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This hypothetical project resulted from investigations into the abandoned shipyards at Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour. The existing infrastructure and the site’s prominent location made it an ideal location for the temporary exhibitions of the Sydney Art Biennale. The overall festival system was based on floating structures and collapsible buildings; designed for disassembly. With this system the whole harbour could become the site for temporary exhibitions and events. Cultural activities would be free roaming in time and space. Collapsible temporary buildings would be integrated with permanent infrastructure on the island. This project tested the previously theoretical principles for design for disassembly, in a design practice setting.

Purpose: Malaysia’s industrialised building system (IBS) has been increasingly adopted for sustainable development by the country’s construction industry. However, although it has been used for commercial building projects, its application to sustainable infrastructure development has been limited to date. This study aims to examine the drivers and challenges involved. Design/methodology/approach: A preliminary conceptual framework was initially developed based on a systematic literature review. Semi-structured interviews involving 20 participants were undertaken to gain insightful thoughts from the construction practitioners to discover the perception towards IBS application in the construction industry, the applicability of IBS, particularly in infrastructure projects, the strategies of IBS delivery and the sustainable potential of its application. A two-round Delphi study was conducted with 15 experienced and knowledgeable panellists to further identify, verify and prioritise factors developed from the literature review and interview findings. Then, the results were synthesised and triangulated to demonstrate a holistic insight. Findings: The results show the main drivers to be better productivity, quality, environmental, safety and health, constructability design and cost, policy and requirements, with the main challenges being project planning and cost-related issues, inexperience and industry capacity. Originality/value: The study’s main contribution is in systematically determining the practical implications involved in applying the IBS to sustainable infrastructure developments in Malaysia and other similar developing countries.

The built environment is a major consumer of materials and creator of waste. The way in which we design and construct buildings treats them as products to be bought, used, and discarded. This pattern, this paradigm, need not be so; it is possible to consider buildings and the materials within them to be part of a cyclic process in which materials and components can be reused. A new paradigm that embraces eco-design, designing buildings for future material recover, will require specialist knowledge in a number of fields. It will also require a series of heuristic principles. This paper presents research, using a soft systems methodology, that integrates three fields of knowledge: an extended model of sustainable construction, time-related layers of the built environment, and a hierarchy of material reuse and recycling. It also presents a number of heuristic principles for designing for disassembly. These fields of knowledge and principles are interwoven to propose a new technological paradigm for the construction industry; one that supports waste minimization.

This paper details a new dimension to an existing internship program developed in response to the effects of COVID-19 in a creative industries faculty at a large Australian university. Recent changes to workplace activities, as a result of the pandemic, have offered an opportunity to test a mode of internships in which students work and engage remotely, via on-line modes, with a workplace. Analysis of the offering is conducted using the Community of Inquiry framework. Outcomes confirm the concept of remote internships as appropriate strategies that can not only support improved student retention in the short term, but offer new opportunities for enriched, broadened and more equitable internship experiences. Workplace-based internships, while offering high impact and authentic experiences, are often difficult for many students who are unable to attend workplaces to complete the required hours due to a range of other work, study, and life factors. The new remote internship, seeks to overcome these barriers.

Learning relies on feedback. Whether it be knowledge, skills, or practical application, the student’s confidence and progress relies on some way of knowing if their efforts have been successful or not. In the traditional pedagogical model of architecture, feedback is usually provided by academics, who in this way acquire the role of the master to the student-apprentice. This paper explores an alternative model of intrinsic feedback in the context of architectural education, in which the learning activity itself can provide feedback directly to the student. This student-centred approach has been trialled in the context of an architectural technology module, with intrinsic feedback offered through physical experiments, replicating aspects of architectural structures and construction. These experiments engage students through multi-sensory activities in which the senses provide feedback to promote the development of conceptual and procedural knowledge. This paper further expands on these pedagogical trials through the analysis of these learning environments using Diana Laurillard’s conversational framework. Laurillard’s framework is expanded and adapted to illustrate how intrinsic feedback can be incorporated to allow the student to be more in control of their own learning.

