MELBOURNE Spencer Street Tower, Melbourne Photo credit: The Age, SIMONE FOX KOOB PART II – HOW DO OWNERS HANDLE THEIR LIABILITY ARISING FROM THE EXISTENCE OF ACP ON THEIR BUILDINGS? Recently, the Lacrosse Tower fire of 2014 was in court. Judgement was found against four parties; the Builder, Architect, Fire Consultant and Principal Certifier. The largest share of the liability was given to the Architect. The judge was quick to say that this judgement should not be considered a general precedent because her judgement was more to do with the wording of the architect’s contract than th ..read more

MELBOURNE, LACROSSE TOWERPHOTO CREDIT: ARCHITECTUREAU, Metropolitan Fire Brigade. PART I – HOW DID IT HAPPEN? ACP is popular all over the world. Notable known failures include: Lacrosse Tower, Melbourne in 2014 Dubai Hotel Fire (NYE) in 2016 Grenfell Tower, London in 2017 Spencer Street Tower, Melbourne in 2019 How many others have been kept quiet? Why has so much cladding been allowed to be put on buildings around the world which was a fire risk? Clearly, this is not just an Australian issue? Answer. A move from a building industry governed by professional persons directly accountable for ..read more

140 Sussex Street, Sydney. Designed by Rickard Engineering in 1989. As good as new in 2019. I was interested to read the view of Lynda Kypriadakis (Australian Financial Review – 13 July 2019) regarding the suggestion that we should return building control to the District Building Surveyors. The reader may be interested to know that I originally suggested this to the Secretary of the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors in June 2012, during the BPB Seminar held at the Wesley Centre, Pitt Street, Sydney. He immediately pleaded to me not to continue with that suggestion. Some may thin ..read more

CHAPTER 2: DEVELOPMENTS JANUARY-JUNE 2019 Recognising that there is a problem – Why did it take so long? • We now have two large residential tower projects which have caught the imagination of the Australian media and the Government. It is ironic that all of the endeavours in the last seven years and more to get Government to properly focus on building defects have been ignored. All of those buildings of four storeys and less (from where the bulk of claims upon the Home Building Compensation Fund emanate) have largely been ignored over the years. The Owners Corporation Network, a body wh ..read more

Europe is leading the way, it’s time the rest of the world caught up! In light of the growing issue of global warming, a movement towards renewable energy sources and a goal to decrease CO2 emissions, the construction industry needs to better realise its responsibility to play its part. The building sector is responsible for around 30% of total final energy use around the world, therefore the potential for a significant reduction in CO2 is real. In Australia, we suggest there is a need for the government to legislate more strongly in order that the growth in energy efficient buildings grow ..read more

Every company will nominate that they can design anything; very few companies can match the range of skills within the field of Civil and Structural Engineering that are offered by Rickard Engineering. Since 1984, the company has built its reputation on being a small (and therefore personalised) firm of Civil and Structural Engineers. Our series of “Big Things” around the globe Pacific Square (Maroubra NSW)—Biggest Structural Engineering Project RHM Consulting Engineers (Charles’ first company which he directed from 1984-2006) was responsible for the structural and façade engineer ..read more