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Urban infill development that can deliver affordable and liveable homes could be the solution for Australia’s rising housing crisis, says urban planning expert Mike Day.
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The Federal Government announced expenditure of $9.3bn for social housing in this year's budget. Bickering over whether it’s new or reheated money misses the point. Belatedly, almost unbelievably, the Fed’s big money is addressing the housing crisis where it’s needed most: in social housing.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) 2024 Jobs Report shows that the need for project managers will increase in 2024 due to the simultaneous occurrence of ongoing construction and infrastructure ventures, coupled with the Australian Government’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions.
In the handful of years since working from home suddenly became the ‘new normal’, the Flight to Quality has defined the ongoing battle to entice employees back to the office – increasing the demand for, and build of, premium buildings.
Suburbia is the least sustainable form of urban living. Houses spread out at such low densities that too much land, too much energy and too much infrastructure is needed to support too few people.
Late last year, to the alarm of many, a 12-storey apartment block in North Melbourne, built just five years prior, was approved for demolition. Just one example of the average 100,000 buildings that get approved for demolition in Australia each year, it demonstrates what can happen when a short-sighted approach to the urban planning of our cities takes hold — the proliferation of low-grade buildings with short lifespans.
The most recent upgrade to the NCC / BCA included requirements for houses and apartments to meet higher thermal comfort standards in NatHERS. NSW, ACT, Tassie and the NT brought it in last year. Queensland and Victoria only started yesterday (May 1) despite the latter promising it in 2022. SA and WA will adopt it sometime later (news travels slowly going west).
The dangerous impact of plastics goes way beyond landfills and the environment – it’s no longer just about billions of plastic items choking our waterways, littering our land and getting into our soil.
While the Federal and NSW State Government recently implemented an all new ‘cost of living’ package to take the burden off thousands struggling with their power bills, there is a large portion of Australian households who are ineligible and still looking for other ways to save.
Quantity surveyors have a proud reputation and powerful skillset for understanding project costs, keeping track of budgets and expenditures, verifying claims, and adding value wherever possible. But our profession, like some other elements of the construction sector, hasn’t fully embraced the digital revolution.
We’re being urged to go all-electric. Saul Griffith in The Big Switch, and the website Rewiring Australia, argue that we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels to address climate change and energy security.
Sydney’s architects and planners have been bemused by a controversy over noise complaints made by residents of the far northern suburb of Palm Beach.
