Quote of the day
December 31st, 2011
I see simplicity not so much as a disregard for complexity but as a clarification of the significant. – Glenn Murcutt
Queenslanders shift to smaller homes
December 6th, 2011
MORE Queenslanders are downsizing to medium-density homes, new research shows.
Figures from recent Census data and research by Bankwest found 38 per cent of home approvals in Queensland in the last 12 months were for medium-density dwellings.
This is up from 32 per cent in 2006 and includes units, townhouses and semi-detached houses.
Bankwest Retail chief executive Vittoria Shortt said Queenslanders were moving to a different style of living. “It’s primarily due to affordability, access to services and a tight rental market,” she said.
“In Queensland the move to medium-density dwellings is right across Queensland and you see a lot more areas becoming medium-density.”
Redcliffe saw the biggest increase in the share of medium-density dwellings in the state at 62 per cent, up from 25 per cent in 2006.
Ms Shortt said the change came from first-home buyers moving into the market and baby boomers downsizing.
“Gen Y are really struggling to achieve their aspiration of home ownership and it goes to the affordability and ability to save for the deposit,” she said.
“Part of it is a downsizing for some of the baby boomers and a reflection of where their superannuation is or isn’t at.
“I think the affordability goes across a lot of the generations and we are really seeing it play out.”
Thirty-one of the 35 local areas in Queensland had an increase in the share of medium-density housing in the past five years.
‘Grand Designs’ – An Insight Into How The Europeans Build
November 11th, 2011
For anyone with an interest in design and building, Kevin McCloud’s latest series of ‘Grand Designs’ being shown on the ABC at 7:30pm on Sundays provides an insight into the world of better built and high thermal performance housing.
While more extreme temperatures have driven the refinement of building systems in Europe and the US, the carbon pollution implications of pumping brown-coal based electricity into poorly insulated houses in Victoria has made it an agenda very relevant to Australia.
We have introduced minimum insulation standards and now model the thermal performance of building fabrics (outer shell). We started at 5 Star regulatory minimums, have just gone to 6 Star, and ultimately should be heading for 7.5 Stars minimum for most Australian climate bands.
Grand Designs gives a wonderful illustration of how the Europeans insulate their buildings and the sort of construction required to create better insulated and sealed buildings. In the projects covered to date, there is yet to be a wall framed with timber less than 150mm wide, mainly because wider walls are required to fit in insulation if you are aiming to effectively insulate to levels above R2-R2.5. You get the distinct feeling that a length of 90 x 45 pine framing would be considered a minor bracing timber rather than suitable for stud walls.
To place how the English are approaching their housing into context, David Cameron’s conservative UK Government has legislated that by 2016 all new homes built in the United Kingdom will be zero emission on heating and cooling. The UK Governments’ ‘Code for Sustainable Homes’ legislates binding regulations for energy reduction with staggered targets: 25 percent more efficient by 2010, 44 per cent by 2013, and 100 per cent, or zero emissions by 2016.
Now passed into law, the code sets minimum standards for both energy and water efficiency. In addition, the UK government has agreed that any home achieving Level 6 sustainability rating will be exempt from stamp duty. It has been calculated that by 2050 70% of UK homes will be zero carbon in operation.
Yes, that is 2016 – 5 years away and not a long-term 2050 possible target. And many Australians think the rest of the world is not taking action on climate change?
Text Provided by http://www.habitechsystems.com.au/news/
Quote of the day
October 31st, 2011
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in
- Greek Proverb
Quote of the day
October 26th, 2011
Buildings should be designed from the inside out. The design should respond to what the building wants to be rather than be an architectural statement glorifying the architect…the building should enhance the day-to-day experience, bringing delight to people’s lives, making sure somebody has a view or some sunlight falling the right way. – David Kelly of BVN (The Courier-Mail Wed, Oct 26, 2011)
Cross Laminated Timber in Australia
October 18th, 2011
CLT or ‘Cross Laminated Timber’, as it is known is not a new building material, its use in Europe throughout construction is widely recognized and implemented. However, recent innovations in its use has seen projects like Waugh Thistleton Architect’s’ Murray Grove scheme’ in the UK emerge. The Murray Grove building is a 9 story structure and is currently the world’s tallest modern timber residential building. It is the first of its kind to integrate load bearing walls, floor slabs, stairs and lift cores entirely constructed out of CLT timber.
