Assimilation of architectural and services design in early design modelling. How can buildings in a climate as varied as Australia's balance the best environmental comfort standards for their human occupants, cost and at the same time meet the urgent imperative of reduced energy consumption and associated carbon emissions? This practice-based research will develop tools to support more informed decision making in the earliest stage of an integral approach to services in the design of buildings. ....Assimilation of architectural and services design in early design modelling. How can buildings in a climate as varied as Australia's balance the best environmental comfort standards for their human occupants, cost and at the same time meet the urgent imperative of reduced energy consumption and associated carbon emissions? This practice-based research will develop tools to support more informed decision making in the earliest stage of an integral approach to services in the design of buildings. It will provide knowledge about designing architecture that is more environmentally responsive, can provide comfortable air in more optimised ways, that consume less energy and do this through promoting smarter use of information in practice.Read moreRead less
A special talent for technological innovation? Analysing the other public function of the Australian Parliament House. Major projects build lessons for the future and draw upon past lessons. Australia's New Parliament House represents a building of enormous scale and complexity, constructed within a tight time period, which provided unprecedented opportunities for Australia's construction industry to examine and transform its own practices. By producing a detailed history of the procurement proc ....A special talent for technological innovation? Analysing the other public function of the Australian Parliament House. Major projects build lessons for the future and draw upon past lessons. Australia's New Parliament House represents a building of enormous scale and complexity, constructed within a tight time period, which provided unprecedented opportunities for Australia's construction industry to examine and transform its own practices. By producing a detailed history of the procurement process of the building and a systematic assessment of its industrial influence over time, this research project will amplify the importance of intellectual investment made through technical innovation in public buildings. The project will also help Australia maximise its creative and technological capacity by understanding and accepting factors conducive to innovation.Read moreRead less
Spatial Knowledge and the Built Environment: The Design Implications of Making, Processing and Digitally Prototyping Architectural Models. The construction industry accounts for 6.7% of Australia's GDP. Beyond the more pragmatic economic benefits, however, lies the potential to influence the physical quality and appearance of our nation's building within an existing economic framework. The evaluation of differing modelling methods in design will have considerable implications for the way in whic ....Spatial Knowledge and the Built Environment: The Design Implications of Making, Processing and Digitally Prototyping Architectural Models. The construction industry accounts for 6.7% of Australia's GDP. Beyond the more pragmatic economic benefits, however, lies the potential to influence the physical quality and appearance of our nation's building within an existing economic framework. The evaluation of differing modelling methods in design will have considerable implications for the way in which designing is carried out. It will lead to new kinds of computer strategies that will guide the direction of development of programs used in design modelling by showing that current tools do not properly facilitate certain kinds of design inquiry available by more traditionally established means.Read moreRead less
Equity and diversity in the Australian architecture profession: women, work, and leadership. This project will develop strategies to maximize women's participation in architecture, improving human resource practices within architectural firms and developing a diversity policy for the national professional association. Together these outcomes will increase women's representation within architecture, and help all architects achieve a greater work life balance with its concomitant effects of improv ....Equity and diversity in the Australian architecture profession: women, work, and leadership. This project will develop strategies to maximize women's participation in architecture, improving human resource practices within architectural firms and developing a diversity policy for the national professional association. Together these outcomes will increase women's representation within architecture, and help all architects achieve a greater work life balance with its concomitant effects of improving individual health, wellbeing and national productivity. Increasing the visibility and recognition of female architects will directly support innovative practice in architecture, which will advantage all attempts to create socially and ecologically sustainable built environments in Australia.Read moreRead less
From tourist siren to technological beacon: analysing the industrial function of the Sydney Opera House thirty years after its completion. The research will show that public buildings provide fertile ground to plant industrial seeds; but to have an impact on the local economy, they must respond to specific structural conditions or be supported by political will. These findings will improve Australia's institutional understanding of the relationship between cost and investment in construction, an ....From tourist siren to technological beacon: analysing the industrial function of the Sydney Opera House thirty years after its completion. The research will show that public buildings provide fertile ground to plant industrial seeds; but to have an impact on the local economy, they must respond to specific structural conditions or be supported by political will. These findings will improve Australia's institutional understanding of the relationship between cost and investment in construction, and clarify that the evaluation of building productivity requires a long-term perspective. Government agencies should use institutional projects to define their public face but also to plan and implement industrial strategies. The research will help Australia maximise its creative and technological capability by understanding the factors conducive to innovation and its acceptance.Read moreRead less
