Construction Regulations and Control

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

120 hours

OR

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.
The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website : http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject aims to give students an introduction to construction regulations including:

• relevant State and Commonwealth government legislation and the Building Code of Australia (including performance requirements, Deemed to Satisfy solutions and alternative solutions);
• fire technology including fire science, fire statistics, causes of fire, wildfire, fire prevention, fire containment, automatic fire detection, fire properties of materials, fire resistance levels, human movement and emergency egress, emergency warning systems, emergency lighting and controlling fire spread;
• an overview of the BCA Deemed to Satisfy fire related provisions and associated standards and codes;
• an introduction to fire safety engineering including analysing fire and smoke spread, use of computer tools, preparing alternative solutions, evaluating alternative solutions;
• an introduction to sustainable building practice in the context of the legislation, regulations standards and codes,

On completion of the subject students should be able to:

• understand legislative controls that impact on the building industry including the design and construction process;
• interpret and apply the Building Code of Australia to simple buildings or designs;
• Display a knowledge of the community risks that impact on the building industry and an understanding of how those risks are managed at a policy and legislative level;
• Understand the nature and cause of fire in relation to the built environment;
• Appreciate the principles of the discipline of fire safety engineering.

• one three-hour examination (60%) at the end of semester;
• one assignment on the ability to interpret and apply the Building Code of Australia to simple buildings or designs (15%) due mid semester. (1000 words or equivalent);
• one assignment on knowledge of the community risks that impact on the building industry and an understanding of how those risks are managed at a policy and legislative level (25%) due end of semester. (2000 words or equivalent).

International Fire Engineering Guidelines.
FIRE. Canberra: Australian Building Codes Board, 2005.
Beever, Paula. Research into cost-effective fire safety measures for residential buildings. Melbourne: Centre for Environmental Safety and Risk Engineering, Victoria University of Technology, 1998.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On successful completion of the subject students should have developed the following skills and capabilities:

• Professional/industry communication relating to construction regulation;
• Working in teams to collect and collate data on a real building;
• Analytical and problem solving skills;
• Strategic analysis of community risks and how to treat or solve them.