Infolink | BPN Magazine May/June 2017

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THE FUTURE OF OFFICE DESIGN

DIGITAL DESIGN | INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS | GREEN LIFTS | ENERGY HARNESSING | + MORE

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A WORK OF

ARCHT

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B R I D G I N G C R E AT I V I T Y AND BUILDABILITY

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Enter now.

Entries for the 2017 Sustainability Awards are currently open. www.sustainablebuildingawards.com.au

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CONTENTS

EDITOR’S LETTER

F

OR SO MANY PEOPLE, THE MAJORITY OF WAKING HOURS ARE POURED INTO WORK. BY EXTENSION, THIS MEANS A SIGNIFICANT CHUNK OF TIME IS SPENT IN THE OFFICE – PERHAPS MORE EVEN THAN IS SPENT AT HOME. The health and wellbeing of workers is a relatively new topic of conversation, and it’s fast gaining traction. But whereas much of mainstream talk has been dedicated to small-scale wellbeing measures, such as the now ubiquitous standing desk, it’s arguably the building itself that contributes the most to the collective and ongoing wellbeing of its workers.

In this issue, we explore buildings that work nine to five and beyond to keep their inhabitants healthy and productive. In Queensland’s Fortitude Valley, for instance, we have Floth, Australia’s first 6-star Green Star Design-rated building, which automatically regulates CO2 levels of the interior. In a considered piece on the rise of ‘intelligent’ building management systems, we have a case study from Victoria that demonstrates how automation of a council building’s air displacement and temperature systems has enhanced both internal work environments and productivity.

3,778 150-metre-plus buildings ever constructed have been demolished, and learn about the ongoing effects of poor-performing buildings to sustainability outcomes. Across a series of other pieces – on lift design and energy harnessing, to name a couple – we explore potential solutions of varying scales.

For the team here at Architecture & Design Magazine, this issue was a timely one. We found ourselves writing about innovations in the commercial space just as our own office was undergoing some of its most significant changes in recent history. After 3.5 years as part of the InDesign Media family, former A&D editor Nathan Johnson has moved on from his post, leaving some quite substantial shoes to fill.

So substantial were these shoes that we’ve taken four feet to fill them. Just over a month ago, I was fortunate enough to find myself, as assistant editor, the newest member of the Architecture & Design office. Soon, I will be joined

by Branko Miletic – the 2002 Bell Award-winner for Editor of the Year – who brings to his new role as A&D editor a long and formidable history in the industry.

To state the obvious, change is a natural part of any life – inside and outside the office, from individuals to whole industries. As we continue to grow and learn and progress, all we can hope for is that any transformations we undergo along the way will ultimately be for the better.

It’s not just workers’ health that benefits from high-performing buildings, however. The efficiency of a commercial building also has a significant effect on the wellbeing of our environment.

In a feature on glass façades, we discover that only four out of the

KIRSTY SIER

EDITOR BRANKO MILETIC EDITOR@ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU

DESIGNERS JULIA GEE TRACEY HEIN

DEPUTY EDITOR KIRSTY SIER

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER ADRIAN WILSON PHONE: +61 (0)2 9018 2037 MOBILE: +61 (0)417 779 215 ADRIAN.WILSON@ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU

CONTENT PRODUCERS GERALDINE CHUA NATHAN JOHNSON MCKENNA MOROZ JASMINE O’DONOGHUE NICHOLAS RIDER

ON THE COVER: REALM BY ELENBERG FRASER WILL SOON BE ADELAIDE’S TALLEST RESIDENTIAL TOWER, YET THE BUDGET WAS “NOT THAT MUCH MORE” THAN OTHER BUILDINGS IN THE CBD. ON PAGE 50 WE EXPLORE THE DIGITAL DESIGN TOOLS THAT ENABLED THIS.

INDUSTRY

SPECIFY

08

36 Goodbye to glass skyscrapers?

42 Trials of the changing

The latest news on building product innovations and the profession

10 3XN’s Fred Holt on Circular

10 11 Zaha Hadid’s Michele Pasca di Magliano talks 600 Collins St and the future of the firm

DETAIL

16 An in-depth look at Barangaroo’s commercial backbone

22 A mini tower addition to a

46

19th-century worker’s cottage exemplifies sensitive development

30 The incredible greenness

24

46 Intelligent buildings: a magic wand solution?

of Floth 69 Robertson Street

50

Bringing architecture into the digital realm

30 10

54 The gradual greening of lifts 58 Directory 60 Product showcases

CLIENT SUCCESS MANAGER STUART GEACH PHONE: +61 (0)2 9018 2035 STUART.GEACH@ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU FOR SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE: 02 9018 2040 ISSN 1039-9704

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Opinions and viewpoints expressed by interviewees, writers and columnists in Infolink BPN do not necessarily represent those of the editor, staff or publisher of the magazine.

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energy status quo

Quay’s stacked box design

© Copyright Architecture & Design 2016. All rights reserved. No part of the publication can be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Utmost care is taken to ensure the accuracy of the editorial matter. Product specifications and claims are those of the manufacturers.

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INDUSTRY

CROSS-STATE COLLABORATION SEES NIGHTINGALE LAND IN BRISBANE

CONCRETE EYESORE TRANSFORMED

BY CLT AND GLULAM TIMBER TECH BVN has sourced a variety of engineered timber products from around the world for its upcoming alteration of a 1970s concrete building in NSW.

Two Australian architecture firms will work across state borders in coming years to bring the Nightingale model to Queensland for the first time.

The team will update and extend the old Telstra training centre in North Strathfield, which is currently the site of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School.

http://www.bvn.com.au/projects/ north-strathfield-primary-school/

BVN’s project concerns all of the building’s levels in addition to its external skin. Upon completion, the building will be home to 450 primary students. It has been earmarked as a template for the future of inner-city school designs.