Modelling environmental and financial performance of construction. This project will investigate the relationships between environmental and financial parameters associated with decisions made during the building design process. The outcomes of this research will assist the construction industry to transform itself towards ecological sustainability. We will provide a means by which the construction industry can more comprehensively assess the environmental impacts associated with building design ....Modelling environmental and financial performance of construction. This project will investigate the relationships between environmental and financial parameters associated with decisions made during the building design process. The outcomes of this research will assist the construction industry to transform itself towards ecological sustainability. We will provide a means by which the construction industry can more comprehensively assess the environmental impacts associated with building design decisions. In general, this will lead to a more effective construction industry, with solutions being evaluated simultaneously against environmental and financial criteria. The project is thus aligned with the priority area: An Environmentally Sustainable Australia: Transforming existing industries.Read moreRead less
Procuring Innovative Architecture: using recognised exemplars to inform a government-wide model for building a sustainable community of innovative practice. Enabling other Australian cities to understand how to develop and sustain a local innovative architectural culture that helps extend their competitive position in the global competition for creative people. A major benefit is the encouragement for local creative people to remain and contribute to these cities in what can be clearly understoo ....Procuring Innovative Architecture: using recognised exemplars to inform a government-wide model for building a sustainable community of innovative practice. Enabling other Australian cities to understand how to develop and sustain a local innovative architectural culture that helps extend their competitive position in the global competition for creative people. A major benefit is the encouragement for local creative people to remain and contribute to these cities in what can be clearly understood to be a receptive climate. A further possible benefit lies in the enhanced capacity to attract creative talent from cities inside and outside Australia.Read moreRead less
Challenging the inflexibility of the flexible digital model. Shared digital Building Information Models that link diverse heterogeneous information are beginning to show promising results in reducing the enormous fiscal and environmental cost of clashes, errors and rework caused by design and communication errors in construction. Model flexibility is a crucial factor in enacting the best design decisions at every stage while maintaining current shared information. But there are, as yet, no examp ....Challenging the inflexibility of the flexible digital model. Shared digital Building Information Models that link diverse heterogeneous information are beginning to show promising results in reducing the enormous fiscal and environmental cost of clashes, errors and rework caused by design and communication errors in construction. Model flexibility is a crucial factor in enacting the best design decisions at every stage while maintaining current shared information. But there are, as yet, no examples of comprehensive flexible building information modelling in Australia. This research builds on an Australian concentration of world class expertise to create new knowledge to overcome the obstacles. It will directly benefit the quality and cost of the Australian built environment.Read moreRead less
Delivering Digital Architecture in Australia. Design, documentation, and off-site prefabrication of numerous recent major international architectural projects, were achieved with evolving integrated 3D digital methods. While Australian architects, engineers, manufacturers, fabricators, and constructors have participated in a few such projects using these technologies, generally, local understanding and uptake of the opportunities is still very low. Growth in this area means growth in an existi ....Delivering Digital Architecture in Australia. Design, documentation, and off-site prefabrication of numerous recent major international architectural projects, were achieved with evolving integrated 3D digital methods. While Australian architects, engineers, manufacturers, fabricators, and constructors have participated in a few such projects using these technologies, generally, local understanding and uptake of the opportunities is still very low. Growth in this area means growth in an existing export rather than increasing reliance on importing these services and products. More fundamentally, it means a huge cultural dividend to Australia from greater affordable freedom of architectural expression.Read moreRead less
Design practice research: uncovering the role of spatial intelligence in designing and in reviewing design of the built environment. This project will result in the identification and methodical analysis of spatial intelligence as deployed by Architects, Landscape Architects and Urban Designer practitioners. It will also explore improvements and invention of new design policies and design procurement procedures which are informed by deeper understandings of Spatial Intelligence.