Construction Innovation partners: Australian Building Codes Board, Arup Australasia, Bovis Lend Lease, Brisbane City Council, Building Commission (Victoria), Brookwater JV, CSIRO, DEM, John Holland, Qld Dept Main Roads, Qld Dept Public Works, Qld Dept State Development and Innovation, Qld University of Technology, Rider Hunt, RMIT, The University of Newcastle, The University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, Woods Bago

With so much happening over the past few months, I wanted to take this opportunity to mention a few of the many achievements and events that go towards shaping the image and profile of our CRC.

On 13 September, our Board Chair, John McCarthy was made a national honorary life member of the Property Council of Australia (PCA) at Congress 04, the annual PCA conference held in Perth. He shared this acknowledgement from the industry with our inaugural Chair Jim Service, from whom he took over in December 2001. These honorary life memberships began in 1969, but John and Jim are only the seventh and eighth recipients. Peter Verwer, Chief Executive of PCA made the presentation speech stating, "these two individuals have not only played crucial roles in guiding the Property Council to its current strength, but are outstanding leaders in public policymaking in the property and construction sectors." Coverage of this event appeared in the 14 September issue of the Financial Review. On behalf of our CRC I'd like to sincerely congratulate both John and Jim on this prestigious accolade.

John McCarthy has recently returned from Brussels where he represented our CRC on the International Board of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) and is now also servicing their Administration, and Marketing and Communications committees. CIB facilitates international exchange and cooperation in research and innovation in the technical, economic, environmental and organisational aspects of building and construction. This level of involvement with CIB highlights our CRC's growing international profile.

The CIB has also just approved the formation of Task Group 58 - Clients and Construction Innovation - under the joint coordination of Professor Peter Brandon from the University of Salford and myself. The focus of this initiative reinforces our CRC's developing international leadership and goal to contribute and network at a global level.

Congratulations to two of our scholars, Marcello Tonelli and Merv Cowley who received awards for their outstanding presentation and paper respectively. Their achievements are featured in the Scholar Corner further on in this newsletter.

LCADesign* has been nominated for the YBE 2004 Exemplars Award in the Towards Sustainable Communities category. Good luck to Selwyn Tucker and his team. The winner will be announced, in this and the other categories on November 23 at the YBE 2004 National Awards Ceremony at the Sydney Opera House. This nomination complements the LCADesign team's success in winning the CSIRO Divisional Award 2003-2004 for Innovation. It is most fitting that the 'Imagining the Future' YBE award category has been sponsored by Construction Innovation.

Peter Scuderi and myself met with Pat Purcell, Parliamentary Secretary to the Hon. Robert Schwarten (Minister for Public Works, Housing and Racing) at Science in Parliament Queensland. The government encouraged participation in this event by CRCs, with the view that this is an avenue for politicians to gain insights into industry-focussed research. This meeting was an important opportunity to better understand the government's priorities in building procurement and occupational health and safety.

Our CRC endorsed the Construction Summit held last week at Coolum where Chris Evans (John Holland Group), Tony Sidwell (QUT) and I presented. The summit was targeted at dealing with critical challenges for the industry such as risk management, procurement program blowouts and safety. The futures-oriented discussions showed that the visions in our Construction 2020 initiative are hitting the mark with industry with strong support for the C2020 goals.

Peter Scuderi spoke to an audience of around 140 at the Australian Council of Tall Buildings in Brisbane about Sustainable and Virtual Prototypes. Industry sectors in attendance included architects, engineers and quantity surveyors.

I look forward to meeting with many of you at our Client's Driving Innovation International Conference opening in just 7 days. Those attending will enjoy invaluable networking and information-sharing opportunities across a wide range of themes in the property and construction industry. This promises to be an important and enjoyable event on our calendar.

The principal project outcomes for a selection of Program B - Sustainable Built Assets - projects completed this calendar year follow. Those from Program C - Delivery and Management of Built Assets - and our new projects will feature in our December issue.

This research focussed on two areas. One focus was minimising the incidences of Legionella disease outbreaks by examining new design solutions for commercial air-conditioning cooling towers. The second was the review of international literature on the subject of indoor environments. The weight of evidence identified by Construction Innovation indicates a clear positive impact of the indoor environment on health and productivity of building occupants. A key conclusion which can be drawn from the research is that any further study needs to be broadly-based and in a real working environment, have a strong focus on people and monitoring the environmental variables.

2001-013-B Sustainability and the Future Building Code of Australia [Ashe, ABCB]
Participants: Arup Australasia, Building Commission, ABCB, CSIRO, QUT

Stage 1 of the project was a literature review to collect information regarding international sustainability requirements for buildings as well as state-of-the-art thinking and practice concerning sustainable building developments. Stage 2 of the project identified issues and implications associated with sustainability requirements for buildings, and advice on whether provisions are necessary in the BCA21 to make buildings sustainable.

