GREEN LIVING

Excelling at sustainability

Dr Philip Alviano Sustainability Advisor

Once again, this year’s entries were all excellent examples of projects able to push the boundaries in construction quality to deliver on a range of sustainability objectives.

These included energy efficiency, occupant comfort and waste reduction.

This year excellent entries were received from Llyod Group, Hickory, Building Engineering and HDP.

Best Sustainable Project – Winner Building Engineering

Project: Glenroy Community Hub

Designer: DesignInc

Photographer: Dianna Snape

Sustainability starts with reducing waste and materials used.

The Glenroy Community Hub uses an existing heritage building as a continuous part of the new Passive House certified community centre.

The community centre features maternal and child health services, an integrated long day care centre, a kindergarten, and a modern library.

It also received 3 Petals of the Living Building Challenge.

Construction techniques are critical to achieving Passive House accreditation.

The design and construction process included workshopping critical construction junctions to upskill those working onsite.

This helped ensure thermal bridge-free design and airtightness, both critical features of Passive House.

Incorporating the existing heritage building as a part of the continuous library space required maintaining complete structural and thermal separation. The existing roof structure was propped, and the internal heritage solid brick walls and windows were removed and reinstated once the adjoining structure was installed.

The new structure incorporated steel and glulam support structures.

The steel structure incorporated over 300 Schoeck thermal breaks to eliminate thermal bridging.

Secondary timber structural walls were designed to maintain required R-values.

The masonry walls are tied to the timber structure, using stainless steel brick ties to minimise thermal bridging.

Further thermal breaks included loadbearing Schoeck Novomur thermal blocks along the base of all masonry walls.

The building envelope is airtight to achieve the Passive House standard of a maximum of 0.6 air changes per hour (when tested at 50Pa). A layer of airtight wrap was introduced to the walls and ceilings.

The windows and doors also form part of the airtight layer, so the choice of aluminium windows and doors was critical in achieving airtightness for the building.

The installation methodology for the windows required expanding foam to the perimeter to prevent thermal bridging.

The wall build-up was reviewed and redesigned to eliminate condensation issues and to resolve the buildability of the many critical junctions.

Passive House requirements dictated the highly efficient design of the building’s services. Indoor air quality is maintained using heat recovery ventilation units throughout the building.

Extensive photo voltaic cells and a battery work together to provide more energy than all-electric building uses, providing a zero-carbon operation.

Natural materials such as timber and plywood were used throughout, and all furniture was formaldehyde free.

Even the colours used were essential to the feel of the space.

The main library space colour scheme reflected in the built-in seating and plywood shelving and joinery, as well as natural plants and high-quality internal finishes, creates an autumn garden feel

Outside the building, a WSUD rain treatment system includes gross pollutant traps, rainwater collection, 120kL storage and reuse, rain gardens, and a 57kL detention tank.

Electric vehicle charging points were also installed.

This project is an outstanding example of our industry achieving world best practices when clients, designers and constructors work together.