workplace health and safety Archives

Safety in Design compliance legislation driving innovation in construction and architecture

Safe Design Australia 2025

Beyond Compliance: Safe Design as a Creative Force

18 September 2025/in Safe Design & Compliance, Safe Design - General/by Safe Design Australi

by Rebekah Colman Senior Risk Consultant at Safe Design Australia

In the world of design and construction, safety and compliance with legislation is often framed as a checklist—something to be ticked off to meet regulatory requirements. But what if we flipped the narrative? What if Safe Design wasn’t just about compliance or legislation, but about creativity, foresight, and innovation?

Rethinking the Role of Safe Design

Safe Design is traditionally defined as the integration of hazard identification and risk control early in the design process to eliminate or minimise risks throughout the lifecycle of a structure. If the Model Code of Practice Safe Design of Structures is new to you, you can find it here. But while compliance in Safe Design is essential, it’s only the beginning. When embraced proactively, Safe Design becomes a strategic tool—one that enhances functionality, improves user experience, and drives long-term value.

Safety in Design Standards as a Driver, Not a Constraint

Rather than limiting creativity, Safe Design can unlock it. Here’s how:

Early hazard identification sparks better problem-solving

Designers who engage with safety considerations from the outset are forced to think more deeply about form, function, and context. This leads to more thoughtful, integrated solutions.

Collaboration breeds innovation

Safe Design requires input from engineers, end-users, contractors, and regulators. This multidisciplinary engagement often leads to unexpected insights and more resilient outcomes.

Lifecycle thinking encourages adaptive design

Considering how a structure will be built, maintained, and eventually decommissioned fosters designs that are flexible, sustainable, and future-proof.

Case in Point: Creative Outcomes from Safety-led Thinking

In recent projects, we’ve seen how Safe Design principles have led to:

Modular construction methods that reduce on-site risks while enabling faster, more efficient builds
Material choices that are not only safer but also more sustainable and aesthetically compelling
Spatial layouts that enhance accessibility and wellbeing, improving both safety and user satisfaction

Understanding and applying Safety in Design legislation is the foundation, but going further unlocks real innovation.

From Compliance to Culture..

or designing beyond Safe Design obligations

As Dr. Sidney Dekker 1. puts it

“Safety is not the absence of accidents, but the presence of positive capacities”

When Safe Design becomes embedded in culture—not just policy—it transforms how teams think, collaborate, and innovate. It shifts the focus from safety as reactive compliance with legislation to proactive design excellence.

You know what they say.. the more you know, the more you know: and knowing more about Safety in Design definitely does not have to be boring (and earns you CPD points – also not boring).

Conclusion: Designing for Possibility

Safe Design isn’t a box to tick—it’s a mindset. One that invites us to imagine better ways of building, living, and working. When we move beyond mere compliance with legislation, we don’t just make things safer—we make them smarter, more beautiful, and more enduring.

Looking to embed Safety in Design into your projects?

Contact Safe Design Australia to turn mere compliance with legislation into creativity and innovation.

Check out our free-to-download Safety in Design ebook

References:

1. Dekker, S. (2014). *Safety Differently: Human Factors for a New Era*. CRC Press.

Genoa Bridge Tragedy: Who’s responsibility is it?

27 August 2018/in Legal cases, Safe Design - General, Safety Alerts/by John Daly

The Genoa Bridge Tragedy. The question of responsibility.

The Genoa Bridge Tragedy: On 14 August 2018, a viaduct – a major motorway, constructed in the 1960s in the north of Italy, collapsed, killing 43 people. Cars, trucks and people dropped suddenly, crashing to the ground 150 metres below. Sounds surreal in this day and age. But it did happen.

Once the initial shock subsided and emergency efforts completed, the attention turned to questioning – just how did this happen?

A “cable-stayed bridge”, the design featured two pretensioned concrete cables used on both sides of the pillar. According to an article on Archinect.com, the design, “subject to corrosion, it may have made the bridge, which required constant maintenance as an essential traffic hub, vulnerable to collapse.”

An engineer who worked for the company that constructed the bridge claims that the bridge’s supporting piles weren’t built with anti-seismic materials and did not have the capacity to support the weight of heavy traffic.

As reported on News.com, the engineer that designed the bridge “warned four decades ago that it would require constant maintenance to remove rust given the effects of corrosion from sea air and pollution.”

The power of hindsight

Again, hindsight rears its ugly head with a raft of finger-pointing and mismanagement claims. Ultimately a formal investigation into the Genoa Bridge Collapse will look at a range of possible causes including materials used, wear and tear, heavy traffic, structural flaws, poor maintenance budgets and other problems. It raises an important topic for conversation and action.

The considerations for design components of structures spans well beyond the initial construction and ready for use stage. It shows the importance of understanding lifetime usage, maintenance and ease of access, the sustainability and resilience of materials to the elements, and long-term maintenance budgets.

And, ultimately asks the question. “Who’s responsibility is safe design?”

Do you know your responsibilities under safe design legislation?

For more information about the principles of safe design, responsibility for safe design, and safe design in practice, contact us.

Safe design. The benefit of hindsight.

31 July 2018/in Case Study, Safe Design - General/by John Daly

The benefit of hindsight. Changing outcomes for the future.

Safe design. The benefit of hindsight…

In February this year, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit regions of Taiwan. The image of a propped up Marshall Hotel in Huelin did the rounds on social media.

Many thought this image was comical (particularly without background of what happened) and sadly, many people lost their lives that day.

Earthquakes can’t be avoided. Every environment, region or structure, however, has its own unique circumstances or considerations, and regardless of whether it’s manmade or natural, risks can be minimised or in many cases, eliminated.

How could the application of safe design practice changed this outcome?

Consultation and collaboration with specialists to consider Safe Design throughout all phases of the design, construction and usage stages of a structure are important to ensure we continually innovate and improve, while also preventing and minimising injury through the design of safe structures and workplaces.

Emergency workers went to alarming lengths in this instance. And, we don’t have the complete view of the design, development and construction lifecycle for this project. But, do you think the outcome could have been any different in this situation?

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