Philip Thalis has achieved Australia’s highest architectural honour – the Gold Medal in Architecture in 2024. It keeps him immensely busy and partly that’s because his words have more clout now than ever.
At the briefing on Monday ahead of our newest Big Debate event, Codes Red on 31 March, Thalis showed no signs of pulling his punches.
He absolutely would like to shake up the National Construction Code, and green rating tools as well.
Judging from what we hear in interviews and casual conversations he’s far from alone.
The first big point he will make on the night is that we are already deep in a climate crisis and absolutely need to decarbonise construction.
Next, we don’t have a system that actually works to achieve this goal.
The compliance work has ballooned
As a practising architect, he and his peers have seen the amount of compliance required double each decade.
“The last decade has been an absolute shocker.”
You need 20 consultants on each job
“Increasingly, we need an extra consultant for everything; it’s very rare you can get out of any apartment building with less than 20 consultants in New South Wales.
Another huge problem is the need for performance solutions, with barely any “deemed to satisfy” provisions available, which makes smaller apartment buildings almost extinct, he said.
His firm Hill Thalis has designed more than 100 apartment buildings but now small and medium scaled buildings are “just evaporating [as a housing choice]”.
In Sydney the majority of buildings constructed are towers and these are “highly questionable” – anything with a with a harbour or ocean view too often means knocking down an older, more affordable apartment building.
“I think that our codes are not fit for purpose. Nowhere do we see this more starkly as in the importance of window design.” And this is an essential part of good passive design.
“I worry that airconditioning has become the de facto norm. Too many buildings are uninhabitable if you don’t have it, as starkly shown when the power fails.”
On Green Star ratings, Thalis is equally critical.
Look out for more insights from Haico Schepers of Arup, Simon Croft from HIA, Maria Atkinson of Atkinson Consulting, Alison Scotland from ASBEC, Adrian Piani of ABCB, Ché Wall of Flux Consultancy and moderator Caroline Pidcock.
Don’t miss the fireworks. Get your ticket now!