Stage 2 included workshops in all capital cities. The workshops involved key stakeholders, such as regulators, local government and representatives from key associations. The marketing and delivery of all workshops emphasised the partnership that the CRC for Construction Innovation and ABCB have formed in the shaping of Australias Future Building Code.

The study successfully recommended to the ABCB there was a need for sustainability requirements in the BCA21. It demonstrated the need to control and regulate sustainability along with the method to control and regulate it. The ABCB recently announced that the BCA21 will include sustainability provisions.

2001-014-B Automated Code Checker [Drogemuller, CSIRO]
Participants: Woods Bagot, ABCB, Building Commission, CSIRO, University of Sydney

The successful completion of the research demonstrated that automating sophisticated code checking on building 3D CAD models is feasible.
The project team have delivered a prototype analysis tool that checks a suitably developed 3D CAD model for compliance with AS 1428.1
(Design for access and mobility) and provides a report of the non-compliance aspects of the design.

2002-006-BEnvironmental Assessment Systems for Commercial Buildings [Tucker, CSIRO

LCADesign is a world-first which provides property professionals with an instant cost and environmental assessment of any commercial building - straight from its 3D computer graphics - to assist design professionals in creating buildings which have minimum impact on the environment a benefit to the community at large. This 'green calculator' is linked in real-time to a constantly updated lifecycle inventory of more than 800 key building materials to obtain an instant read-out of the environmental impact of alternatives. The designer can see, for the first time, the 'environmental footprint' for the whole building over the lifetime of the materials it embodies, allowing the designer to choose materials which are most effective over their service life environmentally.

Behind the LCADesign tool is an extremely powerful Australian-designed software engine, which searches a constantly-updated register of materials inventory and a database of their environmental impact. This database is unique for Australia, and ensures that future Australian buildings can provide the required services with minimal environmental impact to all Australians.

The calculator is being

trialled by Bovis Lend Lease, engineers Arup PL and architects Woods Bagot. In addition, Qld Dept of Public Works and NSW Department of Commerce are testing the prototype, as is Brisbane City Council.

2002-010-B Life Prediction of Building Material Components[Cole, CSIRO]
Participants: John Holland, QDPW, CSIRO, University of Newcastle

Components covered by the database are a representative subset of building materials ranging from nails and ducting through to roofing, window frames and door handles. The database can be used by those in the construction industry to provide indicative lifetimes of components in different environments for use in design and assessment tools. 2002-043-B Smart Buildings for Healthy and Sustainable Workplaces [ Foliente, CSIRO]
Participants: Arup, Bovis Lend Lease, QDPW, CSIRO, QUT

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CLIENTS DRIVING INNOVATION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (25-27 October)

Only 7 days to go....

Drawing on the experiences of leading practitioners and researchers in the built environment, including property and construction industry clients, facility designers and constructors, and facility managers, the International Conference (co-sponsored by Construction Innovation, the CIB and our International Construction Research Alliance - ICALL) Clients Driving Innovation will offer a meeting place where ideas can be exchanged, collaborations established and knowledge gained. This will be the leading applied research dissemination forum in Australia.

The conference will run from for 25 to 27 October 2004 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Gold Coast, Queensland. We look forward to seeing you there.

Go to http://www.2004conference.crcci.info/ where the UPDATED program, online registration, and details of sponsorship and trade booths are available. Contact conference@construction-innovation.info for further information.

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SCHOLAR CORNER

Award winning scholar translating the abstract Construction Innovation Scholar Marcello Tonelli commenced his Masters by < Research studies in September 2003 at QUT and is now in the process on articulating into a PhD. His topic is A Framework for the Banking Industry to identify the Relationships and to Quantify the Effects of Corporate Real Estate Decisions on Business Earnings and is aligned with Program C.

Forecasting Office Building Rental Growth Using a Dynamic Approach. He received a cash award plus publication in the September, 2004 issue of the Pacific Rim Property Research Journal (Vol.10, No. 3). Heres a few words from him about his research interests.

My thesis focuses on the application of dynamic modelling to translate the abstract ideas of systems theory into tools for better understanding economic and organisational change. In particular, the project is about developing a model- and data-driven Decision Support System (DSS) to support the banking industry in their Corporate Real Estate (CRE) decision-making process. Selection of real estate strategies will be done by comparing key performance measures within a balanced scorecard framework.

For further details regarding this research, please feel free to contact Marcello at: m.tonelli@qut.edu.au

In 1996, Marcello graduated in Business Administration from the University of Pacific (UOP) in USA and worked as a consultant on management information systems with a focus on model- and data-driven Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Executive Support Systems (ESS). In 2002, Marcello achieved a Master of Information Technology from James Cook University.

Scholar's best paper

Merv Cowley, Construction Innovation scholar studying for his Masters by Research, has won the Best Scholars International Conference Paper award for 2004 titled Forecasting Property Performance and will be presented at our Clients Driving Innovation conference on 27 October. The prize was attendance at the CRC Leadership and Career Development residential course in Melbourne. An independent reviewer and a CRC Board member, judged the papers.

