For over 25 years our building industry, economy and Government have failed to provide this basic guarantee: new buildings will not rot. Leaky buildings are the result of an unfortunate confluence of industrial, legislative, historical and cultural factors. Collectively, these elements stubbornly continue to defy a full and final resolution. Featuring personal stories of homeowners faced with insurmountable repair costs of hundreds of thousands to their 'dream home', often leading to sickness, depression and financial loss. And revealed for the first time, withheld Government reports that estimate the total cost of leaky dwellings at $47 Billion. Rottenomics is an engaging expose into a national crisis that refuses to go away.
Since it was invented in the 1860s, Economics has been an exercise in imagination: what would it be like, if there could be a 'perfect' market, which met human needs as efficiently as possible? Bleakonomics explodes that fantasy. It is becoming increasingly well-recognised that tens of millions of British consumers now pay their electricity and water bills, train fares and the prices of most branded goods in the shops [net of retailers' costs] to foreign firms that own those services and businesses. Thus the profits from those provisions, which should be available for re-investment in the development of the British economy, are allocated wherever the foreign companies that receive the revenue decide to put it. Economics is a confection of intellectual propositions about how an imaginary economy could work 'perfectly' that was developed in the eighteen sixties and codified in Alfred Marshall's Principles of Economics [1890]. It does not describe the world that we live in, so no prescription for economic policy that is based on Economics has any validity in the material universe. A real-world disaster has been perpetrated on the British people by a succession of governments since the Second World War culminating in the socially divisive and economically ruinous Thatcherite, Blairite-Brownite and Cameron-Cleggish policies that have all leaned heavily on the delusions of Economics. David Bland claims no special intellectual attribute, except a challenge that has not been suppressed by half a century of exposure to the effusions of the self-styled 'Economics Profession'. For decades he assumed that there must be hidden depths supporting the flow of assertions about the economy and how it can optimally be managed. Professors 'peer-reviewed' each other's writings and so kept the 'profession' on the set track; thus it has become ever more incomprehensible to normal citizens. The vast majority of those who are paid fees or wages as 'economists' [and mostly have Economics degrees] are in reality working as statisticians, journalists, bank analysts and in other spheres where they can avoid citation of academic Economics for well over 90% of their time. Many such people are capable of being emancipated from the obligation to assume that there is deep sense in the formal subject. In this short book Bland takes the ultimate step of accepting that formal economics is just a fantasy that has gained good remuneration for its promoters from a purblind public for almost 155 years. Then he constructs a simple taxonomy of those things that comprise the economy, and sets out a few points about how the parts of the economy interact, and how government has an unconditional obligation to take a central and continuous role in the system. This understanding is mostly derived from the Political Economy that prevailed before Economics was invented, strongly affected by the dominating fact that intellectual property has become hugely important during the decades when it has been almost completely ignored in textbook Economics.
Sustainability and Toxicity of Building Materials: Manufacture, Use and Disposal Stages provides a review of toxicity impacts from building materials, including the consideration of the toxicity in the extraction and manufacture of the materials and eventual dismantling and disposal. This book also offers the potential to stimulate future developments in this area, both in terms of knowledge-building and methods for future research. With the increasing emphasis on sustainable construction, it has become important to better understand the impacts of common materials. Civil and structural engineers, postgraduates, researchers as well as architects will find this book to be useful in selecting sustainable building materials.While many building and furnishing materials are safe to use, in recent decades, some have had to be redesigned due to recognition that they contained problem chemicals like formaldehyde. Unfortunately, there is still limited understanding of the toxic impacts of many synthetic chemicals which means that the risks in this area are not well recognized. With increasing interest in using limited resources more sustainably, definitions of what is sustainable should be expanded to move from the focus on energy and carbon impacts to also include more explicit consideration of toxicity impacts. Examines toxicity in the extraction and manufacturing of materials Presents the short and long-term toxicity effects of natural and manmade building materials Guides readers in selecting building materials that have a positive impact on the health of occupants and the environment
The old saying ‘safe as houses’ is being challenged around the world like never before. Over recent decades homeowners have experienced the devastating effects of defects like asbestos, leaky buildings, structural failings, and more recently the combustible cladding crisis. The provision of safe and secure housing is a critical starting point to ensure that social value can be delivered in the built environment. However, some of these dangerous defects have resulted in a lack of security, safety, health, well-being, and social value for households and the wider community. The problems homeowners experience go beyond the substantial financial costs for defect rectification. Too often there has been a lack of government and industry support to help the housing consumer through these issues or to prevent them from occurring to begin with. It is time for a rethink and restructure of government policy, support, and industry practices to better protect housing consumers and deliver high-quality and sustainable housing that creates social value. Through evidence-based research and international case studies, this book focuses on the effects that dangerous defects have on the housing consumer. The ongoing construction cladding crisis is used as a primary case study throughout to highlight these implications, with other previous large-scale defect examples, such as leaky buildings and asbestos. Based upon the range of emerging evidence, we propose ideas for policy makers, construction and built environment professionals, owners corporations, and households on how to move forward towards a higher-quality, sustainable, and socially valuable way of residential living. Government policy has long focused on ‘making industry work’ through building regulations and standards. It is now time for greater government and industry focus on the consumer to make ‘consumer protection work’ in the built environment. There is a need to prevent dangerous defects like combustible cladding, better support consumers when defects emerge, and to create buildings for social value rather than minimum standards. Now is the time to build a better future for the end-user.
