Talking Architecture & Design

The National Business Development Manager at ALSPEC Richard Harrison talks about Aluminium frames, cladding & Australian standards and why having a local supplier for these products is now crucial for the local building sector.

Harrison also unveils ALSPEC's new local testing NATA-accredited facility which will enable the company to test a range of its own and other company Aluminium products to ensure they meet Australian standards for both safety and integrity.

This podcast was brought to you in association with Alspec, proud sponsors of the Commercial series of podcasts.

Michael Teys is a strata industry consultant with more than 30 years’ experience in strata law and management. He is a strata research academic with City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW, where he holds an Australian Research Council grant to study the impact of large-scale strata on our cities. 

Craig Penton is the General Manager of Aluminium Facade Systems a division of Alspec. He has worked in the construction industry for 15 years, 6 of which in facades.  His experience has brought great success in the facade industry with their Premium ProClad Suite of products on a range of major commercial and multi-residential projects.

In this podcast, Michael and Craig explain in detail how the issue of cladding has become so convoluted and complex, while at the same time,  providing an insight into just how far we need to go to ensure that all the buildings that still use cladding are once again safe to occupy.

This podcast was brought to you in association with Alspec, proud sponsors of the Commercial series of podcasts. 

Interface has always been a forward-thinking and highly-innovative flooring company, but its latest initiative is very-much industry leading in every sense of the phrase.

As Aidan Mullan says, "As human activity releases more and more carbon dioxide, the natural world is struggling to keep up. So why create products that contribute to this problem and do more harm than good? ​"

"Taking our cue from nature", says Mullen, "we’ve learned to work with carbon by using it as a building block to engineer better products. This journey has led us to create products that store carbon, keep it  out of the atmosphere and help restore the health of the world."

And so Interface's road to carbon negativity concept was born, an idea that as Mullen explains in this wide-ranging podcast, is now imperative both for the industry itself as well as for the climate as a whole.

This podcast was brought to you in association with Interface, proud sponsors of the Sustainability series of podcasts. For more information on Interface, please go to www.architectureanddesign.com.au/suppliers/interface-aust

An apartment featuring flooring, wall tiles, kitchen and lighting features, and furniture and artworks, all made entirely from waste glass and textiles, offers an optimistic view into the future of residential building.

Unveiled recently at the Sydney Olympic Park, Mirvac’s industry-first apartment made using waste materials has the potential to revolutionise home construction, sustainably reduce waste in the building industry as well as transform waste into a valuable resource.

As a collaboration between Mirvac and the UNSW Centre of Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT), we talk to Professor Veena Sahajwalla and Mirvac's General Manager Design, Marketing & Sales, Diana Sarcasmo on how building from waste is set to revolutionise Australia's apartment building industry.

Alexander Symes Architects was founded in 2014 with a mission to advance sustainable architecture. The world’s climate is changing and as Alex notes, he believes that architecture must lead the way in changing how we utilise resources to contribute to a sustainable future. 

As a multi-award winning designer,  Alex's vision for sustainable architecture is layered through all aspects of our practice and through all the stages of a project. This starts with the examination of a project brief to ensure the grounding principles of a project support a sustainable way of life. 

As the project takes shape, Alex says he deploys his depth of technical expertise to realise the project to its full potential.

Chris McCue, the managing director Carr, with extensive experience and speciality within the architecture and interior design of high-end residential, multi-residential and hospitality work, is now focusing on redesigning former industrial sites like that at Brunswick Yard in Melbourne.

As a firm believer of wellness for the home environment, McCue notes that light and biophilia are just some of the ways we can better our living spaces. “Given we now spend more than 90 percent of our time indoors, it is vital that we explore new ways to engineer our indoor environments so they become ecosystems for improving physical and mental health," he says.

Dr. Steve Cummings Director Innovation, GWA Group, owners of the Caroma brand of bathroom products, a brand just about everyone in Australia is familiar with. 

Dr. Cummings talks about designing with the consumer's dignity in mind, aged-care issues and how a constant thirst for great design drives innovation at Caroma.

The managing director of Stormtech, Troy Creighton, talks about Stormtech’s history - its humble beginnings and the interesting back-story of the NSW South Coast company's stellar growth.

Troy also covers a number of other areas including his passion - manufacturing to proper standards in Australia  as well as the current state of the industry, and how the continuing move towards higher levels of sustainability is set to change the future of his company and water usage in general across this wide, brown land.

This podcast was bought to you in association with Stormtech, proud sponsors of the Residential Series of podcasts.  For more information on Stormtech please go to: https://stormtech.com.au/specifiers

Since graduating from the University of Melbourne, Tisha Lee has accumulated over twenty years of experience working on significant educational, residential, and civic precincts.

Before joining K2LD in 2007, Tisha was previously a Senior Associate with HASSELL where she was responsible for the management of a dedicated team working on educational and community projects for both the State Government and the Private sector.

Tisha says that design, as well as designers, are changing and adapting and even thriving to the new normal reality that is the way we live, work, and play.

HY William Chan is an urbanist, architect, and designer dedicated to creating resilient and inclusive places for people. A UNICEF Young Ambassador during the 25th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, William has led community-building projects for the homeless, slum dwellers, and refugee youth. He was named in the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list as a game-changing business and industry leader in the Asia-Pacific region. He is also an ambassador for the 2020 Sustainability Awards.

Here William talks about how architecture and designers, in general, have a crucial role to play both in mitigating climate change and in improving social conditions here and around the world.