IS MELBOURNE’S TALL, SKINNY SKYSCRAPER MAKING A COMEBACK?

While its claim to be an environmentally-friendly model for adaptive reuse is sound, it is the building’s structural composition and interior finishes that are currently making headlines.

Brisbane’s James Davidson Architect (JDA) and Melbourne’s Austin Maynard Architects (AMA) will collaborate on the design and development of a Nightingale Housing project at an unconfirmed location in Brisbane.

The project will be the first in QLD to use the innovative Nightingale investor model. The Commons in Melbourne by Breathe Architects was the first of the Nightingale projects to be completed.

Speaking with A&D, James Davidson of JDA says he expects the project to be well-received by the Brisbane community – and particularly by architects.

“I BELIEVE THAT THE NIGHTINGALE CONCEPT IS DOING THINGS BETTER. IT’S A REAL OPPORTUNITY TO TACKLE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY.” – JAMES DAVIDSON, JDA

“I think this will go really, really well,” he says. “Even within the architecture circles here in Brisbane we’ve been getting a lot of texts [because] I told somebody at the university, and it’s just gone like wildfire.”

Davidson has already been working with AMA on the project for several months. He says they’re close to settling on a site.

AMA’s experience with Nightingale designs will of course prove beneficial. The firm has already received a development permit to build Nightingale 3 in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. This has been so popular that they’ll be forced to turn purchasers away.

Davidson claims his experience as a developer drove his passion to deliver something like Nightingale to Brisbane.

“I’ve always had an interest in looking at doing things better,” he says.

“I believe that the Nightingale concept is doing things better. It’s a real opportunity to tackle housing affordability.” http://nightingalehousing.org/

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A study conducted by the Human Research Institute in Austria reveals the many significant benefits of timber structures for students. Results showed students in timber classrooms had decreased heartbeats and reduced stress levels in comparison to students in standard classrooms.

The building has been called the first Australian school of the timber age. It will be fitted with a new Glulam portal frame, cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls and a unique CLT slab/acoustic ceiling system.

Three years since being approved for development by then-planning minister Matthew Guy, Melbourne’s lankiest skyscraper could finally be going ahead.

Fairfax reports that the site and permit for the approved 19-storey tower in Southbank will be sold, giving the development a possible second chance at life.

The original plan for the tower was designed

by Melbourne-based BKK (Black Kosloff Knott) in 2011. The 597sqm site was reportedly subject to several subsequent failed marketing campaigns. Commercial Real Estate says that a change of hands is now imminent.

The proposed tower – which is a mere 12m wide at its narrowest point – was actually approved twice by Guy: first in early 2013, and again in late December after a challenge from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

It will rise to 238m and feature twisting ‘flower stem’ floorplates; a design which reportedly provides optimal natural light to the apartments within. The tower will contain 256 apartments in total, as well as an elevated spa, sauna, pool deck and an activated ground level containing shops and cafes.

The Glulam portal frame system will be sourced from Swiss company Neue Holz, who will ship it pre-cut and assembly-ready. The pieces will be joined using plug connections – called ‘GSA Technology’ – developed in-house by Neue Holz.

The GSA system comprises a set of plugs and steel rod connectors that are adhered to the Glulam with epoxy resin. The result is a precise, high-performing join. According to Neue Holz, this will only account for a reduced efficiency of ‘n = 0.80’ at the connection.

Aside from its sustainability aspect, BVN has pointed to new research surrounding occupant health and behaviour to justify its use of engineered timber in a school building environment.

The tower has been likened to the slender towers of the world’s major cities, including One Maddison Park and 785 Eighth Street in New York. More locally, it joins the recentlycompleted The Phoenix apartment tower on Flinders Street by Fender Katsalidis Architects, which stands 89m tall and is just 6.7m wide.

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industry

At the time of approval, Guy predicted this design style would be something we’d be seeing more of in the coming decades.

“Yes, it’s skinny. Yes, it’s different. But we will have to do business differently in the next 20 years [compared] to how we’ve done it in the past, and this is a perfect example,” he said.

The low charge to high-heat-producing qualities of the technology offer affordable opportunities and solutions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and assisting with the adoption of alternative energy.

The Student Experience Survey (SES) conducted by the federal government and administered by the Social Research Centre asked current students to provide feedback about the learning experience at their chosen university.

The technology is currently being developed for use in common building applications (for instance, wall construction and underfloor heating).

Griffith ranked top of the Architecture & Urban Environments, Building & Construction category on all but one of the ‘Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT)’ within the SES. The Gold Coast-based campus scored a total of 86.4 out of 100 for ‘overall quality of educational experience’, based on student feedback.

COLLECTIVE ACTION TO BENEFIT NEW FLOORING INDUSTRY ALLIANCE

http://intelliparticle.com.au/

Three Australian flooring industry associations have joined forces to work together on a new, common platform.

MISSING MIDDLE DESIGNS INDICATE BRIGHT FUTURE FOR NSW MEDIUM-DENSITY HOUSING

The Australian Flooring Industry Alliance brings together peak industry associations from Australia’s $20-billion flooring industry.

Members include the Australian Resilient Flooring Association (ARFA), the Australasian Timber Flooring Association (ATFA), and the Carpet Institute of Australia Limited (CIAL).

The winning designs of the Missing Middle Design Competition indicate a bright future for medium-density housing in NSW and the validity of a new SEPP for medium-density housing in the state.

The new alliance will work collaboratively on issues that are important to their respective members, as well as to the flooring industry more broadly. Some of the issues that have been earmarked include installer skill shortages, quality of vocational training, government policy, programs and regulations that affect the flooring industry, and industry standards.

The effectiveness of the alliance will no doubt benefit from collective action and a united front formed by some of the most prominent associations in the business.

