Adapting building designs for climate change is about managing the unavoidable. While there is debate around what level of adaptation is needed, there is growing awareness that design practices need to take into account predictions of increased risk ...

In Australia, heatwaves are the deadliest natural hazard and a major driver of peak electricity demand and blackouts. Heatwaves are exacerbated by urban heat island effects in cities, and becoming more common due to climate change. Keeping ...

The primary intention of passive design is to create a thermally comfortable building with reduced demand on mechanical (active) forms of heating, air conditioning and ventilation. This paper provides design practitioners with a general overview of ...

This note was reviewed and approved for currency in November 2018. The adaptive model of thermal comfort shifts attention from engineered comfort solutions to architectural ones. As the concept of adaptive comfort displaces the old static model, ...

Issue 03 July 2024 Read time: 20 minutes Abstract The disassembly of buildings to recover materials and components for future reuse is not widely practiced in modern construction. This note covers a range of themes and offers a set of principles or ...

Exploring how sustainable design has been implemented in new and retrofitted commercial case studies including retail, mixed-use, office and government projects. The case studies provide briefing, program, procurement and process insights.

This note discusses how the quantity surveyor's skills can be harnessed in the development of environmentally sustainable design.  It focuses on the skills of managing quantity and the relationship of quantity to cost and environmental performance.

This note was reviewed and approved for currency in October 2018, with qualification that some references and resources are now superseded. This note introduces the concept of design for adaptability as an essential strategy for creating sustainable ...

This note was reviewed and approved for currency in August 2018. Tougher economic times have led to an increasing scrutiny of sustainability initiatives. Despite this, the environmental imperatives for action are not diminishing, which means that ...

This note was reviewed and approved for currency in November 2018. The physical destruction accompanying disasters typically creates an urgency to rebuild and help survivors get back on track. There are inspiring examples of how architects and other ...