As more and more high-rise apartments are developed in capital cities across Australia, are views being prioritised over good design?

In an effort to answer that question, Associate Professor Rosemary Kennedy from QUT's Design Lab looked at 15 contemporary five- to 30-storey apartment buildings in Brisbane approved after 2011.

She wanted to establish whether large expanses of glass being used in new buildings are producing unwanted heat and glare.

"Overall a developer's primary interest is to maximise their yield and their view," she told 612 ABC Brisbane's Rebecca Levingston.

"This means there's quite an emphasis on glass in the buildings, and too much glass ... they're becoming over-glazed hot boxes."

More and more high-rise apartments are being built throughout the country. ( 612 ABC Brisbane: Jessica Hinchliffe )

Professor Kennedy said more apartment buildings were being enclosed in glass "looking like commercial towers rather than apartment buildings".

"One of my major concerns is that we're not designing our buildings using good design; we're using electricity to solve design problems.

"I think this will translate into problems for occupants and tenants as our power costs rise."

In Australia, Professor Kennedy conceded, design could be challenging as there was a need for one apartment to deal with both subtropical and temperate conditions.

But she said the new builds she looked at lacked cross-ventilation, extensively used glass on facades regardless of solar orientation, had unsophisticated shading solutions and limited private outdoor living areas.

"I'm really more concerned about residents in the long term," she said.

"As more people seek to live in apartment buildings, the current designs or approach is really not treating these places as homes but as short-term living."

Professor Kennedy said future designers must learn from the mistakes of current models.

"We should be better at it," she said.

"As energy costs rise, buildings where people have to resort to using energy constantly for thermal comfort will be less attractive as better designs come on the market.

"Looking around at our public buildings, we do have the skills to design really good buildings for these conditions."