The nationwide competition was a collaborative effort between the NSW government architect and the NSW Department of Planning and Environment. It called upon architects and building designers to showcase their visions for the future of medium-density housing in NSW. Entrants used the draft Medium Density Housing Code and draft Medium Density Design Guide, developed by the state government at the end of 2016, as the basis for their designs. They worked within the three different medium-density categories considered to be essential parts of a diverse and affordable housing market.

As alliance members, each participating association will be represented by their chair or president and their CEO. Participating associations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the aims and rules of operation of this important flooring industry initiative.

Submissions to the competition displayed imagination in creating dual occupancy, terrace and manor homes that utilised space, light and smaller blocks as part of the medium-density guide and code.

AUSSIE CARBON AND GRAPHITE INVENTION COULD CHANGE THE WAY WE HEAT BUILDINGS

Poulet said the designs will contribute to the final design guide and housing code. They will contribute to making well-designed, low-rise, medium-density homes a reality in Sydney’s middle-ring suburbs and beyond.

An Australian company has created a formulation of industrial carbon and graphite particles that produce heat when provided with a low charge.

Intelli Particle invented, manufactured and licensed the technology. It can be used in small amounts and incorporated into the composition of a variety of construction materials, products, household fixtures, fittings and appliances that either require or produce heat.

So far, it has been successfully incorporated into paint, polymers, resins, concrete, fabric and glass.

This versatility makes it a viable product for architects, builders and other relevant groups.

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NSW government architect and competition jury chair Peter Poulet said the competition presented an opportunity to see draft policy in action, to test it, and to get feedback.

The government is exploring the idea of building demonstration homes based on these designs.

IS THE GOLD COAST THE MOST SATISFYING PLACE TO STUDY ARCHITECTURE? According to one survey, the architecture undergraduate course offered at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus provides the highest overall quality of educational experience in the country.

Interestingly, Griffith outstripped some of Australia’s largest and most prolific architecture schools, including RMIT University (79.9%), Queensland University of Technology (77.5%), University of New South Wales (75.2%), University of Sydney (73.2%), University of Technology Sydney (74.2%) and Curtin University (71.5%).

Bond University (83.7%) and University of Newcastle (83%) came in second and third respectively.

The University of Melbourne – recently named the 19th best university architecture faculty in the world by Quacquarelli Symonds – was not included in the rankings as less than 25 students participated in the survey.

According to one survey, the architecture undergraduate course at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus provides the highest overall quality of educational experience in the country.

The Architecture and Building category incorporated areas of study outside architecture, including urban design and regional planning, landscape architecture and interior and environmental design, and building construction management.

The national average for overall quality of educational experience across all undergraduate courses is 76.3 percent. https://www.qilt.edu.au/

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INDUSTRY

INSIDE THE STACKED BOXES: 3XN’S FRED HOLT ON CIRCULAR QUAY TOWER

What makes the QQT significant and how will it stand out in the region?

3XN’s design for Quay Quarter Tower is the antithesis of the prevailing belief that high-rises are generic and non-contextual. It humanises the high-rise through its internal workspace environment and responds directly to the urban scale and the immediate site. It enhances the public domain and extends it over three levels of the podium to a publically-accessible urban park.

This is not just an office building, but also the key to a newly-activated public domain in Sydney’s CBD. The tower comprises a stack of vertical villages while the podium acts as the horizontal village, with its mixed-use of program offerings over extended hours at a variety of architectural scales, enlivening this part of the city beyond the working day. This horizontal village will be a porous cluster of public volumes that attract and enhance activity across the site and offer access from multiple points along its 11-metre fall.

T

HE QUAY QUARTER TOWER (QQT) AT SYDNEY’S CIRCULAR QUAY WILL BE THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN PROJECT FROM DENMARK ARCHITECTURE FIRM 3XN AND THE LARGEST FROM ANY DANISH ARCHITECT SINCE JORN UTZON’S SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE. It will rise 200 metres into the Sydney skyline from 50 Bridge Street and incorporate the majority of the existing AMP Capital building’s structure (currently located on the site) as its core.

Architect and partner at 3XN, Fred Holt, was in town recently for the Australian Smart Skyscraper Summit, so we caught up with him to discuss the design philosophy behind QQT and how he believes it will change the perception of skyscrapers in the Asia-Pacific region.

You’ve previously described the QQT project as “humanising the high-rise”.

How is this put into practice?

We feel that enhancing the everyday experience is an important part of creating the workspace of the future and furthers the idea of humanising the high-rise. The building is meant to be a social catalyst and incubator for interaction that will activate the neighbourhood at its base and humanise the high-rise via a collection of ‘vertical villages’ within the tower. 3XN designed QQT from the ‘inside out’ and the ‘outside in,’ ensuring that it met the needs of its commercial tenants while also meaningfully contributing to Sydney’s urban fabric. Its formal massing responds to light and view opportunities, while its interior encourages interaction, knowledge-sharing and vertical connectivity.

How does the new QQT design achieve open dialogue with the skyline?

Despite popular belief, high-rises are, or should be, site-specific and not contextually generic. The tower’s impact on the skyline is important, but not more important than how it addresses its urban context. QQT responds directly to its site at the edge of Sydney’s central business district near the Opera House.

The 200-metre-high tower comprises a series of shifting volumes stacked upon each other.

This approach connects with the skyline in an

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innovative and captivating way by reducing the perceptual scale of the building, while allowing the lower levels of the tower to feel intentionally connected to their immediate urban context.

Rather than face directly into the adjacent building, the lower levels of the tower’s northern elevation shift to the west to capture the energy and movement from the surrounding neighborhood as well as views to [Sydney] Harbour Bridge.

As the building rises or stacks, the northern façade shifts to the east, with views to the larger harbour, such as the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and [Sydney] Botanical Gardens. QQT responds to both its immediate surroundings, enhancing the activation at its base, while allowing the upper levels to take advantage of panoramic views of the harbour, botanical gardens and skyline. This not only occurs from within its interior space, but its external terraces between each block as well.

