The third instalment of the 2011 Utzon Lecture Series “Sustainable use of Public Space: Cities for Walking, Cycling and Transit” by Lars Gemzøe, Associate Partner, Architect MAA, Gehl Architects, Copenhagen, Denmark is now available for viewing on UNSWTV.
The lecture can be viewed by clicking the icon below.
Modern day living means that time constraints and changing lifestyles are altering consumers needs for household products. Innovative designs are required to cater to these changing needs. This year the Electrolux Design Lab has asked industrial design students and recent graduates worldwide to create home appliances that consider intelligent mobility; their designs need to show a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity.
There were 1300 entrants and from that 25 semi-finalists have been chosen from all over the world. Three of the semi finalists are from Australia and of those three, two are Industrial Design students from UNSW!
We would like to congratulate Alfred Ching and Saba Zara on their creative and innovative designs. Alfred Ching’s design ‘Honeycomb Modular Induction Tiles’ (pictured above) looks at creating different sized and shaped movable heating surfaces which can be stacked for easy storage. Saba Zara’s design ‘Mywash’ is a communal washing machine with individual barrels which can be controlled via a smart phone.
The 25 semi-finalists will be whittled down to a final eight. The finalists will present their designs to a jury who will consider the entries based on intuitive design, innovation and consumer insight. The winning designer will receive €5,000 ($6,786AUD) and a 6 month paid internship at an Electrolux global design centre.
Click here to visit the website and checkout all the semi-finalists designs.
On Friday 3 June the UNSW Built Environment Awards Ceremony celebrated and acknowledged the faculty’s highest achievers. Over 200 family, friends, benefactors and faculty staff were present to celebrate the academic excellence of these talented students.
The night was officially opened by the Faculty Dean, Professor Alec Tzannes, and was hosted by Professor Alan Peters, Head of Discipline for Urban Planning, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Construction Management and Property, who noted that “the ceremony was a wonderful opportunity for our students to have their hard work recognised, and to meet the beneficiaries whose generous donations are assisting them with their education at UNSW.”
This year the faculty awarded 49 prizes to 56 students for their outstanding academic accomplishments. This year The Dean’s Award, which honours students who received the highest mark this semester was shared by two Architecture students, Matthew O’Brien and Yun Fu.
Other awards were: The Program Director Awards (acknowledging students who achieve the highest marks within a specific degree or subject) and a variety of other awards and prizes which were funded and presented by a wide variety of Built Environment benefactors.
The awards ceremony provides an opportunity for benefactors to meet the students they are supporting and to foster better relationships between industry members, students and built environment professionals.
Santiago Villa Moreno (Master of Construction Project Management) received two awards at Friday’s ceremony and noted in a thank you letter to Professor Alec Tzannes “My journey at UNSW would not have been possible without the support provided by your organisation.”
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the award recipients for the dedication and determination and to encourage them to keep up the good work.
Image: Faculty Dean, Professor Alec Tzannes with students Lillian Chung and Santiago Villa Moreno.
A new initiative called the Built Environment Scholars Program has been created to acknowledge the faculty’s highest achieving students.
The Built Environment Undergraduate Scholars Program is comprised of a group of 20 students who are identified as the BE’s top performing students based solely on their annual academic performance.
For a one year period the BE Scholars will receive recognition from their peers, the faculty and industry professionals. The benefits given to these talented and driven students include a $500 scholarship and vouchers to the UNSW book shop, mentoring and support, special invitations to BE events, a certificate of achievement and more.
The 2010 BE Scholars were formally congratulated at a morning tea on 18 May where they were presented with a certificate of recognition, their $500 scholarship and a $100 voucher for the UNWS bookstore.
We would like to extend our congratulations to all the BE Scholars for 2010.
BIA – Catherine Allington, Tara Christina Gunasekera, Yoshimi Iwaya
B Arch Studies – Mathew O’Brian, Pouwel Frederik Wind, Yun Fu, Cissy Miao Kang, Sean Thien Tran
B Arch Comp – Chor Yan Lau
BCMP – Thomas David Bitmead, Shane Christopher Bleyer, Shane Saba Rouhani, Gary Yaghlejian
B Plan – Ellie-Mae Simpson, Rachelle Ariane Newman, Katherine Louise Tudehope
B Land Arch – Jason Kenneth Cuffe, James Hargrave
B Ind Des – Aryetta Pazpinis, Jason Jian Hao Khiang
UNSW Built Environment Master of Research student Andrea Wechsler recently presented a paper at The First International Postgraduate Conference on Engineering, Designing and Developing the Built Environment for Sustainable Wellbeing, which was held in April at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.
This is a peer reviewed conference and Andrea’s paper titled Sustainable Furniture panel composites from forestry and food industry by-products in Australia, presented in the theme Energy, Environment and Sustainability, won the best paper in the theme.
Andrea’s paper was based on part of her research which compared polypropylene based materials and different fillers: macadamia shells, pine cones and eucalyptus capsules with traditional wood plastic composites with pine wood fillers.
We would like to congratulate Andrea on this achievement
Click here for more information on the eddBE 2011 Conference.
The second installment of the 2011 Utzon Lecture Series “Sydney 2030 Vision” by Clover Moore MP, Lord Mayor City of Sydney is now available for viewing on UNSWTV.
The lecture can be viewed by clicking the icon below.
The 2011 Melbourne Planning Summit is now open for registration.
This two day event will be held on 18 and 19 May. Speakers will discuss and review the future direction of metropolitan planning in Melbourne in the wake of the recent state election.
