Throughout time, the great buildings of the world have shared one thing in common.
They have a capacity to touch the soul.
Our buildings aren’t just about creating functional places, they can also be about creating deeply emotional and personal places of attachment as well.
Our buildings are more than places on a map. In time, they become places of memory for us all.
Yesterday, around our country, countless Australians gathered at memorials and outlooks, where we remembered what matters to us, and paid honour to those who will always be part of us. ANZAC Day is always a special day.
In this issue of Property Australia, we look at sacred spaces from our churches and places of worship to our memorials and the places of national significance. In many ways, these projects are like any other, they must keep to budget, meet deadlines, and fulfil development requirements. However, they also must touch us, bring us together and strengthen the bonds of community – which is never an easy task in a world with a multitude of opinions.
This week, we look at some of the projects that are doing just that – from the new Monash Centre being built by the Australian Government on the battlefields of France to the expansion of the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne (which last year won Property Council / Rider Levett Bucknall Best Heritage Development Award).
These places are reminders that we aren’t just an industry that constructs buildings, but places that help create deep and sustaining communities as well.
In this issue, we look not just to the past and how it can strengthen and inspire us, we also look to the future and talk with David Thodey on how we can create a “bigger vision and better understanding of technology” throughout the industry and the economy.