We’ve moved!

Hi all, just a quick note to let you know the BE blog has moved and now forms part of our new website http://www.be.unsw.edu.au/. Even though we’ve changed location we still welcome your contributions. So, if you have anything you’d like us to blog about please let us know! Visit:http://www.be.unsw.edu.au/blogs

UNSW Built Environment: 7 days to go!

Get ready! There are only 7 days until the new BE website is launched. Join us as we countdown to Thursday November 24.

UNSW Built Environment: Tom Loveday named a finalist in the annual Blake Prize

UNSW BE senior lecturer Tom Loveday has had his work ‘Yellow Memorial’ selected as a finalist in the 2011 Blake Prize.

Tom’s work will be included in the 60^th Blake Prize Exhibition. This will be running from 16 Sept – 15 Oct at the National Art School Gallery in Darlinghurst, and entry to the exhibition is free.

The Blake Prize was established in 1951. It is an open art prize that challenges artists to explore the themes of spirituality, religion and human justice. It is open to all faiths, artistic styles and media.

The official opening of the exhibition and the award announcements will be conducted at:

Time/Date: 6.00 – 8.00pm, 15 September, 2011

Venue: National Art School Gallery, Cnr Forbes & Burke St, Darlinghurst

We would like to congratulate Tom on this fantastic achievement.

Click here for more information on the Blake Prize exhibition.

UNSW Built Environment: Emergency Shelter Exhibition

‘Support Japan’ is an exhibition created by Australian and international architects who have taken action to highlight the need for emergency shelters in disaster zones and to bring awareness to the role of the design and construction industry in the aftermath of natural disasters.

The exhibition will take place from the 1^st to the 3^rd of September in and around Customs House in Circular Quay. A wide variety of Australian and international architects will be designing and building shelters for the exhibition. UNSW Architecture students have volunteered to assist with the construction and dis-assemble of the shelters and during the days of the exhibition. Our students’ involvement complements UNSW’s Built Environment’s sponsorship of the exhibition.

By donating to the Emergency Shelter Exhibition you will be supporting the design and construction industry and raising awareness and aid for the thousands of people who have been displaced by Japan’s natural disasters.

ACCOUNT NAME: EMERGENCY SHELTER EXHIBITION
BANK: NAB
BSB: 082 001 / A/C NO: 19 832 4405
REFERENCE: DONATE (YOURNAME)

Please click here for more information on this exhibition and how you can contribute to this worthwhile cause.

UNSW Built Environment: Digital Marketing Position Available

Would you like to help engage and update people about what’s happening at UNSW BE? If you have digital marketing experience and would like to be involved in marketing the faculty, we currently have a full time Digital Marketing Coordinator position available.

This is a full time (35 hours per week) contact position until 20 December 2011. You will be working in the Enterprise and Engagement Unit at UNSW BE.

You will be responsible for creating online marketing campaigns, delivering internal online communications, facilitating the social media strategy and managing content for the web.

The Digital Marketing Coordinator will be required to develop and maintain professional relationships with external suppliers, industry and government, media and sponsors, as well as other external stakeholders.

Click here for more information on this exciting opportunity.

UNSW Built Environment: Q & A(rchitecture)

The next DARCH Q & A(rchitect) session will be held tomorrow night  11 August with the winner of the 2011 NSW Emerging Architect Prize Matt Chan and will be hosted by Janne Ryan, ideas curator and executive producer of TEDxSydney.

The NSW Emerging Architect Prize recognises overall excellence in practice, research or education, and involvement in the profession through leadership.  In 2011 it was recognised that with the opportunities Matt has created to develop thinking through teaching, research, discourse and speculative work, as well as collaborative practice, he has great potential to continue this contribution to the profession, well into his career.

Matt, who is a UNSW Built Environment Alumnus, will give a talk which will be followed by a question-and-answer session, where fellow emerging architects, students and graduates are free to ask the difficult questions, focusing on mentoring, teaching and career progression. In order to keep the session moving along, he only has one minute to answer each question.

The session will begin at 6.30pm Thursday 11 August at Surry Hills Library, 405 Crown Street. The event is free for members of the Australian Institute of Architects and City of Sydney Library and $10 for others, which can be paid at the door. Drinks and finger food will be available afterwards.

Please RSVP to darch@raia.com.au.

There will also be an exhibition of the entrants for the prize in the foyer of Surry Hills Library throughout August as part of Sydney Design 2011.

UNSW Built Environment: Utzon Lecture Series ‘Going Green: Risks and Opportunities’

The next instalment of the 2011 UNSW Built Environment Utzon Lecture Series will be held on Wednesday the 10th of August in the Keith Burrows Lecture Theatre at 7pm. The lecture is titled “Going Green: Risks and Opportunities” and will be given by Martin Loosemore, UNSW Built Environment Professor.

Date: Wednesday 10 August, 2011

Refreshments: 6.15pm – 6.45pm Red Centre, West Wing, Gallery

Lecture: 7.00pm – 8.00pm

Venue: Keith Burrows Lecture Theatre, UNSW Kensington Campus

Cost: Free

Download a UNSW campus map here.

