Below are the past winners of the yearly NATSPEC Student Prize Competition:
Student prize winner: Kayak Store on the Swan River by |
Commendation winner: Utopic Construction |
High Commendation winner: What a Waste by Mitchell Pianto - University of Melbourne |
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Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in the NATSPEC Architecture Student Prize 2024.
After careful deliberation, the 2024 Jury has awarded the following prizes:
Winner
Shellshocked
Melissa Ivelja - The University of Melbourne
To download the A3 Poster click here
To download the full submission click here
Commendation
Circular Reuse of Disposable Vapes
Adele Mancini, Matthew Sabransky, Dominic Randall, Luke McKee – Deakin University
To download the A3 Poster click here
To download the full submission click here
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Anthony Burke |
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Kathlyn Loseby |
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Rebecca Moore |
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Tony Kemeny |
Judges’ Comments on the 2024 Winning Entry
“The judges were unanimous in awarding this year’s prize to “Shellshocked” for their comprehensive investigation and exploration of an unexpected recovered material, oyster shells.
Recognizing the sustainable benefits of reusing this fishing industry by product, the team impressed with their thorough technical investigation of the properties of oyster shells across a broad range of material applications, most of which were demonstrated in actual material prototypes as part of the submission.
The team combined their technical rigor with their highly creative range of applications for oyster shells, from the mundane such as gravel and concrete aggregate, to the elaborate and decorative such as Oyster Shell downpipes and colour graded oyster terrazzo that featured in their demonstration project, the Point Lonsdale Oyster Pavillion.
The jury felt this combination of imagination in application, and technical examination was exceptionally researched and well communicated."
All construction projects require a specification from the designer. Design students will one day need to write a building specification and would benefit from an introduction to what a specification is, its importance in getting the quality they want in their projects as well as its role in conforming to building regulations. The AACA National Standard of Competency for Architects requires architects to prepare architectural specifications.
The NATSPEC resources are available to institutions and/or lecturers free of charge and include online access to SPECbuilder – a specification compilation program, a number of full commercial worksections in Word format for students to see and edit NATSPEC material and all the NATSPEC TECHnotes, TECHreports and Papers in PDF format. Also included is the professional version of NATSPEC BUILDING Domestic in Word format – fully editable and printable.
Fill in the Resources for Design Students Form and email/fax/post it back to us and an email will be sent to you with login information. NATSPEC provides student access to resources via lecturers. If you are a student, check with your lecturer if you already have this available to you. If not, ask your lecturer to fill in the Resources for Design Students Form and send it back to us. Alternatively, you may provide us with contact details of your lecturer and we can contact them directly.
A general login can be created for all students. Students can use the Create a Project section to select the worksections that may be required for a project. This section presents a list of all NATSPEC worksections with checkboxes and saves the selections. The full commercial worksections are useful for students to see the extent of specification worksections and the work necessary to write a specification. NATSPEC TECHnotes, TECHreports and Papers would be very useful as an introduction to specification writing and production. They cover many technical construction and documentation topics, ESD specifying, using Standards and the Naitonal Construction Code (NCC).
TAFE Module CPCCOM2001 Read and interpret plans and specifications requires that students are able to read and interpret building specifications. NATSPEC offers teaching resources that are relevant to the delivery of this module free of charge to Institutions and/or Lecturers. NATSPEC is widely used as a building specification template and is regularly updated to reflect changes in the NCC and current Standards.
TAFE Module CPPBDN6106 Produce building information modelling for building design projects supports building designers who create and use Building Information Models (BIM) to optimise productivity and enhance streamlining of the construction process through the collaborative working methods afforded by BIM. NATSPEC offers teaching resources that are relevant to the delivery of this module to Institutions and/or Lecturers. NATSPEC is at the forefront of developing BIM guidelines and standards, such as the NATSPEC National BIM Guide and Project BIM Brief, for the benefit of the construction industry. These documents and other BIM-related resources are available free of charge from the NATSPEC BIM Portal.
Check out the Worksection Classification, to find the trade(s) you are interested in and fill out the Trade Student Resources Form indicating which worksections you would like emailed to you in a PDF format. Print them and use them as handouts to the students. It is the template designers use to write specifications and students will see the current standards and regulations that need to be complied with. This service is free of charge to Institutions and/or Lecturers and limited to 5 worksections.
NATSPEC’s STYLEguide lists symbols and abbreviations commonly used as stated in the module purpose - Recognition of commonly used symbols and abbreviations. NATSPEC’s relevant worksections, including the defined terms and TECHnotes are invaluable tools in the comprehension of written job specifications as stated in the module. Even if the module is not a requirement of your course, the information provided in the relevant worksections would be useful in highlighting the standards and regulatory requirements in your field.
If you are a lecturer in CPC30320 Certificate III in Concreting, the above TAFE Module CPCCOM2001 is part of your course. You may be interested in using the following NATSPEC worksections: 0310 Concrete – combined, 0311 Concrete formwork, 0312 Concrete reinforcement, 0313 Concrete post-tensioned, 0314 Concrete in situ, 0315 Concrete finishes, 0318 Shotcrete, 0321 Precast concrete and 0322 Tilt-up concrete.
NATSPEC, producer of the national master specification, believes it is important that students understand the importance of good documentation, especially where specifications are concerned, and has therefore designed a number of packages for educational institutions.
The NATSPEC Library Package contains all the NATSPEC worksections. Provided on a USB, the documents are fully searchable and printable (low resolution print with Education Watermark) for deployment only within tertiary libraries (the library should take all necessary precautions that the documents are available only within the library). It contains the following Acrobat PDF documents:
The Library Package is available at a greatly reduced subscription cost of $495 + GST per annum and is updated annually. To subscribe just fill out the Library Subscription Form and send it back to us.
For more information on any of the above please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call us on 1300 797 142.
Digital archiving is the process of collecting records in a digital environment. Records may include drawing documentation, specifications, reports, email correspondence and photographs, and may be stored in a range of file types.
The key challenges associated with archiving born digital architectural records include
• The rationale for collecting records produced in a digital environment.
• Which records to archive.
• How to archive them.
• How to achieve digital continuity in rapidly evolving and changing electronic environments.
NATSPEC supported the University of South Australia Architecture Museum for further research into current digital archiving practices and the preparation of a draft national Australian framework for archiving digital architectural records.
The scope of the Towards a National Framework Project included:
The National Framework Trial aimed to test an approach:
NATSPEC is pleased to host the following modules, developed as an introduction to digital archiving of architectural records.
Training Module 1: Introduction
Training Module 2: File validation using checksums
Training Module 3: Digital archival file management
Training Module 4: Retention and disposal guidelines
Resources
TECHnote GEN 030: Digital Archiving discusses requirements for successful long-term storage of, and access to, digital archival records.
TECHnote GEN 031: Digital Archiving Glossary is a glossary of digital archiving-related terms.
TECHnote GEN 032: File Naming and Project Folder Structure discusses the benefits of well-considered digital file management and outlines the principles of file and project folder naming and folder structure.
TeraCopy is a ‘freemium’ file copying utility (free for non-commercial use) that enables easy generation and checking of fixity information for any directory structure. TeraCopy installation instructions.