Writing from the field.
Buildings, technology, and the gap between them. Craig writes about what he sees on site, and what better looks like.
Surveying, Data & AI
Throughout my career I’ve used various technology platforms to capture data. Specifically, building condition data whose destiny was to find itself tidy…
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RAAC Attack: Don’t Panic Edition
In 1924 in the city of Yxhult, Sweden, architect and inventor Dr. Johan Axel Eriksson working with Professor Henrik Kreüger at the…
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Non-Biological Intelligence: Obsolescence or Salvation …or Both?
Everything changes and nothing remains still; and you cannot step twice into the same stream Heraclitus How do we and our buildings…
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Fire Safety in the QDC
What follows will include quotations from various industry professionals. They all remain anonymous. Once we have a Grenfell we’ll start doing something…
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The Curious Case of the Exploding Windows
Not used as commonly as the word hazardous to describe building materials like asbestos, the word deleterious casts a wider net over…
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The Cracking Story of Mascot Towers
For the last five years, you may have seen mention of Mascot Towers in and out of the [Australian] news ever since…
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The Cracked Opal
Over 90% of the world’s precious opals come from Australia. The 19th century Sir Walter Scott’s novel Anne of Geierstein (1829) tells…
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The Good, Bad and Uninsulated
Temperature highs in Queensland’s summer regularly float into the 30 Deg Cs, averaging at 29C in January. When the sun had gone…
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Ceiling Legends: How Australia Molded the Plastering World
How do you accurately identify and age a plaster ceiling? Understanding Australia’s role in the history of plasterwork used throughout the today…
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Walkthroughs, commentary, and explainers from Craig and Ben — buildings, technology, and the things worth paying attention to in the built environment.
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The Building Detective
A journey into the hidden stories of property, people, and problem solving.
Craig’s narrative non-fiction draws on two decades of inspections to show how buildings fail — and how a detective’s mind works out why. If you enjoy the writing here, this is where it goes deepest.
Also available globally, wherever you buy books online.