Features

May 2011 – The impetus driving façade innovation is solar control technology, writes BRUNO SEGUIN, general manager of the specialist Australian solar control company Horiso.

May 2011 – What do motorcycle racing and airport property maintenance have in common? An uncompromising approach to safety, says Marty Craggill, superbike champion and director of MAZ Building Maintenance, which performs maintenance activities at Melbourne Airport. JOHN POWER reports.

April 2011 – LED-based lighting systems are tipped to dominate the world’s lighting markets within nine years. Recently, JOHN POWER travelled to the US to visit Philips’s pioneering LED lighting businesses in San Jose and New York to witness the revolution first-hand.

April 2011 – Are you thinking of ‘going solar’? JEFF SALTON looks past the propaganda to present a practical and realistic overview of the sector, addressing installation options and processes, costs, and returns on investment.

April 2011 – Energy rating systems are highly valuable tools for improving building operations – and reputations. JEREMY LEU from Bureau Veritas explains your options.

April 2011 – A number of ‘social enterprise’ property maintenance companies – which employ or raise funds for underprivileged, marginalised or mentally ill people – are offering high-quality services at competitive rates. And, as JOHN POWER discovers, this way of doing business is making quite an impact!

March 2011 – For many years the property industry in Australia has declared that ‘green’ buildings, particularly offices, are better investments than non-rated buildings. Now, for the first time, a new Property Investment Index offers evidence to support these claims.

February 2011 – Located above a busy underground railway, the new East Buildings – Britomart complex in Auckland, New Zealand, has an extraordinary noise-minimisation feature: full-building rubber pads. TIM BERESFORD from Norman Disney & Young explains the acoustic merits of the system.

February 2011 – There is no legal requirement in Australia for carpet cleaning practitioners to be regulated or licensed. KATHERINE STEWART from Individual Cleaners Australia and New Zealand (ICAN) outlines the case for centralised industry stewardship.

February 2011 – Acoustic performance in Australia’s offices, classrooms and other public buildings has been overshadowed in recent years by issues of energy and water efficiency. JEFF SALTON argues that sound quality deserves primary consideration in any building design or retrofit.