This Construction website and Blog (based overseas) covers a wide range of common Construction fields. Their list of best construction apps covers iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices and the list of Apps covers all activities from Civil works to building finishes. As it’s not an Australian based site some of the content is not really relevant to us, however there is still a lot of useful information and new ideas to be found on the site.

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has released a paper that supports a carbon price if the property and construction industry is likewise supported under a carbon pricing scheme. GBCA chief executive Romilly Madew said the organisation believes an emissions trading scheme or other carbon pricing mechanism may be “one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways for Australia to meet its international carbon reduction targets”, at the same time boosting investment in green technologies and stimulating new sectors of the economy.

The “future” is something which manifests nowhere more potently than in our cities. Yet a substantial transformation over the past twenty years in the way cities are being made – both in terms of their economy and finance but also the managerial approach to city making which accompanies this economic context – has drastically altered the context for architects and challenge the way that the profession itself is currently constructed.

Australia's property sector remains in the doldrums, with another steep fall in building approvals and a small decline in house prices. The Bureau of Statistics figures for June showed a 3.5 per cent decline in the number of building approvals, in seasonally adjusted terms, following a 6.3 per cent fall in May. Economists surveyed by Reuters were, on average, expecting a rise of about 2 per cent. Dwelling approvals slipped the most in Queensland (-18.6 per cent), and were also down in South Australia (-12.2 per cent), Tasmania (-8.1 per cent) and Western Australia (-3 per cent).