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Canberra, (TIE Australia). Following the Florida building collapse and the ongoing investigation into its cause, a Monash University expert is available to discuss the potential reasons for the collapse and how Australian and US authorities can prevent similar incidents from occurring.
Dr Duncan Maxwell, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Head of the Future Building Initiative, Department of Architecture, Monash Art, Design and Architecture, or Duncan.Maxwell@monash.edu
Dr Maxwell can discuss the following topics: The construction industry and regulations in Australia and the US, Links and contrasts to the cracking issues at Mascot Towers in Sydney in 2019, Lessons from the manufacturing industry to apply in construction industry, Building quality and safety issues that may have caused the collapse and Why it’s taking so long to find victims. There are several other points relevant that can be attributed to Dr Maxwell like “Construction is a fragmented industry worldwide. On top of this, the US has an additional lack of consistency across states, and a bottom-up approach to regulation, whereas Australia has a national code. “The Florida building was old, and was built under outdated building regulations. There are some cracking issues here in Australia, even with newer builds, such as Sydney’s Mascot Towers in 2019. This raises the need to look at both historic issues and the evolution of current regulations. These are ever-changing, but often too slowly. “Accountability will be potentially very complex. Needless to say, buildings are very large artefacts comprising a huge number of ‘parts’. The traceability of these parts through the supply chain, as well as documentation of historic design decision making, is an issue. Technology is seeking answers to these challenges, but was unfortunately not present in the Florida condos.”