3XN believes ‘architecture shapes behaviour’. What does this mean practically, and how does 3XN realise this school of thought in the new QQT design?

It’s true; at 3XN, we believe that architecture shapes behaviour. This might seem an obvious statement, yet when you start from this point of view, it changes the approach to design and how you address the user.

For instance, by both stacking and shifting the tower blocks, we create a collection of exterior terraces that link to the multi-level interior atria, which will contain shared amenity spaces for tenants in each block. These common amenity spaces provide stunning views both vertically and horizontally and bring daylight deep into workspaces. The combined effect of the architecture is aimed at promoting collaboration and interaction in the workplace.

How will the QQT enhance the daily experience of occupants compared to a conventional mixed-use high-rise?

This also relates to the previous question.

There was a conscious decision to divide the building into five separate volumes and place atria throughout each. By doing so, it transforms the typical monotony and stack of a conventional high-rise into more human-scale spaces; creating more intimate social environments. [It encourages] people to connect and interact over multiple floors - an atypical commercial high-rise experience. n

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BEHIND THE FAÇADE: ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS’ PROJECT DIRECTOR DISCUSSES 600 COLLINS ST

How did the concept for 600 Collins Street come about and what part did local context play (if any)?

available in the Australian market. For the façade, we developed a GRC panelling system and are currently studying its installation.

When I first visited Collins Street, I noticed that there is a very interesting architectural context.

Yet most contemporary buildings do not respond to it. Conservation generally intends to leave the historic façade intact and build a modernist building around it. In 600 Collins, we did not have any heritage element onsite, yet we worked to create a building that departs from plain curtain wall and developed a new type of façade panelling that relates to some of the CBD’s historic buildings.

What attributes or design elements of the 600 Collins Street design reflect the Zaha Hadid philosophy?

The building curves inward at the ground, creating a new laneway and enlarging the Collins Street pavement. [This] is especially needed in the west area of Collins Street, which does not have as many pedestrian laneways as the eastern CBD. We can’t fix it all with one development, but we hope to kick-start the process and encourage more projects to provide more open public space at ground level.

M

ELBOURNE CBD WILL SOON BE HOME TO A NEW SKYSCRAPER FROM INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE FIRM ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS.

The $300-million, mixed-use tower on Collins Street will include 420 apartments, office and retail spaces, and communal public areas – for instance, a ground-floor art space, a public plaza and a publicly-accessible terrace.

Michele Pasca di Magliano is associate director at Zaha Hadid Architects, based in the United Kingdom. Throughout the course of his career, Magliano has led several competition-winning schemes, such as the d’Leedon residential complex in Singapore, which received the World Gold Award for Residential High-Rise at the FIABCI World Prix d’Excellence Awards in 2016.

Currently, Magliano is leading a number of projects across East Asia and Oceania.

One of these is 600 Collins Street, for which he is project director.

We caught up with him to discuss 600 Collins Street, working in Melbourne, and the thinking behind that unique stacked-vase massing.

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The publicly-accessible spaces continue at a high level with a public F&B deck above the podium. [This] takes inspiration from successful examples in London and Hong Kong; a type of space which was missing on Collins Street.

What benefits do the stacked volumes have for this building?

We came up with the concept of stacking vases, where each vase acts as a container for different mixed-use elements or [a] combination of [elements]. The most interesting conditions arise when the vases intersect, creating opportunities for outdoor access, sky lobbies, and spaces that really enrich our client’s brief and the building offering. People will be attracted to them as they can see from the street that something special is happening there. Thanks to our 3D design techniques, the floors immediately above those connections are also affected with downward-looking façades that will bring the outdoor spaces back into the building.

What design elements, technologies or innovations of the project make it unique or set it apart from other high-rise structures?

Mainly structure and façade. On the first, we worked closely with our engineers to generate a structural system that followed the logic of the building geometry and its vases concept while working with construction technologies

Every project has a unique brief, site and climate, and we have our approach on how to tackle those. Our philosophy is to treat every project as an opportunity; to evolve concepts and challenge the status quo. We are very interested in volumetric modulation in high-rises, creating façades and building envelopes that respond to both the local climate and the client brief. [This] allows us to create a very rich response to spatial problems. We conceive space as a social structure – people interact firstly within architectural space. A well-designed building allows better communication between its occupiers, as well as better privacy where needed for the residential component, for instance. Façade layouts and vertical transportation also generate a welldesigned space in line with our philosophy: [to make it] more efficient, productive and enjoyable.

Where do you think the future of ZHA lies within the high-rise space? What design elements will we see more of?

How will ZHA evolve in the future?

We are busy working at different scales.

High-rises tend to be the response to dense urban clusters and the desire to be as close as possible to the centre. We work on bringing more communication and a sense of belonging to tall buildings; creating buildings where you can see what happens around you both horizontally and vertically.

Our technological innovations are always driven by a new design concept. I really don’t see the point of developing new technologies if buildings end up similar to their predecessors.

But new designs and spatial solutions lead to innovation in an industry that is simply much slower to adopt new technologies compared to others, yet it creates long-lasting legacies that affect everyone in our cities.

We are very optimistic about the future and are working on developing new software tools that allow us to freely pick from different platforms and combine the best features of each.