In complete contrast to traditional forms of high rise construction where the use of steel and concrete have been produced though highly intensive means this building is totally carbon neutral managing to store a staggering 186 tonnes of carbon within its structure over its lifetime. Added advantage come through speed of construction, which saw this project delivered in just 49 weeks.
Because of mounting pressure for companies and business alike to understand and reduce their own carbon footprint we have seen Grocon, one of Australia’s largest construction companies announce its plans in March of this year to build ‘Delta’, an apartment building located on the Carlton United Brewery site in Melbourne. It is the first Australian proposal utilising CLT and demonstrates the growing interest in prefabrication and alternative sustainable options.
The use of CLT in single detached housing however is fairly rare as the material itself is a fairly expensive but like most prefabricated system, when its use is considered through strict symmetry build efficiencies push the product into ever expanding applications. So, with this in mind our office has spent time looking at a conceptual configuration that could be used as a modern singular housing option. This idea maximises the use of CLT as a structural floor, wall and roof arrangement. Each panel is triangular in shape and when erected in the demonstrated fashion (please see our website for images) achieves a structure that finds its strength through compression and tension. Every panel in this design is identical and is routed out through the use of C&C machinery; the constructed form can be built to lock-up within just 1 day.
As you can tell the resulting form is quite abstract. While it may not appeal to everyone aesthetically as an experiment it again offers a proposed direction for the future. It attempts to once again, maximise the application of just 1 core building material in an incredibly efficient manner thus continuing to support our ideas of alternative construction though prefabrication.
Small is the new big in homes
October 7th, 2011
Supersize is suddenly becoming downsize as home buyers opt for smaller, more
efficient homes, one of Australia’s largest property developers says.
Stockland chief executive for residential communities, Mark Hunter told
Fairfax newspapers on Thursday that the average four-bedroom home had shrunk 20
per cent since 2007.
Mr Hunter said smaller three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes were “the new
sweet spot” in the market.
Mr Hunter told the Sydney Morning Herald the era of the so-called McMansions
was over and he expected home sizes to shrink as fast as they grew in the first
decade of this century.
Contributing downsize factors included rising power prices, the amount of
time lost in home maintenance, heating and cooling and that by cutting 70
square metres from the size of a new home owners can save between $40,000 and
$60,000, Stockland said.
Quote of the day
September 1st, 2011
If architecture does not change the way the ninety-seven percent live, then it only emphasises the difference between the have’s and the have-nots and therefore is ultimately destructive upon the very culture it seeks to impact. – Anthony Rigg of Bleuscape Design
The contribution of monotony
July 21st, 2011
Monotony and plainness are rarely considered as factors supressing the Australian psyche. But consider for a moment that most project homes built in estates are by and large the same across the continent.
Could we be contributing to what Alain De Botton calls ‘Status Anxiety’? He suggests that our level of satisfaction in life is relative to how we view ourselves when compared to others. If we see an individual or family that we view to be our equals moving ahead or achieving something we have not we are more likely to experience greater levels of envy and resentment. (Status Anxiety – Alain De Botton)
By limiting the choice of a design, and ending up with what is essentially the same as ones neighbour are we actually increasing the desire and desperation for difference?
Let’s liken it for a moment to clothes. Go into any high school that requires a set uniform and you will immediately see kids subverting monotony in the search for individuality. They are the ones that are always trying to push the boundaries, introducing nose or tongue piercings, shorter skirts, baggier pants or the school hat on backwards. It is evidence of the human instinct to desire independence and uniqueness.
Could it be the same within the residential building industry?
Could we actually appeased levels of envy and resentment though conceiving our buildings form out of a response to place? Does this not seem more natural than though fake phyodoric columns, porte cocheres and herbal mouldings, all decorative, yet irrelevant facade treatments?
Quote of the day
July 6th, 2011
The architect is charged with the responsibility of progressing spatiality that which benefits human condition. – Hani Rashid of Asymptote Architecture