October 2009 meeting “Building Sustainably in Bushfire Prone Areas”
This meeting was held at 5:45pm on Wednesday Oct 21st at the offices of URS, level 6 no 1 Southbank boulevard, Southbank (Click here for a map)
The topic:
Building Sustainably in Bushfire Prone Areas.
Convenor: Jessica Davison
This was a fascinating meeting, but also sobering. It was incredible to see how samples of normally reliable, routine building materials had been affected in last summer’s fires.
Guest Speakers:
1. Rob Freeland (Amcer P/L) – discussed the effect of bushfires on buildings and building materials based on surveys following the 2009 Black Saturday fires. He showed us samples of materials collected after the fires, and gave some idea of the temperatures that they must have been exposed to.
2. Sven Maxa (Maxa Design) – presented a range of ways to design sustainable buildings in bushfire prone areas, and showed us the fire rating zones and some of their implications.
3. Lynne Stone (Marysville resident) – discussed the realities and practicalities of building in a bushfire area, based on her village of dwellings in Marysville.
Click here for the Agenda for the meeting
Minutes of the meeting will be put here
Click here for Sven Maxa’s slide presentation
Click here and here and here and here and here for Lynne’s pictures of Marysvile
Click here for the notes taken of the meeting