We are now using robotics and 3D printing at a new scale, helping these tools to make their way into the construction industry. n

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FUTURE PROOFING HEALTHCARE WITH GOOD DESIGN

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WELL-DESIGNED HEALTHCARE FACILITY HAS A PROFOUND IMPACT ON THE LEVEL OF CARE, THE FEEL OF THE SPACE AND ITS USABILITY. THE BENEFITS ARE WELL DOCUMENTED, WITH MORE THAN 1,000 RESEARCH STUDIES POINTING TO HEALTHCARE DESIGN AS A WAY TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE AND MEDICAL OUTCOMES AND DECREASE MEDICAL ERRORS AND WASTE. IN THE PAST, CLEANLINESS WAS THE MAIN FOCUS OF DESIGNING A HEALING ENVIRONMENT TO COMBAT COMMUNICABLE DISEASES, LEADING TO HEALTHCARE FACILITIES TRADITIONALLY POSSESSING A CLINICAL AND COLD AESTHETIC. WHILE CLEANLINESS REMAINS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, THERE IS AN INCREASING RECOGNITION OF THE ROLE A PLEASANT ENVIRONMENT PLAYS IN PATIENT RECOVERY. BY INCORPORATING GOOD DESIGN INTO HEALTHCARE PROJECTS, FACILITIES WILL PROVIDE BETTER OUTCOMES FOR PATIENTS AND STAFF AND LAST LONGER.

Poorly designed healthcare centres can have massive ramifications for the wellbeing of patients and staff, leading to errors and safety issues.

Cognitive psychologists have found humans are more likely to make errors or behave clumsily in a badly conceived and poorly designed health care setting. Good design can increase efficiency by reducing distractions, standardising the locations of equipment and supplies and providing adequate space for documentation and work areas.

To meet these increased expectations, architects working on healthcare projects need to be innovative, creating a space agile enough to cater to the current needs of the facility and flexible enough to adapt to any changes in technology, procedures and practices. Architects need to be on the front foot, seeking out education on the latest industry movements, and tracking down information on how to specify in different areas of a healthcare environment.

HOW TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS

Download this free white paper to find out how to design a healthcare environment fit for the future.

The healthcare environment can be improved by creating facilities with high functioning, good design. Designing in a healthcare environment proposes a different set of challenges to any other environment as it is constantly evolving due to changes in technology, budgets, patient demographics, and industry-specific challenges.

Healthcare operational policies change, on average, every five years. Yet, major healthcare facilities are typically designed for 30 years, but remain in use for more than 50 years.

Download the full whitepaper at http://bit.ly/2q1vlqn

ADVERTISING FEATURE – COMFORT HEAT

THE CHALLENGES FACING ARCHITECTS OF PASSIVE HOUSES IN AUSTRALIA

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HE DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF THE PASSIVE HOUSE (PH) ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY POPULAR IN AUSTRALIA, YET THEIR UPTAKE HAS BEEN MUCH SLOWER THAN IN EUROPE WHERE THE CONCEPT ORIGINATED. PH IS A BUILDING STANDARD OR A CONSTRUCTION CONCEPT THAT WAS DEVELOPED BY DR. WOLFGANG FEIST OF THE PASSIVHAUS INSTITUTE IN GERMANY. THE FIRST PH – BUILT IN DARMSTADT, GERMANY IN 1990 – WAS THE FIRST MULTI-FAMILY HOUSE IN EUROPE TO ACHIEVE A DOCUMENTED HEATING ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF BELOW 10 KWH/(M²A).

Floor heating systems for one, are an energy efficient and cost effective radiant heating system, which are popular in Australia where open plan houses are common. Floor heating is a low heat system laid underneath flooring and provides an even heat throughout the property without dust, noise, air movement, dehydration or overheating.

In order to achieve passive house certification, a building must meet four key performance measures as set by the Passivhaus Institute in Germany. These include parameters for Space Heating Energy Demand, Renewable Primary Energy Demand, Air Tightness, and Thermal Comfort. These requirements go well beyond the traditional Australian Standards for building design and performance.

In terms of supporting a building that has been constructed with the principles of a Passive House, a hydronic heating system, which can be powered using a variety of energy sources including natural gas boilers, electric heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, wood-fired stoves and solar hot water systems, can prove fitting for a Passive House.

Despite the construction of a number of accredited Passive Houses in Australia, there is reluctance from the industry to adopt the standard entirely for several reasons. This includes, but is not exclusive of, its initial outlay costs and unfamiliar building methods, and it’s requirement for hermetically sealed building envelopes, which are considered unsuitable for Australian climates and living arrangements.

That’s not to say the merit of the standard and its performance criteria hasn’t been acknowledged

by Australia’s AEC sector. On the contrary, it’s space heating energy demand requirements of 15kWh/sqm per year and renewable primary energy demands are both recognised in Australia as very high, and far outstretch our base requirements as set out in The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHers).

NatHers rates homes out of ten stars based on an estimate of a home’s potential (heating and cooling) energy use and determine a six-star rating as the base requirement for a house. In a climate like Melbourne’s, a six-star rated home would require 32kWh/ sqm per year for heating and cooling.

The space heating performance of Passive House can be achieved in Australia using Australian products and traditional construction methods.

Popular energy sources for Passive Houses include gas boilers, solar heating, radiant heating and geothermal pumps, most of which are readily available from Australian suppliers.

Download this white paper to find out why it is necessary to re-evaluate our approach to heating in Australian buildings.

Download the full whitepaper at http://bit.ly/2qQAeUx

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CHANGING SYDNEY: INTERNATIONAL TOWERS BARANGAROO ARCHITECT: ROGERS STIRK HARBOUR + PARTNERS WORDS: NATHAN JOHNSON PHOTOGRAPHY: BRETT BOARDMAN

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COMPLETED IN DECEMBER 2016, THE INTERNATIONAL TOWERS TRIO IS THE COMMERCIAL BACKBONE OF BARANGAROO SOUTH. THEY ARE ALSO THREE OF THE MOST SOPHISTICATED AND SUSTAINABLE OFFICE BUILDINGS TO BE CONSTRUCTED ON AUSTRALIAN SOIL.

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ike it or not, there’s no denying Barangaroo is significant. As the largest urban renewal project Sydney has witnessed since the 2000 Olympic Games, its scale, size, cost and value to the NSW economy is irrefutable.