Modern Apartment Design provides guidelines to the design of modern apartment buildings as well as a summation of current cutting-edge practice in engineered timber construction. The book covers a brief history of apartment buildings around the world, with a broad outline of different types of apartment blocks. It has a strong focus on the design and actual construction of apartment buildings, especially those utilising mass timber, such as cross-laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber. It also features six Case Study chapters from industry-leading practitioners in the area, enabling best practice in architecture and engineering of these new apartment building types to be more widely understood and propagated worldwide. The fully illustrated, full-colour case studies span the globe and include: Clearwater Quay in Christchurch, New Zealand (Pacific Environments NZ); Wynyard Central East 2 in Auckland, New Zealand (Architectus); Dalton Works in London, UK (Waugh Thistleton Architects); Mjøstårnet, Brumunddal, Norway (Voll Arkitekter); Brock Commons Tallwood House student housing in Vancouver, Canada (Acton Ostry Architects); and Regensbergstrasse apartments in Zurich, Switzerland (Dreicon). The book will be of great interest to architects and architecture students.
This open access book explores the environmental, social, and financial challenges of housing provision, and the urgent need for a sustainable housing transition. The authors explore how market failures have impacted the scaling up of sustainable housing and the various policy attempts to address this. Going beyond an environmental focus, the book explores a range of housing-related challenges including social justice and equity issues. Sustainability transitions theory is presented as a framework to help facilitate a sustainable housing transition and a range of contemporary case studies are explored on issues including high performing housing, small housing, shared housing, neighbourhood-scale housing, circular housing, and innovative financing for housing. It is an important new resource that challenges policy makers, planners, housing construction industry stakeholders, and researchers to rethink what housing is, how we design and construct it, and how we can better integrate impacts on households to wider policy development.
“The biggest goals can be achieved when you’ve got a road map in hand. Quitting your job and living a good life, on your own terms, for decades to come? You can do it!” In this book, top New Zealand finance podcaster and journalist Frances Cook shows you how to change your money so that you can live your ideal life. Learn how, on an ordinary income, you can plan for and achieve true financial freedom, with expert advice and step-by-step information on: The basics of FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early): A Kiwi guide Your magic number: Learn how much money you need to design the life you want Finance 101: Change how you handle your money to gain control of debt and simplify your life Get paid: Techniques that work to boost your earning power in any industry You earn it, you keep it: How to save more and invest that extra income Hustle smarter, not harder: Side-hustles that work (and what to watch out for) Property investing: Making the right decision for you Give yourself options: Take time off, work part-time, or work a more meaningful job Retire early, retire often: Your tailor-made plan to take time out, retire early, or work as much as you like ...and loads more.
Based on the hugely popular Facebook page 'Shit Towns of New Zealand', this book describes New Zealand's towns and suburbs from the affluent to the effluent, the rural to the urinal, profiling all the best places not to visit, or heaven forbid, live. Slagging off our towns is as much a national pastime as binge drinking and ball sports. Ever since a Dutch bloke in a sailboat did a drive-by and claimed to have discovered the place, New Zealanders have revelled in taking the mickey. The towns and cities reviewed here have been carefully selected using an exacting set of scientific criteria, combined with extensive field research and a healthy sense of humour. 'Offensive.' Todd McClay, Rotorua MP 'Pretty funny.' Frankie Stevens, National Treasure
WOMEN & DOGS and MEN & DOGS are a stunning pair of books. Each contains 80 images of people and their dogs, from Maria Callas to Robbie Williams, Churchill to Jilly Cooper. They are an amazing collection of photos, covering a century of dogs and their owners. But they are far more than picture books, with fascinating text, full of compelling anecdotes, and dog lore, which show people in a fascinating new light -through the story of their relationships with their pets.
