone set up between the new
prefab cabin and the existing house was both the most
challenging as well as the most striking aspect of the
project.
And to stay true aesthetically to the original and simple
beach house flavour, HardieFlex sheet was used on the
eaves and walls with timber cover battens. “It’s a terrific
substrate for a colourful painted exterior,” Dianna said.
More information: jameshardie.com.au
Summer 2012/13
product feature
Villaboard lining is still the top performer in more categories
tested by James Hardie than any other product type
role model shows the way
I
n building circles, James Hardie’s Villaboard lining is
synonymous with quality – and there’s a good reason
for that.
Villaboard lining has been the benchmark internal wall
lining for more than 30 years, so much so that other
manufacturers like to claim that their product is “like
Villaboard”.
But why go for something ‘similar’ when you can specify
the best? And recent test results confirm that Villaboard
lining is the best.
James Hardie put Villaboard lining to the test against
other commonly used and available internal lining types
in its NATA accredited laboratory at Rosehill, NSW. The
results, published in the James Hardie Internal Lining
Product Performance Index, speak for themselves.
smooth and continuous wall surface. It is ideal when used
as a seamless soffit, and is an excellent substrate for
tiling, or for painted and wallpapered finishes. It can be
used to achieve bracing requirements.
When walls are constructed in accordance with the
James Hardie Fire and Acoustic Technical Specification,
Villaboard lining can also be used to achieve 30, 60, 90
and even 120-minute fire resistance ratings.
With so much to offer, it’s easy to see why Villaboard
lining retains its place as the market leader.
For more information, or to view the full report, visit
jameshardie.com.au.
The
Full
Report
Villaboard lining is still the top performer in more
categories tested by James Hardie than any other
product type – and the best ‘all-rounder’. In fact, 9mm
Villaboard lining was the only internal lining type tested
to achieve 5-star rating1 in all tests conducted.
So what makes Villaboard lining stand out so
conclusively?
This flat, internal wall lining provides an excellent
foundation for a durable, impact-resistant, professional
finish, which is resistant to moisture damage2. It is
therefore ideal for high-traffic areas for both residential
and commercial applications, or as a wet area lining in
bathrooms, laundries and kitchens.
Villaboard lining is available in 6mm, 9mm or 12mm
thicknesses with recessed edges along the two sheet
sides for flush jointing, to enable the creation of a
40 building designers
BRIEF
australia
1908-01_JH_The Full Report_10B_PP.indd 1
28/09/12 3:50 PM
The rating method used by James Hardie is explained in
full in the James Hardie Internal Lining Product Performance
Index available at www.jameshadie.com.au.
1
When installed and maintained correctly and to the extent
set out in James Hardie’s published literature current at the
time of installation.
2
Summer 2012/13
‘Villaboard
lining is still
the best…’
®
John Cottier, BE Chem (Hons) — Technical Manager, James Hardie Research
For over 30 years Villaboard® lining has been the benchmark
others are judged by. Of course every leader has followers,
those who would claim; ‘it’s like Villaboard’. However, ‘like’ is
not ‘the same’ and to prove it we put Villaboard lining to the
test. The results speak for themselves. Villaboard lining is still
the top performer in more categories we tested than any other
product type1, and the best ‘all-rounder’.
THE ALL-ROUNDER STAR RATING
The
Full
Report
4.2
James Hardie® 6mm Villaboard® lining
5.0
James Hardie® 9mm Villaboard® lining
1.6
PM
28/09/12 3:50
1908-01_JH_The
10mm Standard Plasterboard
2.5
dd 1
Full Report_10B_PP.in
Get The
Full Report
jameshardie.com.au
10mm Wet Area Plasterboard
3.2
13mm Impact Plasterboard
2.0
13mm Gypsum Fibreboard (no mesh)
1. For the purposes of producing the James Hardie® Internal Lining Product Performance Index, tests were
conducted in accordance with or based upon Australian and International standards at James Hardie’s
NATA accredited laboratory at Rosehill NSW. The index focuses on the differences between 6mm and
9mm fibre cement lining (as represented by Villaboard lining) and commonly available and used non-fibre
cement internal lining alternatives in 2010/11. Tests on these products were carried out accordingly.
JH_1900-01
Additional installation information, warranties and warnings are available at www.jameshardie.com.au
THE BENCHMARK
OTHERS ARE
JUDGED BY
© 2012 James Hardie Australia Pty Ltd ABN 12 084 635 558. ™ and ® denote a trademark owned by James Hardie Technology Limited.
product feature
Australia’s climate is well suited to using natural ventilation
to meet a large portion of the cooling needs of buildings
mother nature has spoken
W
ith air conditioning systems a major consumer
of electricity in commercial buildings, a lot of
attention is being devoted to improving their
efficiency to reduce the electricity bills of the occupiers
of the buildings.
Air conditioning system running efficiency can be
maximised by ensuring that the building is well insulated
and tightly sealed. Office buildings, therefore, often have
fixed windows to prevent building occupants from opening
the windows and letting conditioned air escape. At first
glance this appears sensible, but this means that the air
conditioning system must be run continuously whenever
the building is occupied – and not being able to open
any windows will make the building hot and stuffy in the
event of a power outage.
Australia’s climate is well suited to using natural
ventilation to meet a large portion of the cooling needs
of buildings. Cooling strategies that use a combination
of natural ventilation and air conditioning are known
as mixed-mode cooling systems, and architects and
designers are embracing them as a way to deliver
ongoing financial benefits to building occupiers. Mixedmode cooling systems are not embraced by all building
professionals, though. Altair Louvre Windows by Breezway
offer the greatest ventilation in relation to overall window
size and are therefore favoured to deliver cooling
natural ventilation. While still well within the limitations
of the Australian Building Code and relevant Australian
Standards, Altair Louvre Windows do not seal quite
as tightly as fixed windows, and this raises concerns
with HVAC engineers who prefer extremely tightly
sealed buildings to maximise the efficiency of their air
conditioning systems.
In response to the concerns raised by HVAC engineers,
Breezway commissioned an independent study by Vim
Sustainability to determine whether the electricity savings
from turning off the air conditioning systems and using
natural ventilation to meet some of a building’s cooling
42 building designers
BRIEF
australia
needs would outweigh the reduced efficiency of the air
conditioning systems.
The study involved modelling the total annual air
conditioning loads of two buildings located in Sydney.
The buildings were identical in every way except for the
window type and the cooling strategies employed. One
building had Altair Louvre Windows. The other building
had tightly sealed fixed windows.
“The study showed a massive 23 per cent reduction
in the annual air conditioning load of the building that
used Altair Louvres as part of a mixed-mode cooling
system, despite more energy being used to heat the
building, when compared to the tightly sealed building,”
Breezway national sales manager Bill Cloumassis said.
“With electricity prices set to continue to rise, savings
like this would be welcomed by business owners and
those concerned for our environment alike and we should
expect to see the popularity of mixed-mode cooling
systems continue to rise.”
For more information, call Breezway on 1800 777 758
or visit www.breezway.com.au
Summer 2012/13
your project!
I N T E R L O C K I N G PA N E L
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