This lecture addresses how consulting and contracting firms in the construction and engineering industry, both large and small, can innovate to translate sustainability into improved business performance. It seeks to untangle the rhetoric from the reality of the sustainability debate by exploring both its opportunities and risks. Drawing perspectives from the social and behavioural sciences, psychology, economics, politics and philosophy, the presentation argues that the key to a more sustainable built environment industry is a more balanced debate and an open and collaborative industry which draws from a more liberal knowledge-base and seeks new integrated business configurations through supply and demand chains.

Please RSVP for this event to fbeevents@unsw.edu.au.

UNSW Built Environment: Society for Responsible Design Change 11 Exhibition

Three UNSW Built Environment Graduate Designers, Kate Stanistreet, Lily Tandeani and Anthony Papas have secured places in the ‘Society for Responsible Design (SRD) Change 11’ Sustainable Design exhibition, 1-12 August.

Inspire. Promote. Change, is the compelling theme for the graduate sustainable design exhibition presented in an iconic new venue, Coca-Cola Place, 40 Mount St, North Sydney (formerly known as the Ark).

SRD presents its eighth annual graduate exhibition series with over 25 exhibits challenging conventional thinking and showcasing sustainable design solutions across all creative design disciplines and areas of life, from visual arts and communication, architecture and industrial products to high-end fashion and including issues relating to Third World health.

Be inspired with Visual Trajectories by Kate Stanistreet (MArch, 2010) who has successfully dealt with the challenges of design for high rise buildings, while still creating a comfortable and energy efficient working environment.  This has been done by paying particular attention to efficient sustainable measures with air, light, heating and materials which increases the functionality of the space while at the same time alleviating its impact on the environment.

Embrace change with the high density living that comes with Sustainable Vertical City by Lily Tandeani (MArch, 2010). Lily has provided an example of a solution oriented design that deals with our burgeoning population growth in a sustainable way.  Showing how a 48-storey mixed-use tower can be transformed to incorporate strategically arranged office vertical villages, a retail ring, a sky garden and residential units.

Communal Remediation by Anthony Papas (BLArch, 2010) deals with a post‐industrial urban renewal concept developed for Central Canberra, in which his design seeks to resolve the conflict of interests existing between local community identity and the need for urban densification alongside the growing need for regional environmental sustainability.

Come and see these great exhibits from UNSW BE graduates, who join the talented young designers from many other Sydney University Design Schools and selected National Universities.

SRD Change 11 National exhibition, is a must see special project of the SRD and part of Sydney Design 2011 presented by the Powerhouse Museum. Entry is free and open Monday 1st to Friday 12th August. Review the exhibits, speak to the designers and be inspired about positive change for the future.

Click here for more exhibition details.

UNSW Built Environment: Riding the Design Wave

Chris Fox’s first-hand experience of the risks associated with water sports led him to design a self-inflating life jacket, which has just won a coveted James Dyson award.

The ‘9th Life’ wetsuit jacket monitors oxygen levels and automatically inflates when the user is at risk of drowning, bringing them into a safe upright position and signally for help via GPS, explains Chris, 23, who graduated last year with a Bachelor of Industrial Design with first-class honours.

It was the drowning tragedy of fellow Queenscliff surf club member Saxon Bird, who was knocked unconscious in a surf-ski accident on the Gold Coast, that highlighted the need for such a design, Chris said.

“My personal experience is through kiteboarding kilometres off shore in windy conditions – I realised that I’m vulnerable if knocked unconscious with no help close by.”

“9th Life is unlike any other life jackets on the market today. It provides users with a high level of safety without restricting their mobility and fits in with the sporting style and beach culture,” Chris told The Sun Herald.
Chris’s innovation won the silver prize in the student awards, presented recently in Melbourne as part of the 2011 Australian Design Awards.

“I like the challenge of solving problems and looking for solutions that are different and that will make a difference to people’s lives. I also enjoy the hands on experience of designing, testing and building products.”

Chris was one of four finalists from UNSW’s Faculty of Built Environment vying for the Dyson Awards.

Dr Miles Park, Director of the Industrial Design Program, said, “This year’s entries continued a very strong run of student design work – the innovative thinking and attention to detail has been outstanding.”

It follows the outstanding success of Samuel Adeloju, who last year won the international James Dyson Award for his Longreach flotation device launcher

Other UNSW design alumni to be recognised in the Australian Design Awards were Craig Burke who won the Housing and Building category for his recently launched product, Klinch tool tether, which allows the user to carry and use multiple tools safely without the risk of being dropped from heights.

“The significance of Craig’s win is that it demonstrates how a design that he first worked on as a student can be successfully commercialised and be award-winning,” said Dr Park.

UNSW Built Environment: “Building Values” by Peter Singer now on UNSWTV and You Tube

The fifth instalment of the 2011 Utzon Lecture Series “Building Values” by Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics, University Centre for Human Values, Princeton University, USA is now available for viewing on UNSWTV and You Tube.

The lecture can be viewed by clicking the icon below.