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To the bunkers?
Comments
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http://www.architectswithoutfrontiers.com.au/site/index.php
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<p>ss - the public in bushfire areas will no doubt take more than a passing interest in protecting their property - can't imagine they need know all puritans telling em how to do things - everyone knows how to do a google search</p>
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<p>Sod. Everyone needs proffesional advise. A google search is like saying there are a million trees over there, go and pick our own fruit. Unless you know what your looking for you can get easily lost.</p>
<p>As for puritan pastrolism, don't know what you're talking about but flaming is a bit passe these days.</p> -
<p>ss found this for you.....<a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20090217-Hour-by-hour-in-Marysville.html"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>here</b></span></a>.........</p>
<p>really slow this week.....with connex working again been catching up on the news....</p>
<p> </p> -
<p>Cabbie. Not sure of your motives but a very moving piece. I can only thank that I was never as close to hell as all those people were, but even as what I went through in the 07 fires was marginal compared to that it still shocked me to open it up and it had me crying with the memory of it. Thanks, whatever your intentions.</p>
<p>I really do empathise and I really believe that good advise from anyone with an inckling is better than no advise and a disjointed google spree.</p> -
good read cabbie. vindicated CFA/cop/rural civilian standard plan of action.
bit of a contrast 2 TV/tabloid bullshit.
kasmir was on the money.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/lucky-club-that-avoided-flames-is-new-heart-of-town-20090219-8co3.html -
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Link:
Premier's media release
The Building Commission has released a PDF summary of the new AS 3959-2009 standard (I think you have to pay for the real thing and it doesn't come out till next week). To my eye it doesn't seem anymore onerous than the last standard. No bunkers. The Wildfire Management Overlay seems to now cover the whole state, and it is up to the building surveyor and designer to determine if there is a wildfire risk to an individual house, even if happens to be in South Melbourne. I guess that means my liability insurance premium has to go up again.
In the PDF are two "FAQ" regarding the place of design in the new standards:
Q. Does the new building standard focus on materials used rather than the design?
A. The new building standard sets out suitable materials and construction methods appropriate
to the bushfire risk it does not prevent good design being used that is appropriate for the
specific location.
Q. Will I still be able to design a home the way I want it?
A. Design decisions will continue to be made by property owners and their architects,
designers and builders.
The new building standard stipulates construction methods and materials to better protect
homes from bushfires but it does not specify design requirements
Well that's a relief, good design hasn't been banned. But does it prevent "bad" design? Could I still build a parapeted flat-roofed house with a zigzag plan, if I did it in tilt-up? -
<p>How can you prevent something that is undefinable like design anyway?</p>
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here comes the cover up.
w.y.e. was well onto it.
every new house has to be bushfire rated. metropolitan too! (?)
wonder how long it took em to work out they'd had no "real" planning trigger for applying the AS code.
(WMO zones fell in the crack between colourbond colours and land subdivision profit potential?)
was it the same amount of time it took the commander in chief to decide which fire pump he wanted from the shop in bendigo on black saturday? any journos asked him yet why he wasn't at the desk like everyone else including the CFA guys - who don't get the privilege of looking after their own assetts as a priority.
Maybe the royal commission will still shirt front him? -
<p>In the PDF are two "FAQ" regarding the place of design in the new standards:
<i><b>Q. Does the new building standard focus on materials used rather than the design?</b>
A. The new building standard sets out suitable materials and construction methods appropriate
to the bushfire risk – it does not prevent good design being used that is appropriate for the
specific location.
<b>Q. Will I still be able to design a home the way I want it?</b>
A. Design decisions will continue to be made by property owners and their architects,
designers and builders.
The new building standard stipulates construction methods and materials to better protect
homes from bushfires but it does not specify design requirements
</i>
"Well that's a relief, good design hasn't been banned. But does it prevent "bad" design? Could I still build a parapeted flat-roofed house with a zigzag plan, if I did it in tilt-up? "</p>
<p> </p>
<p>You could if you sunk it into the site and put an earth and turf roof on it, peter.</p>
<p>I would have thought 'good design' included the notion of designing fire prevention into a building. Just as sustainable design is not only about a solar panel in the right spot, fire prevention design is not only about concrete cladding and steel in large dimensions.</p>
<p>Why can't 'good design' be talked about in terms that include practical considerations like fire prevention. Why is it that Kashmir can understand it in terms of undefinability. (no offence intended kashmir) Design is not all indefinable airy fairy, I like, I want.</p>
<p>And if it is, why do you call yourselves architects when that is the description of a hair stylist. Do you actually have any advice to give beyond regurgitating AS3959-2009 and the building code.</p>
<p>Sod seems to think that you'll get better advise on 'good design' by going to a drafting ofice. What does he think a university architecture degree is for, to paint pretty pictures on a computer or something?</p> -
<p>swinemon - didn't quite say you'd get better advice from a drafting office, more that you don't get much from your avererage architect on the issue of fire prevention, except implenting regulations ( something a good drafty like me could do!). just look a the shitfull concrete boxes on the homepage to see what happens when architects engage with the problem. degrees are useless as you well know and my computer is still an unadorned beige box.</p>
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<p>simon simon simon....ta ta....</p>
<p>how is an architect suppose to follow a standard that isn't even published as yet.......????????</p>
<p>you should really be called all the names under the sun......your ingnorance precedes you....</p>
<p>an ounce of common sense would inform you that good design is only a catch phrase.....</p>
<p>codes and standards are the rules we all operate under......a clever chap is the one who knows the rules </p>
<p>this is where invention and innovation begins......</p>
<p> </p> -
^^^your a noble man hague.
