The spread of COVID-19 within hotel quarantine facilities has gained considerable public attention lately. The general consensus is that these hotels were never designed for disease containment. However, are the air-conditioning and ventilation systems in any hotel designed to prevent the spread of disease?

So you’ve calculated your design actions, sized your steel members, and detailed your connections. All done right? Not quite.

Up-and-coming engineers who want to make their mark tend to set their sights on big cities. That’s where there are multitudes of major projects, and major projects mean major opportunities, right? While the skills you develop in these roles are valuable, they can be very niche.

Artificial light has many advantages in the outdoor environment. It provides safe passageway for pedestrians and vehicles, improves the security around buildings and environments, enhances sporting and recreational activities, and is used for aesthetic or accent appearances. But where does that benefit become more of a hinderance?

When the world went online during 2020, we were lucky we had the technology ready to go. However, this adaption of technology isn’t temporary. It’s here to stay. It’s convenient, intelligent and fast. What the technology lacks is the ability to convey nonverbal communication. Intuition does not translate to zeros and ones.

In the workplace, and especially in construction projects, it’s easy to forget that there are healthy, alternative motivators. People want different things. Understanding what those things are can help to find similarities and unify visions. Different situations require different approaches to communication.

Unlike the air conditioning industry which has seen significant improvements in energy efficiency standards through multiple iterations of the NCC, cold rooms have had almost no advancements in terms of technology or energy efficiency.

In Victoria, if a new lighting pole installation exceeds a height of 8m, then a building permit is required. This building approval requirement is atypical for external lighting pole installations as they are not generally associated with buildings.

The “Guideline for Operations and Maintenance Manuals” was originally published in 2007, updated in 2010 and remained unchanged for the next 10 years. Despite every other Defence process and system relating to project management and the project lifecycle advancing over the last 10 years, OMMs had not. That is, until June 2020.

Engineers have a multitude of tools at hand to assist with their jobs. These serve to greatly reduce calculation effort, improve accuracy, shorten the time required for rework and generally allow for more refined designs. An inability or unwillingness to sanity check the outputs obtained using such tools is a risk to the suitability and efficacy of the produced designs.

The evaluation and management of remote assets can be challenging. Accessing remote sites can be costly and time-consuming for the client, invasive and often inconvenient for the resident, and risky for both the assessor and the remote community.

A Design and Construct contract sees the Principal lose some control over the design while a Construct Only contract adds coordination risks to the Principal’s shoulders. As the Principal may not have sufficient resources in-house, a DD&C utilises the wider private sector’s resources. This also allows the Principal to take advantage of the time benefits that come with undertaking some works concurrently with others.

Over the past 20 years there has been a significant decline in the number of design drafters in engineering offices. Where there used to be 3 or 4 drafters to an engineer, there are now up to 20 engineers to 1 drafter. The need for drawing is not decreasing, so who is drafting?

After decades of remote housing programs, one of the greatest challenges continues to be durability of the housing stock. Based on inspection of over 200 remote dwellings, it is clear there are engineering changes that can be made which will greatly improve durability.

Air-conditioning reduces the temperature down to comfort conditions, however in the tropics this is generally at or below the ambient dew point temperature. This means that when the ambient outdoor air is introduced into the air-conditioned space, the moisture in the air condenses into water droplets on any surfaces that are at or below the dew point.

The public’s confidence in the construction industry has taken a battering in recent times thanks to various issues including combustible cladding and significant defects in structures. While there are differing opinions, particularly as to extent and degree of regulation, the general consensus is in favour of registration of engineers. But whose pocket does it hit?

A solution to the urban sprawl is to make existing sporting facilities more accessible during the day and into the night. While the investment in sports lighting infrastructure is necessary, it should not be obtrusive to nearby residents, transportation users and environmentally sensitive areas.

Achieving a healthy indoor environmental quality with effective air conditioning and ventilation isn't always as clean-cut as the NCC and the Australian Standards' framework suggests. With the arrival of La Niña, the theory behind 'tropic-proofing' is about to be put to the test.

Projects that are run without an experienced project manager in charge of their success can be messy. If you’re a sponsor, you may not see the value of a project manager. You’ve hired a designer – they will run the design phase of the project. You’ve hired a constructor – they will run the construction phase of the project. Why would you need someone else to come in and play manager?

Cyclones pose a very real threat to communities across coastal areas of northern Australia. This isn’t news; people living in these areas are aware of the threat and there is frequent talk of buildings, particularly houses, being ‘cyclone coded’ – but what does that actually mean?