Also without doubt is how well Barangaroo has serviced the design community. The amount of practices – both local and international – that have contributed to the 22-hectare, $6-billion development is astounding. With three major building components still to come, there is a healthy amount of job opportunities in the pipeline for architects and design contractors.

One the firms reaping many of the development’s rewards is UK firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP). RSHP has been confirmed as both lead masterplanner of the 7.6-hectare Barangaroo South portion of the project and as lead designer of its largest commercial office component, the International Towers.

Completed in December 2016, the International Towers trio – C3, C4 and C5 (also called T1, T2 and T3) – is the commercial backbone of Barangaroo South. They’re also three of the most sophisticated and sustainable office buildings to be constructed on Australian soil.

Combined, the towers boast over 280,000sqm of A-grade office floorspace on some of the largest office tower floorplates (up to 2,900sqm) Australia has ever seen. They have the capacity to service some 23,000 workers at full capacity and have already attracted the tenancy of some of the nation’s leading businesses – PwC, HSBC, Westpac, Gilbert + Tobin and KPMG, to name a few.

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The buildings are also high performing. As part of developer Lendlease’s quest to get Barangaroo South to carbon-neutral and water-positive status, all three towers are 5-star NABERS as well as 6-star Green Star Office Design v3 as rated by the Green Building Council of Australia.

This is highest rating that has been reached for this building type in Australia. To achieve this, RHSP and Lendlease Design called upon a spectrum of high-tech environmental initiatives – not least the development of precinct-wide infrastructure for power, cooling, water and waste management located in the basement of the towers.

The cooling network is a feat of engineering, and its affect on the space and efficiency of the towers is profound. Located five metres below sea level, the network comprises a 72MWr central chiller plant that draws and then returns over 15 gigalitres of water per year from Sydney Harbour for heat rejection.

The chiller services consolidate the air conditioning systems for the entirety of Barangaroo, resulting in significant energy, emissions and potable water savings. They also allow for more lettable space within and on top of the buildings.

The central chiller is the workhorse for the International Towers’ chilled-beam systems and the major driver behind their energy efficiency and thermal comfort. It provides cooling for over 17,000 chilled beams located within the ceiling voids on each of the towers’ floors. A variety of active and passive chilled beams then temper 100 per cent fresh, nonrecirculatory supply air for the interior spaces.

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1 All three towers are 5-star NABERS and 6-star Green Star Office Design v3-rated 2 A 72MWr chiller plant draws and returns over 15 gigalitres of water per year from Sydney Harbour 3 Lobbies are placed alongside external retail and leisure activities

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The system is the largest of its kind to be built in Australia and one of the most efficient on the planet. Considering its scale, what is arguably even more impressive is how compact it is.

Focussed on providing maximum ceiling heights and flexible floorplates for tenants, the architects and mechanical engineers at Norman Disney Young worked to fit the network of chilled beams within the tightest of ceiling plenum spaces. The team achieved spacious 2,900mm ceiling heights for each level with 150mm access floors systems.

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While the towers additionally utilise rainwater capture, a blackwater treatment plant, solar panels and LED lighting, their efficiency isn’t all owing to mechanical systems. RSHP’s façade, floorplate, service core and lift design were also conceived with performance in mind.

Each of the towers is divided into three stacked sections – low-, mid- and high-rise – each served by its own dedicated plant space comprising air-handling plants, hightemperature chilled-water circuits (serving chilled beams) and tenant ventilation (toilet exhaust, general exhaust, kitchen exhaust, base building and supplementary outside air).

The buildings are oblong-shaped and positioned on a radial geometry that is in direct contrast with the city grid behind. The towers’ positioning maximises both northern sunlight and views.

The façade itself features state-of-the-art glazing units shaded by filigreed sun fins that are vertically arranged and tapered to optimise solar penetration and glare levels inside the building.

The arrangement of the lift cores and community spaces to the northern elevation of the buildings provides further shading for the internal workspace and creates communal breakout spaces and meeting areas for visual and physical connections between floors.

The towers might be grand and their environmental performance commendable, but it is the podiums, lobbies and public realm design that is at the core of the project’s place-making intention.

Each tower sits on a three-storey plinth conceived as a carved piece of ground, which mediates between the water’s edge and the cliff edge presented by the city behind. The plinth creates a tight, human-scale streetscape, with lobbies placed alongside other street activities such as retail and leisure. Large overhangs and awnings create tunnels and provide protection, making it easy to forget that you’re walking below some of the tallest office towers in the city.

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To minimise the number of service vehicles entering the development, the buildings share a common basement accessed from a single point of entrance. This leaves the surrounding streets fully-pedestrianised or pedestrian-prioritised.

These factors all help to generate a public realm that is vibrant, animated and safe.

Since finishing the project, RHSP directors Richard Rogers and Ivan Harbour have both expressed their satisfaction with the result. In justifying his team’s design for Barangaroo, Rogers says that one only has to look at how vibrant and energetic the precinct has become to see that the design is right for the area.

While much of this vibrancy and vitality is owing to other, smaller projects by Australian architects that sit in and around the towers, there is no denying the towers’ presence, and their crucial role in providing the first major success for the Barangaroo development. â–

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SELECTION OF TOWER FLOORPLANS Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners 1 Floorplan: Typical Podium Ground Level 2 Floorplan: Typical Podium Level 1 3 Floorplan: Typical Rooftop 4 Floorplan: Typical Office Floor

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COMMERCIAL ‘MINI TOWER’ ADDITION TO 19TH-CENTURY SPRING HILL WORKER’S COTTAGE ARCHITECT: SHANE THOMPSON ARCHITECTS PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTOPHER FREDERICK JONES WORDS: MCKENNA MOROZ

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n modern Australia, a pressing question we face is, how can we continue to cope with ever-expanding CBDs? One of the coping mechanisms increasingly being implemented is the injection of higher-density living, and the addition of commercial floor space. It’s a balancing act, as each town often comes with its own long and proud history. However, the task is made easier by the fact that not many would argue against the necessity of these measures – least of all those living and working within suburbs set up on transport nodes.

