Flood Relief / Assistance and Architectural Services

Posted on the 2nd 2011f February, 2011

We were lucky here at Ferrier Baudet Architects as our office sits on a hill in St Lucia and we did not get directly affected by the flood. We were also happy to hear that out of the 20 schools that we were commissioned to refurbish or build new buildings for under the BER program in the Lockyer Valley, only two suffered minor damage. In most cases, the water rose up to the school gates but amazingly didn’t enter the buildings!

Unfortunately devastation is just around the corner. A lot of houses near our office and along the river suffered major flood damage so did UQ (University of Queensland) and some of the surrounding colleges. The Lockyer Valley suffered tremendously and the recovery process will be long.

Today, a couple of weeks after the flood, our thoughts are turned to helping people that weren’t as lucky as us and were affected by the disaster.

To keep up to date on what to do and how to approach it all step by step, we have attended professional seminars organised by the Institute of Architects along with Emergency Architects Australia and Archi Centre who have been heavily involved right from the beginning.

If you have been affected by the flood, you can:

1. Contact Emergency Architects Australia for a free inspection of your damaged house by a team of professionals (architect & structural engineer). All the teams are composed of volunteers who are happy to give their time and travel to remote areas to help.

Call 3846-5621

E-mail: info@emergencyarchitects.org.au

http://www.emergencyarchitects.org.au/

2. Call Archicentre as they also offer phone consultations and provide advice on what to do after the disaster, step by step.

Call 1300-134-513

3. Get in touch with your local Council / Community to get more information on what is possible in terms of approvals and rebuilding. Ipswich City Council for example has put together excellent documents and help sheets to get everyone started.

4. Contact us, Ferrier Baudet Architects, as we can assist in the reconstruction of your home or business and we can offer professional advice on improving recovery times. With more than 30 years of experience, we can help you with the following:

• Advise on re-building timeframes
• Review and possibly change the design of the existing house (review height levels, setbacks, materials…)
• Explain and organise Building Applications (BA) and/or Development Applications (DA)
• Organise Structural Certification
• Organise work with Contractors and handle contract administration
• Or simply offer a more complete package of building design services

Do not hesitate to give us a call on 3371-6200 or email catherine@ferrierbaudet.com.au