Constructing Building Integrity: Raising Standards through Professionalism
Led by IEGL, this project is supported by the Australian Research Council and aims to investigate the role of professions in rebuilding trust in residential building construction in Australia. In the wake of expensive and life-threatening building defects, this project expects to generate new knowledge about the functioning of individual professionals, professionals employed in multi-profession organisations, and professionals’ interaction with their institutional environment.
Expected outcomes include practical recommendations for improved professional standards, a rigorous building integrity system and a means for measuring change. Anticipated benefits include greater awareness by professions, trades and regulators of their role in delivering the public goods of a trustworthy construction industry.
Final Industry Report
The Final Industry Report from the ARC Linkage Project ‘Constructing Building Integrity: Raising Standards through Professionalism” was formally launched to government and industry stakeholders in Brisbane on August 13, 2024. The report was compiled by researchers from Griffith University (the leading institution), Curtin University, University of New South Wales and Torrens University Australia and in close consultation with partner investigators including the Professional Standards Councils (PSC).
The report summarises the key findings from the three-year study and makes a number of recommendations, including:
- Improve contracting and procurement practices by creating an Apartment Industry Development Agency (AIDA)
- Establish national Centres of Excellence in Residential Apartment Building
- Raise standards in education, training and accreditation processes
- Promote, protect and improve professional standards through regulation
- Enhance and support professional associations’ ethical standards frameworks
The draft version of the report was presented to industry stakeholders at a workshop hosted by the PSC in Sydney on 21 June 2024. Feedback from workshop participants was incorporated into the final version of the report, which was formally launched at a Queensland Government industry event in Brisbane on 13 August 2024. The report was also presented to industry stakeholders in Perth at an event hosted by the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) on November 26, and at a Council of Australian Governance (COAG—Building Policy Working Group) presentation on December 2. The industry events included participants from government and industry associations representing a wide range of building industry professions.
Industry Fact Sheets
The research teams also compiled a series of fact sheets that outline the integrity system frameworks for the ten professions that were examined in the project, as well as cross-disciplinary fact sheets that address key issues of relevance across the building industry and provides suggested pathways for action to address them.
The available fact sheets include:
- Ten fact sheets covering architects, building designers, building surveyors, construction managers, engineers, landscape architects, property valuers, real estate agents, strata managers and town planners
- Ten supplementary resource documents that show the integrity system maps for each listed profession
- Four cross-disciplinary fact sheets that cover a range of topics, including
- 5 Top Tips for Regulating Professionals
- Integrating Profit, Quality and Ethics
- Sources of Ethical Guidance
- Becoming a Model Construction Client: Highrise Apartment Residential Sector