This summit will provide analysis of future urban planning policy, the examination of how to achieve sustainable planning solutions for Melbourne’s growing population and the presentation of case studies of innovative and successful planning solutions.
For more information on this event please visit the 2011 Melbourne Planning Summit page.
The second installment of the UNSW Built Environment Utzon Lecture Series is being held tomorrow night. The lecture, titled “Sydney 2030 Vision” will be given by Clover Moore MP, Lord Mayor City of Sydney.
Date: Wednesday 6th April, 2011
Refreshments: 6.15pm – 6.45pm, Foyer area, AGSM Building, UNSW Kensington campus
Lecture: 7.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: John B Reid Theatre, AGSM Building
Cost: Free
Download a UNSW campus map here.
Clover Moore MP has been an Independent Member of the New South Wales Parliament since 1988 and Lord Mayor of Sydney since 2004. The first popularly elected female Lord Mayor of Sydney, she was re-elected in 2008 with an increased majority.
Throughout her public life, Clover Moore has pursued appropriate sustainable development, better residential and urban amenity, increased open space, improved public transport, action to protect our environment and address climate change, open and accountable government and social justice.
As Lord Mayor she leads Sydney’s City Council to implement Sustainable Sydney 2030, the City’s strategic plan to secure Sydney’s future as a competitive global city and one of the world’s leading green liveable cities.
Please RSVP for this event today to fbeevents@unsw.edu.au
Make April 6 the day to find out more about Postgraduate Study at UNSW.
The University of New South Wales provides a diverse range of flexible and career focused programs. Postgrad Expo offers you the opportunity to speak with UNSW staff to get the answers you need to help change your life.
The expo will have staff from UNSW faculties, affiliated research organisations and student services as well as current students on hand to answer questions and provide you with program advice to help you change your life.
If you have any questions about postgraduate study, contact the Student Recruitment Office who will be able to assist you with your enquiry.
For enquiries -
Email: studentrecruitment@unsw.edu.au
Phone: +61 93851844
Authored by: Eli Geschiet
The Faculty of the Built Environment in conjunction with the City Futures Research Centre recently hosted a planning forum with guest speaker David Broyd, Group Manager, Sustainable Planning, Port Stephens Council.
David has recently prepared a paper titled “Where to Planning?” which was formulated to generate discussion on pressing urban planning issues in New South Wales.
With the advent of the 26 March State Government elections, the organisers took the opportunity to shed light on the real issues to inform the audience and the wider community.
The forum took place at the Hugh Dixson Theatre at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) campus on Wednesday 16 March. The audience was comprised of primarily planners from all age groups and across a range of fields including government, consultants, and there was also a young planners contingent. The audience had the privilege to hear the views of planning experts in response to the issues presented from David Boyle’s paper.
The line up of panelists included;
Malcolm Ryan, Director of Planning and Development Services at Warringah Council
Tony MacNamara – Director of Planning at Canada Bay Council and NSW President of the Planning Institute of Australia
Ken Morrison- CEO at the Property Council of Australia
John McInerney– Architect, town planner and City of Sydney Councillor
Why is planning so hard?
As an introduction to the forum, David Boyle outlined the main issues he believed to be influencing the current planning system. These included;
The focus of the discussion evolved primarily around the inabilities of the planning system to deliver a pragmatic approach to Sydney’s geographic and social constraints.
Ken Morrison from the Property Council of Australia emphasised there is an evident lack of funding available to implement effective changes for the planning system. Representing the peak body of the development industry, he also referred to the housing supply issue, where only half of the required homes are being build to meet the demand for a growing population.
More transparency in the planning system is a pressing issue according to PIA President Tony MacNamara. One of the fundamental flaws in the current legislation is that there are two systems operating concurrently. According to MacNamara, The Environmental Planning and Assessment Act is being underminded by other planning loopholes including Part 3A, which provides incentives for developers to use a ‘back door’ approach in obtaining approval for major projects.
John McInerney from City of Sydney also emphasised David Boyle’s view that the Commonwealth Government should have a more intimate role and influence in the planning processes on the state and local government levels. John suggested there be an overhaul in the Department of Planning, which should be implemented as soon as the new Minister for Planning coomences his term.
During the course of the forum, the audience had opportunities to express their viewpoints.
Chris Johnson, from the Department of Planning concurred with Broyd’s position that the Federal government needs to play a more central role in the development of our cities.
Also, Gary Shields, Director of GSA planning, highlighted a fundamental flaw in the assessment process when an application is determined by Councillors. The Councillors are politicians and not “overnight decision makers”.
Planning Insights
The forum was primarily focused on the negative aspects of the current planning system. However towards the conclusion of the evening, a member from the audience raised the question to the panelists; “Are there any positive aspects that the planning system has contributed?”
Other audience members chuckled, but the panelists found it hard to provide sound responses. Panelist members suggested that Part 3A assessment for major projects and the introduction of the Joint Regional Planning Panels were effective functions of the planning system.
The night ended with a message to young planners on how they can get involved in improving the planning process. “Don’t give up” were words expressed by a panel member. Indeed all planners need to be vigilant, while also attempting to fix the mistakes of the past.
About the Author
Eli Gescheit is a Bachelor of Planning (UNSW) Alumni from 2008. Eli currently works at Waverley Council and is the Director of The Planning Boardroom website, an online portal and resource for urban planners, architects and developers. For more info visit; http://www.theplanningboardroom.net
