Constructing Building Integrity: Raising Standards through Professionalism

Led by IEGL and supported by the Australian Research Council (LP190101218), this project investigated the role of building professions in raising standards, rebuilding trust, and improving consumer outcomes in the multi-storey residential apartment sector in Australia. The researchers examined the ethical and professional standards frameworks of ten building professions involved in planning, designing, constructing and managing residential apartments, and the various ethical tensions that affect professional integrity.

Key outcomes include a Final Industry Report that outlines five recommendations for improving the residential building industry integrity system, a series of industry fact sheets and profession-specific integrity system maps, and a multi-authored book that summarises the project findings (see below).

Final Industry Report

The Final Industry Report from the ARC Linkage Project ‘Constructing Building Integrity: Raising Standards through Professionalism” was formally launched to government and industry stakeholders in Brisbane on August 13, 2024. The report was compiled by researchers from Griffith University (the leading institution), Curtin University, University of New South Wales and Torrens University Australia and in close consultation with partner investigators including the Professional Standards Councils (PSC).

The report summarises the key findings from the three-year study and makes a number of recommendations, including:

  • Improve contracting and procurement practices by creating an Apartment Industry Development Agency (AIDA)
  • Establish national Centres of Excellence in Residential Apartment Building
  • Raise standards in education, training and accreditation processes
  • Promote, protect and improve professional standards through regulation
  • Enhance and support professional associations’ ethical standards frameworks

The draft version of the report was presented to industry stakeholders at a workshop hosted by the PSC in Sydney on 21 June 2024. Feedback from workshop participants was incorporated into the final version of the report, which was formally launched at a Queensland Government industry event in Brisbane on 13 August 2024. The report was also presented to industry stakeholders in Perth at an event hosted by the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) on November 26, and at a Council of Australian Governance (COAG—Building Policy Working Group) presentation on December 2. The industry events included participants from government and industry associations representing a wide range of building industry professions.

Constructing Building Integrity Final Report

Industry Fact Sheets

The research teams also compiled a series of fact sheets that outline the integrity system frameworks for the ten professions that were examined in the project, as well as cross-disciplinary fact sheets that address key issues of relevance across the building industry and provides suggested pathways for action to address them.

The available fact sheets include:

  • Ten fact sheets covering architects, building designers, building surveyors, construction managers, engineers, landscape architects, property valuers, real estate agents, strata managers and town planners
  • Ten supplementary resource documents that show the integrity system maps for each listed profession
  • Four cross-disciplinary fact sheets that cover a range of topics, including
  • 5 Top Tips for Regulating Professionals
  • Integrating Profit, Quality and Ethics
  • Sources of Ethical Guidance
  • Becoming a Model Construction Client: Highrise Apartment Residential Sector

Bayesian Network Modelling (BNM)

The project team also drew on Bayesian Network Modelling (BNM), a quantitative probabilistic method, to identify and map influential relationships and integrity system interactions.

A summary document detailing how BNM was applied for this project can be accessed here.

The BN models for Chapter 13 'Investigating Integrity: A Bayesian Network approach' of the multi-authored monograph Constructing Building Integrity: Raising Standards through Professionalism (2026) can be accessed here.

Recent publications

Multi-authored monograph

The capstone publication for the project, a multi-authored monograph, was published by Routledge in March 2026.

Constructing Building Integrity examines how ethical and professional standards can be raised in the residential apartment sector. Recent building disasters (such as the Grenfell fire) have highlighted systemic failures in the building industry’s professional and regulatory standards frameworks and have raised serious questions over how consumer confidence and public trust can be improved. To address this issue, the book explores how cross-professional interactions, regulatory oversight, public accountability, and the ‘integrity systems’ that govern individual professions' ethical and professional standards can be strengthened to enhance professionalism and improve consumer outcomes

Citation: Cooper, K., Breakey, H., Sampford, C. J. G., Gow, P., & Hampson, K. (2026). Constructing building integrity: raising standards through professionalism. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003631682

Other Project Publications

Gillon, C., Ostwald, M.J. & Easthope, H. (2025). Shifting ethical priorities and the architectural profession: a systematic review of recent research and its alignment with contemporary professional codes of conduct. Archnet Ijar International Journal of Architectural Research, 19(1), pp. 85 – 107.

London, K., Bok, B. & Pablo, Z. (2024). Building companies feel they must sacrifice quality for profits, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The Conversation, 9 October 2024

Easthope, H., Breakey, H. & Sampford, C. (2024) ‘Many strata managers who handle apartments are conflicted: here’s how’. The Conversation, 10 September 2024