Planners and designers are deeply involved in the process. Not only are they creating the buildings and infrastructure which will ultimately define the character and useability of these cities, they’re also the ones mediating the damaging imbalances of the past.

490 Consulting Suites – a recent project by Shane Thompson Architects (STA) located in the Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill – illustrates the architect’s dualistic role. STA have added new commercial floor space to a growing suburb within eyeshot of the Brisbane CBD. In addition to this, they have created a building that attempts to remediate the impact of insensitive developments (i.e. those that overshadow and alienate the suburb from its history).

The project is located on a small site in the centre of Spring Hill, immediately north of

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490 BOUNDARY STREET

CONSULTING SUITES the CBD. It has recently become home to an integrated development that consists of a six-storey ‘mini tower’ and a ‘typical’ worker’s cottage (albeit one that has been extensively restored) on the Boundary Street frontage.

The worker’s cottage is a 19th-century remnant in an otherwise densely developed commercial, government and health precinct. As it is, the area is dominated by mid- to late-20th century institutional architecture, such as the gargantuan Department of Transport and Main Roads building designed by Karl Langer in the 1960s, and the heritage-listed St. Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital.

While the scale of development on a site with an existing cottage was unprecedented, the STA sought and achieved exemption.

In large part, the project’s success was due to its capacity to mediate between the original, intimate scale of Spring Hill and the bulky, major urban developments that have sprung up in the precinct recently.

The cottage was lifted 800mm and repositioned closer to the street and to the centre of the property. This provided consistency with the surrounding streetscape as well as additional space for the back-of-site development. Behind the cottage, the six-storey tower – comprising five office levels and three basement levels – was added. The tower was then connected to the cottage by a new link (or ‘bridge’) building.

PRESENTATION DRAWING:

EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC Both bridge and tower are accessible via a contemporary insertion through the undercroft of the cottage; a feature that mediates between the new and existing components of the site.

The tower itself is discreet from the street.

It was conceived by STA as a ‘soft’ intervention into the existing urban context, and its materials and façade pattern provide this.

A white concrete vertical service core and fire stair are located on the northern elevation behind the cottage, providing a blank canvas backdrop for the development’s heritage aspect. The tower’s western and eastern elevations have full-height glazing with green, frosted-glass spandrels at slab heights. Static aluminium louvres, arranged in a variety of irregular rectangular boxes, have been fixed to the façades to provide sun protection and a unique geometrical pattern.

490 Consulting Suites may represent an alternative model for increasing densities in the colourful suburbs of the inner-city. At least, where retention of existing fabric is critical.

Combined, the building’s materials and architectural detailing offer a distinctly sub-tropical character and mediation between the fine grain of the traditional cottage and the larger grain of the commercial, institutional and apartment buildings nearby.

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1 The faรงade is a white concrete mix that has been left unfinished 2 The western and eastern faรงades are clear, glass curtains with green glass spandrel slab heights 3 The existing heritage cottage was lifted 800mm and repositioned closer to the street

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ADVERTISING FEATURE – STIEBEL ELTRON

WHY MORE AND MORE ARCHITECTS ARE OPTING FOR DECENTRALISED HOT WATER SYSTEMS

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ITH TYPICALLY HIGHER RUNNING COSTS AND LOWER EFFICIENCY LEVELS, IT’S NOT SURPRISING THAT CENTRALISED HOT WATER SYSTEMS ARE INCREASINGLY BEING ABANDONED IN FAVOUR OF DECENTRALISED SYSTEMS. ESPECIALLY WITHIN MULTI-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS WHERE A DECENTRALISED SYSTEM CAN HELP SIMPLIFY THE CONSTRUCTION PROCESS AND ALLOW FOR A STAGED HANDOVER OF FLATS TO BUYERS. To understand exactly why centralised systems are less efficient, let’s begin by looking at the different types of water heaters. The two main types are storage systems and continuous flow (or instantaneous) systems, which are heated by gas or electricity – gas being the less efficient option. The main disadvantage of a large centralised system is the energy required to keep it consistently at the desired temperature, even when water is not in use, and the amount of heat that is lost transporting water to point of use. With electric instantaneous water heaters, the water is only heated when it is required - eliminating water and energy wastage and ensuring bills accurately reflect usage.

THE CONSUMER

Selecting the most suitable water heating system can significantly reduce a building’s environmental footprint as water heating accounts for about 21 per cent of the energy used and generates around 23 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions from a typical Australian home. It is also the second largest segment of household energy use in Australia after space heating and cooling.

MULTI-RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS

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With an ever-increasing awareness of sustainability amongst consumers, they want to know that their living spaces are eco-friendly and they want to be able to keep track of what energy they are using and paying for. If they know how their lifestyle affects their usage then they can make small but effectual changes, such as having shorter showers, to reduce their own carbon footprint. This is another great benefit of instantaneous hot water systems, some of which feature digital displays that show the user their energy, water and CO2 savings.

According to ABS statistics, approximately two thirds of Australia’s population lived in a Greater Capital City at June 2015 with the most prominent growth inside capital cities. This migration towards city living, which shows no sign of abating, is placing increasing pressure on architects to fit more flats into multi-residential sites whilst

still enhancing functionality. However, specifying an appropriate hot water system can help achieve this. Traditional central water systems are bulky whilst a compact centralised system could free up space on the building’s roof or underground area for amenities as they are small and can be installed inside the flat close to where water will be used.

In fact, decentralised systems offer a solution to many of the challenges posed by multi-residential buildings in Australia. They simplify the construction process by allowing hot water systems to be installed in each individual apartment, making it possible to carry out a staged handover to buyers.

