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Sustainable Urban Construction Law (LAWS90029)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5Not available in 2017
Overview
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Sustainability is the latest movement influencing the regulation of the built form of our increasingly large, complex, and conflicted cities. An interest in sustainable development has also seen urban regulators embrace more participatory and innovative forms of governance and economy.
This subject explores the trends in sustainability that have particular pertinence to the regulation of construction, and the attempts of law makers to grapple with sustainable development in the city. In particular, the green building standards and certification, and the role of municipal and state laws. A key component of this subject will be the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) as an instrument of construction management to achieve sustainability requirements and objectives. This subject has been designed for those interested in the intersection between construction law and environmental law. The teachers in the subject have expertise across both fields in practice and academia.
This subject provides a contemporary and forward looking examination of the laws that are encouraging more sustainable cities, with a contextual focus on Greater Melbourne, but with no specific jurisdictional focus. Principal topics include:
- Sustainability in the city; exploring new ideas on what sustainable development means in an urban setting, policy priorities for sustainability, ideas of new governance for sustainability, and new economic and legal models to achieve sustainability outcomes. This topic will be explored through a field trip in the city.
- Energy efficiency and the regulation of green buildings, through voluntary and mandatory schemes, including GreenStar and BASIX, and a comparison of green rating and standard tools in Australia (NABERS), the US (LEED) and the UK and Europe (BREEAM)
- A sustainability analysis of the National Construction Code.
- The use and role of land use planning laws and local governance to achieve improved sustainability features in the built urban environment, focusing on Victorian laws
- The development and future expansion of alternative construction management methods, focusing on Building Information Modelling (BIM), especially insofar as this model offers great capacity for sustainability requirements to be incorporated into construction projects and represents a new more participatory form of construction management.
- An applied case study analysis of how sustainable urban construction law works in practice.
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has successfully completed this subject will:
- Have an advanced and integrated understanding in an urban and contemporary context of the role and function of law – regulatory and contractual – to achieve sustainability objectives in the built environment
- Be able to demonstrate an appreciation of the changing role and forms of governance and economy within a sustainable city and the manner in which these changes are affecting laws and legal relationships
- Have the expert, specialised cognitive skills to be able to deal at an advanced level with the major regulatory aspects of green buildings and sustainability in municipal law
- Have an advanced understanding of the sustainability objectives and requirements within the National Construction Code (incorporating the Building Code of Australia)
- Be familiar with, be able to critically reflect on, and be confident in working across, the interaction points between environmental and construction law in the pursuit of sustainable development.
- Have a detailed, critical and technical understanding of the contract management models, specifically those relating to Building Information Modelling (BIM), that have the capacity to most effectively ensure that sustainability requirements and objectives are incorporated into construction projects
- Be able to demonstrate the research and communication skills to independently investigate, examine and analyse existing and emerging legal issues relating to urban construction laws for sustainability.
Last updated: 3 November 2022