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UPCOMING EVENTS IN BRIEF

Construction Innovation events

Industry information session Seamless Web of Communication (28 October: Brisbane)

Mr Dennis Lenard, Chief Executive, Constructing Excellence, UK
Ms Elizabeth Whatmore,

Dr Keith Hampson, Chief Executive Officer, CRC Construction Innovation

Time: 28 Oct. 7:009:30 am
Cost: $59 per person (Corporate tables of ten available one person free: payable by one charge only with no individual accounts, at the advertised rates)
Registration: Email : vicki.dwyer@mlaa.com.au, Fax : 07 3378 9513

GAMA* + CRC Construction Innovation forum (28 October: Brisbane)
A YBE registered event to help keep asset and facility managers up to date with the latest research and developments in the industry.
Session 1: Valuing Project Delivery (speakers: Ray Potts, John Collin from QDPW and Steve Rowlinson of QUT), Session 2: Behaviour and communication (speakers: Adrian Kirk from University of Newcastle and David Marchant of Woods Bagot)

Venue: 80 George St Conference Room, Brisbane
Time: 8.45 - 12.00

RSVP by 20 October to axl.driml@publicworks.qld.gov.au or (07) 3224 5454

*Government Asset Management Arena

External events

6th International Conference on Managing Pavements (1924 October: Brisbane)
Venue: Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Queensland Australia
For the conference website (including program, online registration and registration brochure) go to www.icmp6.com

For more information please contact the Conference Manager at OzAccom Conference Services:
Telephone: +61 (0) 7 3854 1611
Facsimile: +61 (0) 7 3854 1507
Email: icmp6@ozaccom.com.au

YBE2004 Houses of the Future (15-31 October: Sydney, 19 November - 5 December: Melbourne)
This is a showcase event for the Year of the Built Environment to promote new ways of providing affordable, environmentally sustainable, prefabricated housing in Australian that are also futuristic and innovative in their design. Six architect-designed houses will feature in the Sydney Opera House Forecourt - each constructed from a different material: Timber, Glass, Cardboard, Steel, Concrete and Clay.

For group bookings and more information visit: www.housesofthefuture.com.au

Australian Institute of Building Surveyors National Conference (7-10 November: Hobart)
The AIBS Building a Sustainable Tomorrow conference has three sub-themes: Fire and the built environment, Sustainable buildings (Dennis Hogan of the Building Commission will presenting the paper Way-finding in the built environment) and Buildings - risky business.

Venue: Wrest Point Convention Centre, Hobart

For more information and the preliminary program go to www.cdesign.com.au/aibs2004. Email: info@cdesign.com.au, P: 03 6224 3773

LABbuild 2004 Conference (9-11 November: Brisbane)
^st century. With over 40 overseas and Australian presenters, LABbuild 2004 offers a balanced, informative and positive environment offering unique networking and contact opportunities for those involved in the design, construction, fit out and management of research facilities. It will feature LABS21 high performance, low energy design course; site tours; a trade exhibition (with some of the industrys top suppliers); stream sessions and workshops. The conference dinner will include presentations from noted scientists, including Dr Caroline West.

Contact the conference managers, Alison Carney or Krys Henshaw at Organisers Australia on 07 3371 0333 or at labbuild@orgaus.com.au for details or register through the Internet at www.labbuild.org.au

Performance Based Building Network News

International Science Linkages program, are participating in the meetings and activities of the European Performance Based Building Network (www.pebbu.nl). Aus-PeBBu, coordinated by Greg Foliente of CSIRO, is also promoting the application of performance based building in Australia by way of industry seminar/workshops, technical working groups and a project website.

The main developmental activity in the network is incorporated into seven technical domains or working groups:

Building Materials and Components
Indoor Environment
Building Design and Engineering
Environmentally Sustainable Built Environment
Innovation
Legal and Procurement Matters
Building Regulations and Standards

The domains are predominantly concerned with advancement in the following three key areas:

the description of appropriate building performance requirements
methods for delivering the required performance (reliable methods and tools for design and analysis)
methods for verifying that the required performance has been achieved.

Participation in any of the technical domains by interested companies, associations or individuals in the building and construction industry is warmly invited. The networks website, www.auspebbu.org, provides extensive resources relating to performance based building.

Aus-PeBBus next industry seminar is being presented on the afternoon of Wednesday 27 October as part of the Clients Driving Innovation International Conference.

www.auspebbu.org.

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TALL STOREYS IN CONSTRUCTION

Missing bridge
A disassembled metal bridge reported missing during a warehouse inventory in Gdansk Poland has been found

Do you know of a 'tall (but true) storey' or joke from the world of property and construction? Please send to me at c.foelz@construction-innovation.info

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