LAVA releases $15b Garden Island vision for Sydney

International “laboratory for visionary architecture”, LAVA, has released their design vision for Garden Island in Sydney Harbour.

In the designs, a dense cluster of green-coated, organic-form buildings emerge from the headland, transforming the previously inaccessible navy centre into a community of cultural and residential offerings. According to LAVA, the buildings’ designs were inspired by the “sweeping curves of Sydney Harbour, with all its wonderful bays and beaches and headlands”. The renders themselves recall a series of large-form stones covered with moss.

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by Kirsty Sier | Architecture & Design

The World of ‘Eco-bling’

Eco-bling has a funny ring to it until you realise that it is said with disdain, disgust and is intended to send environmental initiatives down the drain.

The term sometimes arises in meetings, often from construction and engineering professionals, in reference to infrastructure and environmental initiatives that look good, but are not particularly useful, effective, or necessary. To label something ‘eco-bling’ is to disregard it; it means it’s all show and no function, implying that it was a waste of money.

There are three reasons to present infrastructure and environmental initiatives:

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by Rob Catchlove | SOURCEABLE

Designed to be Seen and not Heard

They look as good as they sound – contemporary acoustic solutions lead with cutting-edge aesthetics while meeting strict functional requirements…

Done right, acoustic management is something most people – the general public, at least – might never have to think about. Whether in a concert hall or a café, if the architects, suppliers and builders have thought things through then it just works: you hear the sound you want to hear – music, conversation – without an overwhelming amount of background noise and reverberation. In fact, the general public is probably more interested in aesthetics than acoustics.

Luckily, there is no longer any reason to succeed in one of these areas at the expense of the other – customised acoustic solutions can now be delivered in a limitless range of design outcomes to meet the most exacting aesthetic briefs.

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by Shannyn Mills | Construction in Focus

Sustainable cities? Australia's building and planning rules stand in the way of getting there

Australia’s building and land-use policy settings fall well short of what’s needed to make meaningful progress toward creating sustainable cities.

You will find environmental sustainability goals and objectives in government strategy documents. But our newly released review of building and land-use planning policies around Australia has found New South Wales is the only state without serious gaps in legislation and enforcement.

Research shows a large percentage of new dwellings in Australia fail to meet even minimum building requirements when checked after construction.

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by Andréanne Doyon, Joe Hurley, Susie Moloney, and Trivess Moore | Architecture & Design