Warren McLaren

Our politicians and radio shock jocks might be arguing over the need for action on green issues, but, for the most part, practitioners in the built environment industry are embracing the need for change. Warren McLaren presents a selection of events, conferences and competitions that – in addition to BPN’s own Sustainability Awards – are aimed at improving the sustainability knowledge and skills of design professions.

Some things, Warren McLaren writes, are so ubiquitous we rarely give them a second thought. Yet their impact transforms the way our world turns. Take the big boxy shipping container, for example.

Warren McLaren explores some interesting and vertical methods for designing food production into our urban environments.

How do you top designing and constructing Australia’s first carbon neutral building, currently the nation’s greenest? You might, Warren McLaren reports, raise the stakes by setting your sights on crafting the world’s tallest apartments built to passivhaus standards.

In an architectural landscape dominated by bricks and concrete, it can be difficult to open one’s mind to other ways of constructing buildings. However, Warren McLaren discovers a few pioneers are using grass as a serious building medium.

It's been six years since the first structure scored a six star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. Warren McLaren takes a quick spin around the country for a squiz at some of our more environmentally progressive buildings.