Architecture design education centres around the architecture design studio – which has historically been the dominant mode of teaching architecture design. The traditional design studio is characterised by its hours of interaction, reflection, analysis and critique between students and teachers. This conventional form of conducting design studios can be signified as a form of ‘signature pedagogy’ for professional architectural education. However, in the past decade in Australia, this form of design learning and teaching has shifted away from its traditional form of engaging students. Various factors have contributed to this change in ways students learn the process of design in design studios for the major subject of architecture design. This qualitative research study sheds light on one of the alternative contemporary design learning and teaching models which is fast becoming prevalent in Australia at the undergraduate level. It explored the interactions between students and teachers through which process of design is learnt including the role of architectural firms and practicing architects as active agents of pedagogy in these contemporary learning environments. The study identified issues such as global institutional changes and altered nature of the architectural profession that impact contemporary design pedagogy. It seeks to elaborate these and provide some solutions for operating in this context. The contemporary challenges for design pedagogy require innovative ways to engage students in future by retaining certain aspects of the traditional design studio model. In conclusion, it highlights the benefits and challenges of integrating traditional modes of interaction with what the contemporary times have to offer, enabling future professionals, architecture design educators and institutional policy makers to benefit from the optimised forms of pedagogy.

The expected operational lifespan of modern buildings has become disturbingly short as buildings are replaced for reasons of changing cultural expectations, style, serviceability, locational obsolescence and economic viability. The same buildings, however, are not always physically or structurally obsolete; the materials and components within them are very often still serviceable. While there is some recycling of selected construction materials, such as steel and concrete, this is almost always in the form of down cycling or reprocessing. One significant impediment to reuse is that buildings are not designed in a way that facilitates easy recovery of materials and components. This chapter explores the potential for the recovery of materials and components if buildings were designed for such future recovery, utilizing the strategy of design for disassembly. As well as assessing material waste, this chapter presents research into the analysis of the embodied energy in buildings, highlighting its significance in comparison with operational energy. Analysis at material, component and whole of- building levels shows the potential benefits of strategically designing buildings for future disassembly to recover this embodied energy. Careful consideration at the early design stage can result in the deconstruction of significant portions of buildings and the recovery of their potential through higher order reuse and upcycling.

The architectural design studio learning environment is central to architecture design education. The architectural design studio ‘signature pedagogy’ has gradually shifted away from its conventional forms of engaging students since the turn of the millennium. The studio has transformed into a contemporary form of design learning and teaching based on several factors including reduced contact time between academics and students, change in studio spatial typologies and the hierarchy of academics supporting student engagement. These shifts have had a major impact on the ways in which students perceive the role of academics. Not only have the roles for academics altered, but also the autonomy of students has changed. The nature of interaction in design studios is still, however, primarily conversational. The aim of this paper is to establish and define the roles of the learners and teachers (tutors and unit coordinators), and to refine and extend existing theory of conversational interactions. A qualitative case study of a major Australian University school of design, brings the variations in roles of all the stakeholders to the forefront and enables academics to be aware of the contemporary challenges required in changed scenarios. This research also highlights what the future of design education requires from academics and the associated expectations from their students.

The architecture design studio is a pedagogical platform for the majority of learning and teaching experiences that take place within architecture design education. The traditional architecture design studio pedagogical model signified as "signature pedagogy" has gradually shifted away from its conventional forms of engaging students. Since the turn of the millennium, the studio has transformed into a contemporary form of design learning and teaching space based on several factors such as reduced contact time between academics and students, change in studio spatial typology and the hierarchy of academics that are involved in student engagement. These shifts have had a major impact on the ways in which students and teachers have dialogic interactions with one another and perceive their learning and teaching experiences. A qualitative case study research on an Australian University undergraduate school of design seeks to explore and link the components of the interaction between the different stakeholders of contemporary architecture design studio pedagogy. The research seeks to verify and extend Laurillard's conversational learning and teaching framework, to elaborate the theory and practice around contemporary design studio pedagogy. The components of the dialogic interaction between the different stakeholders in studio learning and teaching, form the basis for academics and students to reflect on their learning and teaching interaction informed by theoretical know-how and awareness rather than solely relying on intuition. The unpacking and understanding of these interactive components can inform design academics to adopt effective ways of engaging their students in architecture design studios.

