Posted inNews from the Front Desk

On the difference between government and market drivers – probably a planet

At a lunch briefing on Thursday we sat with a bunch of industry leaders such as Dexus, Oxford Properties (the Canadian pension fund) architects Woods Bagot, urban planner Urbis, resi developer Third.i and quantify surveyor Slattery. Among others. All brought together by engineers and consultants ADP, which recently opened an office in London and wanted […]

Posted inJobs and Biz News

Jobs and biz news: AIRAH, First Nations Clean Energy, Green Gown Awards and more

AIRAH gets a new CEO HVAC&R association AIRAH has internally appointed Sami Zheng as chief executive. Zheng has worked for the association for seven years – most recently as chief operating officer and previously worked for six years at commercial linen and laundry supplier South Pacific Laundry. AIRAH president Paul Jackson said Zheng has the […]

Posted inHousing

Heritage, development, YIMBYs and NIMBYs

Cities are dynamic entities – constantly growing and evolving. Without growth and change, a city stagnates and dies. A vibrant city is one that supports a dynamic tension between heritage conservation and development, not a battle between heritage and development. It’s like a seesaw with a fairly evenly balanced partner at either end. Sometimes heritage […]

Posted inHousing

Does this stack up? A couple more storeys to fix housing. Nero thinks so

The New South Wales government’s current planning agenda is characterised by random, ad hoc bonuses and giveaways not linked to a broader strategic intent or public interest case – with no understanding of how the housing market works, nor its relationship strategic planning. Just last week the NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey garnered media attention when […]

Posted inAwards

NSW and Queensland planning awards zero in on community and collaboration

Community and collaboration were in the winners’ spotlight at both the NSW and Queensland planning awards in recent weeks. Following is an edited highlight of the awards statements. Among the winners in NSW were: President’s award: Transport for NSW – Cities Revitalisation and Place Branch for project reVITALise – Rainbow Tunnels The project was established […]

Posted inConstruction & Development

Small details emerge from Melbourne’s massive “vertical village” for thousands of office workers

Cbus is keeping many of the details of its new $1 billion “sky village” office tower in Melbourne under wraps but according to the trickle of information seeping out this is a project that will be well worth keeping an eye on. Construction company Multiplex, which recently inked the deal as builder, said this week […]

Posted inUrbanism

Embodied carbon – the elephant in the urban growth room

As with other Australian cities, the City of Adelaide and South Australian government’s development plans are both predicated on high growth. But is a massive increase in building and infrastructure necessary to meet what are questionable population predictions and demand for new housing? This article challenges the “big build” mentality especially from the point of […]

Posted inEnergy

Renewable energy transition in strife? Then pick a different fight!

Amidst all the news about the slowing pace of large scale renewable energy project approvals, their adverse environmental impacts and resultant community backlash, the good news story is simply getting overlooked. Rooftop solar, local batteries and bi-directional charging can power our cities and our cars with spare left over for the grid. The more we […]

Posted inJobs and Biz News

Jobs and biz news: uni green news, giveaways for green businesses, Queensland councils join up and more

Hub Australia is opening its flex-impact program for small or start-up businesses, offering free desks at its  locations to purpose-driven businesses working to make a positive difference to their community and environment. Eligible businesses need to have been operating for 12 months. Last year the organisation provided 62 memberships across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and […]