....aren't the regs about minimums for the industrial machine that knocks out houses?
(.... I remain in awe of your 30 year career discrediting all scientific and empirical knowledge/thought as you cut a path through australia's universities. It was one thing to knock over all the wind tunnel guys in the 80s and early 90s but now i see your taking on the Australian Standards establishment in your retirement. my hats off to you. good design - the catch cry of the boomers) -
<p>"swinemon - didn't quite say you'd get better advice from a drafting office, more that you don't get much from your avererage architect on the issue of fire prevention, except implenting regulations ( something a good drafty like me could do!). just look a the shitfull concrete boxes on the homepage to see what happens when architects engage with the problem. degrees are useless as you well know and my computer is still an unadorned beige box."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Well SOD, if your average architect couldn't give a stuff about fire prevention and they just hand that sort of concern over to draftees, it's probably no fault of the universities. If your average architect is well, ...ordinary, does that mean we should follow their example.</p>
<p>Frankly who gives a f... for average architects? If I told you to jump off a bridge, would you do that? Well why give credence to being average? Why would I or anyone care about what some average hack can and can't do?</p>
<p>I think you're referring to people who are just god-damned lazy and I don't think that's what this thread was about. In fact I don't think that's what this whole site is about.</p> -
^ from the aia today.
letter from reconstruction authority.
competitive tendering for pro bono services.
????????
from a municipal planner last night in for a shave.
all projects state wide up to 1m in value are excempt from planning permits.
not an oversight - not a mistake - not being widely advertised.
gfi if u r into architecture? -
<p>First of the bushfire homes on show: http://www.australiandesignreview.com/news/12313-Architecture-practices-offer-plans-and-services-to-bushfire-victim</p>
<p>Bushfire Homes User Guide PDF on this page: http://www.wewillrebuild.vic.gov.au/images/stories/documents/Architects_Homes_Service_-_User_Guide.pdf</p>
<p> </p> -
doors not open yet. must be still hanging the show?
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Thanks HD, I'd fluffed the links - done it old style, see above.
And here's a new one which is a touch more interesting...
http://www.wewillrebuild.vic.gov.au/clean-up-a-rebuilding/architects-bushfire-homes-service/214.html
Golly my practice is there?!.. better go ask some questions of the comrades.. -
thanks for old school link peter.
- is that it - or gravitarse holding some back.
users guide is interesting.
not quite the small homes service?
re w y e 's earlier post - revisions now to WMOs out that way. lots more pink bits.
suspension of planning permits - not true? requirement to submit a site plan to council for "comment" - planner speak for bogging down? some councils also list a very different cut off date for planning permit "exemption" when compared to Bushfire Reco Authority. -
<p>Seems fire danger will not be legislated away.</p>
<p>NEWS:</p>
<p><i>"It doesn't matter what your house is built out of, it doesn't matter what your roof is made of, it doesn't matter if you've got windows or no windows, your house is going to burn down in a fire like Black Saturday," [Architect] Juliet Moore told the royal commission into the disaster yesterday. </i></p>
<p><i>It would be better for authorities to put resources into educating people in high-risk areas about what to do when threatened by bushfires and reducing fuel loads. </i></p>
<p><i>---</i></p>
<p><i>Earlier, the hearing was told new building regulations, which limited bushfire risk assessments on building sites to a radius of 100m from a planned house, were inadequate and potentially misleading. </i></p>
<p><i>Under the new regulations a site would be deemed at low risk, despite a new house being just 110m from a dense forest, building surveyor Stuart McLennan said. The new standards, introduced in March, did not take into account the risk of intense ember attack from vegetation further away than 100m, he said. </i></p>
<p><i>This was already causing "a lot of trouble" in areas devastated on February 7, such as Marysville and Kinglake, where the sites of destroyed houses were deemed to be at low bushfire risk under the new rules. </i></p>
<p>A BIT MORE: <a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25991900-5006785,00.html">http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25991900-5006785,00.html</a></p>
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