The construction and demolition industry accounts for approximately one third of all material waste in the industrialised nations of the world. This material and energy waste can however be reduced through increased levels of material and component reuse. A strategy of design for disassembly has been well implemented in product design and manufacture, but the construction industry has failed to adopt such approaches, largely due to the more bespoke nature of architectural projects. This paper explores the technological options for material and component disassembly in buildings. The research projects utilises inductive reasoning to conduct a number of architectural case studies, observing the reoccurring patterns of design that have facilitated material disassembly, then proposes a model or taxonomy of recycling and reuse strategies. The case studies reveal a hierarchy of recycling potentials, each facilitated by different strategies of design for disassembly. This hierarchical taxonomy of recycling can be used to guide design decisions at the early stages of architectural projects; thus increasing the potential for material and component recovery, and reduce negative environmental impact at the future stage of building obsolescence. The paper concludes with design principles, linked to the taxonomy of reuse and recycling.

This chapter presents a case study of a large common first year unit/subject in a major Australian university. The unit introduces students to the theory and practice of design through a learning environment that is brief and intense; being delivered in block mode over just four days, and being free of other academic commitments. Students choose from one of two concurrent environments, either a camping field trip or an on-campus alternative, and work in mixed discipline groups of six to nine students, on two sequential design projects. Participant survey and reflective journal data are used to analyse student perceptions of the learning activities and to establish the pedagogical success of learning about collaboration through the act of collaborating; specifically through a project-based design environment. The data supports the hypothesis that groups that emotionally engaged with collaboration and collaborated more effectively achieved higher academic grades.

While it is dangerously tempting to think of the city as a fixed built environment, the result of careful planning and design, it is in fact an ever changing system of infrastructures, buildings, spaces and materials. The commercial and social pressures of modern society demand constant newness and change. Unfortunately most of our cities are not designed or built to accommodate ease of change through disassembly; rather they succumb to demolition and the creation of waste. A strategy of design for disassembly has been successfully implemented in many mass produced products such as computers and cars, but it has not achieved popular or widespread application in the design and construction of cities. This paper presents a theoretical model for understanding the potential for design for disassembly in the city in order to reduce waste and increase reuse. It explores multiple scales of the city from materials and elements, through rooms and buildings, to urban form and territories. The paper draws on a typo-morphological analysis of the city through the theories developed by both the Italian and British schools of urban morphologists. It establishes a structure of time-related layers of the city and proposes ways to interact with those layers in a sustainable and systemic way. A morphological analysis of elements, structures, systems and organisms, is applied to a number of case study buildings and city territories in order to assess their disassembly potential, and through analysis, develop principles of design for disassembly that operate at a whole of city scale.

Contemporary cities no longer offer the same types of permanent environments that we planned for in the latter part of the twentieth century. Our public spaces are increasingly temporary, transient, and ephemeral. The theories, principles and tactics with which we designed these spaces in the past are no longer appropriate. We need a new theory for understanding the creation, use, and reuse of temporary public space. Moe than a theory, we need new architectural tactics or strategies that can be reliably employed to create successful temporary public spaces. This paper will present ongoing research that starts that process through critical review and technical analysis of existing and historic temporary public spaces. Through the analysis of a number of public spaces, that were either designed for temporary use or became temporary through changing social conditions, this research identifies the tactics and heuristics used in such projects. These tactics and heuristics are then analysed to extract some broader principles for the design of temporary public space. The theories of time related building layers, a model of environmental sustainability, and the recycling of social meaning, are all explored. The paper will go on to identify a number of key questions that need to be explored and addressed by a theory for such developments: How can we retain social meaning in the fabric of the city and its public spaces while we disassemble it and recycle it into new purposes? What role will preservation have in the rapidly changing future; will exemplary temporary spaces be preserved and thereby become no longer temporary? Does the environmental advantage of recycling materials, components and spaces outweigh the removal or social loss of temporary public space? This research starts to identify the knowledge gaps and proposes a number of strategies for making public space in the age of temporary, recyclable, and repurposing of our urban infrastructure; a way of creating light