All guides: Architecture, Building Design and Urban Design: Key Resources

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Databases are collections of resources, primarily journal articles, but they can also contain conference papers, videos, ebooks, reports, images and more. Many databases specialise in a specific subject area, so you'll know when you're searching the database you will find material relevant to your studies.

Note: Some databases provide the full text of publications online, others only index journals or provide summaries of the articles. In many cases you can link to the full text by clicking on the button.

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (ProQuest)
Find journal articles on architecture and design, including bibliographic descriptions on subjects such as the history and practice of architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, historic preservation, and interior design and decoration. It contains more than 440,000 thousand entries surveying over seven hundred American and International journals.
Art and Architecture Archive (Proquest)
Find articles from trade journals and magazines comprising key research material in the fields of art and architecture, dating from the late-nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Find content related to the field of fine art, decorative arts, architecture, interior design, industrial design, landscape, gardening and photography.
ProQuest Arts Premium Collection
Find articles that cover topics on Art, Design, Architecture, Humanities, Film/Screen Studies, Music, Performing Arts, and more. With international coverage, and access to the definitive indexes in these fields, the Arts Premium Collection supports academic inquiry and is a rich source for comprehensive arts literature reviews.
ARCH: Australian Architecture Database (Informit)
This database indexes Australian and New Zealand journals only (1984+). Covers architecture, building, interior and landscape design, and some urban planning. Contains bibliographic references, abstracts, full journal articles, exhibition reviews, conference proceedings, obituaries, editorials, news items, project articles and award features.
CumInCAD: Cumulative Index of Computer Aided Architectural Design
CumInCAD is a cumulative index of publications about computer aided architectural design. It includes bibliographic information about over 8,000 records from journals and conferences such as ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SiGraDi, CAAD futures, DDSS and others. All papers include full abstracts. Full texts, in PDF, of some 5,400 papers are also available. A separate index of some 1,000 papers in Spanish language are maintained.
Bloomsbury Design Library
Find scholarly reference, books and images covering topics on architecture, design, and crafts worldwide, from 1500 BCE to the present day. Useful research and learning tool for design and visual arts, it will support both students and academics by allowing them to explore the history and context of influential design schools, people, periods, places, and disciplines.
AHB: Australian Heritage Bibliography (Informit)
Australian Heritage Bibliography (AHB), produced by the Australian Heritage Commission, indexes articles from published and unpublished material on Australia's natural and cultural environment. Coverage includes historic buildings and structures and historic towns and precincts.
BUILD: Australian Building Construction and Engineering Database (Informit)
Australian Building Construction & Engineering Database (BUILD), produced by the Building Information Resource Centre of CSIRO Building, Construction and Engineering, is a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts published and unpublished material on worldwide information in the building, construction and engineering field including fire technology.
JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive
The Arts & Sciences collections provides access to over 350 journals from a range of disciplines across the Social Sciences, Sciences, Business and Humanities subjects. Search for Scholarly articles on Architecture & Architectural History, Art & Art history, Garden & Landscape here.
Taylor & Francis Online
Find articles from peer-reviewed journals covering subject areas in the built environment (urban planning, architecture and landscape etc) here.
OnArchitecture
Find videos of building walk throughs and interviews with prominent authors and figures of contemporary architecture -- architects, designers and academics. Each video is complemented with material such as links to further reading and bibliography.
APA-FT: Australian Public Affairs - Full Text (Informit)
Australian Public Affairs - Full Text (APA-FT), is an indexing and full text database that provides Internet access to the scanned images of journal articles from published material on the social sciences and humanities includes. Provides access to journals like Architecture Australia and Landscape Australia.

For more databases in your subject area, use the A-Z Databases tool, choose Art and Design, and review the details of the databases before making a selection

Construction codes and standards

Australian Standards Online (Intertek Inform)
Contains the full text of all current Australian Standards and draft Australian standards to which Standards Australia holds the copyright. Lists ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standards.
Find many (but not all) of the Australian Standards Handbooks.
National Construction Code
The NCC is Australia’s primary set of technical design and construction provisions for new buildings developed by the Australian Buildings Code Board (ABCB).

You will need to create an account to access the NCC.

Standards
Search and find Australian and international standards on a variety of subject areas. Learn how to request standards not available at RMIT.

Practice Notes

Acumen -practice advice for architects
Provides architects with the most relevant and up-to-date advisory material and news about managing an architectural practice and managing architectural projects.
Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) information
From the Victorian Building Authority
Energy Efficiency Lighting Calculator
Developed by the Australian Building Codes Board
Environment
The Environment Design Guide (EDG) is now incorporated under 'Environment', comprising over 175 peer-reviewed design notes on built-environment sustainability within the fully redeveloped Acumen Practice Notes suite
Victorian Planning Practice Notes

Material and product information

Designbook
Includes projects from Green magazine, and an extensive listing of supplier products and services to search, collate and share efficiently.
Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA)
The Australian Ecolabel Program provided by GECA uses standards of environmental performance for different product sectors to verify product compliance for the ecolabel.
Selector
Developed in partnership with the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. View photographs, technical data, colours and textures, and much more for thousands of building products.
MaterialDistrict
Design professionals of all industries utilise this platform to discover new material solutions by matching them with their material needs.
University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture Materials collection
Search the materials collection for composition, form, process, properties, and application. Each entry includes sample images and dimensions, location and availability in our physical library, manufacturer information, and a list of material attributes.

Academic study skills

Assignments: get started

Assignments: get started is your guide to finding, evaluating and referencing sources of information.

Learning lab

Access the Learning lab to develop skills in writing, critical thinking, assessment tasks and much more.

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Library subject guides

Architecture, Building Design and Urban Design

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Find Articles

Construction codes and standards

Practice Notes

Material and product information

Academic study skills