Also, an instantaneous electric hot water system can be positioned where it is needed without the restrictions posed by gas feeds, flues or venting.

Less plumbing is required between the heater and water source due to its location within the residence, thereby reducing labour costs and making their installation more cost effective.

MODULAR DESIGN Another arena where decentralised heaters are proving more popular than bulky centralised alternatives is in modular design. Also known as prefabrication, this is where a whole section of a building is assembled off site, significantly speeding up construction and lowering material

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costs. The 69-level tower of 568 Collins Street in Melbourne used this construction method, allowing all 794 bathrooms to be manufactured offsite complete with tiling, joinery, finishes and fittings. The bathrooms were then craned into site and connected to services, with decentralised water heaters providing each pod with its own complete water heating solution.

By choosing this construction method, it sped up the fit out process and greatly reduced the amount of waste produced and handled on site.

CASE STUDY One supplier of instant hot water systems that has been used in projects across Australia, and the world, is Stiebel Eltron. In Melbourne’s Central South Yarra development, for example, Siebel’s products appear across 30 levels of modern living.

The building showcases an impressive use of space, fitting in 357 flats as well as a residents rooftop retreat with landscaped sky terrace, gym, heated pool and communal entertaining area.

Another project that specified Stiebel Eltron’s instantaneous water heaters (502 of them to be exact) is Vogue South Yarra – a mixed development of retail outlets and 498 residential apartments.

Alistair Guss, Director of MacCormack Associates Consultants, the engineering consultants for

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this project, said: “During construction of the podium levels and tower, groups of apartments were completed and handed over to their owners. This allowed the plumber to work to the builder’s schedule on an apartment-by-apartment, level-by-level basis. If we had used a centralised water heating system we would have had the equipment fully plumbed and water circulating through floors that were still under construction.”

Other noteworthy projects that have specified Stiebel Eltron’s products are Victory Homes in Canberra, the Riverlight Settlers Cove in Noosa, Adelaide’s UV apartments and the famous 1 William Street in Brisbane, which used 138 single and 3-phase water heaters.

These 3 phase water heaters provide instantaneous hot water, so residents never run out, and are designed to be installed as close as possible to the most used outlet – effectively saving water, energy and money. They are up to 30 per cent more water and energy efficient compared with older-style hydraulically controlled models and range in size from 370mm x 220mm x 130mm to 478mm x 225mm x 105mm. Nice and compact, they are ideal for installations where space is a premium and they do not require ventilation, relief drain or safe trays, so can be installed in areas such as a cupboard or roof space.

Download the full whitepaper here. http://bit.ly/2r7SaY3

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THE INCREDIBLE GREENNESS OF FLOTH 69 ROBERTSON STREET ARCHITECT: MONDO ARCHITECTS PHOTOGRAPHY: FLOTH SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CONSULTANTS WORDS: GERALDINE CHUA

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Practicing what you preach is important in architecture and design, especially since buildings and their materials cannot be disguised. You cannot claim your project is innovative if it does not push the boundaries of accepted practice.

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loth Sustainable Building Consultants is one firm that strives to do more than talk the talk. After moving into new offices in 2015, the team decided to undertake the building services engineering and environmentally-sustainable design of the site themselves.

This gave them the ability to create the most sustainable building possible at market value.

“The drive was not to increase project budget but to focus more on conscientious design that would be better for the building over its entire life,” Floth tells A&D. “As sustainable building consultants, we undertook to ‘walk the talk’ by testing and optimising the building design and construction against the latest sustainable building rating systems.”

The completed building, whose façade has the appearance of contemporary articulated concrete and glass, replaces a residential ‘Queenslander’ building that stood on the site at the time of purchase in 2000. Back then, Floth had converted the 520sqm site into an office.

When Floth eventually moved to larger premises, the Queenslander was relocated to Eske and repurposed as a family home. This left the site vacant for over a decade, until the design and construction contract for Floth’s new offices was awarded to James Trowse Constructions.

The resulting zero lot line building by Mondo Architects contains an incredible amount of sustainability initiatives. This in turn has led to the achievement of several prestigious certifications. For instance, it is the first building in Australia to receive a 6-star Green Star Design rating. It has also secured an As Built v1.1 certified rating and a 6-star NABERS Indoor Environment rating.

Material selection was a crucial aspect of the project; Floth wanted finishings and furnishings that maximised building life and sustainability outcomes. Whole-of-building life-cycle analysis and optimisation was used

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to inform the choice of responsible building materials and sustainable products.

This approach to material selection allowed the project to achieve a ‘sustainable products value’ of 13.7 per cent of construction cost. This is 4.7 per cent beyond the corresponding Green Star credit’s maximum credit requirements. This earned Floth an innovation credit award and a third-party, peer-reviewed LCA prediction of a 252 per cent cumulative reduction of its environmental impact in accordance with the Green Star rating tool. At 122 per cent beyond the maximum credit criteria, this is almost double the maximum Green Star benchmark for cumulative impact reduction.

Ecological and material efforts are not the project’s only talking points. A variety of no less extensive sustainability initiatives were incorporated in the building’s design and construction phase. For instance, indoor air quality initiatives included outside air intake systems employed in optimum locations throughout the building, and CO2 sensors maintain no more than 800ppm of CO2 in each zone served.

Indoor environmental quality initiatives, such as comprehensive acoustic comfort measures and glare reducing lighting, are compliant with best practice illuminance standards. Low-carbon electrical systems incorporate LED general office and circulation lighting, and are equipped with both photo-sensor and occupancy-sensor switching for minimised energy usage.

A high-performance envelope for the building incorporates low-e double glazing, thermallyinsulated constructions, and integral shading from articulation and balcony elements.

A commitment to sustainable operations is evident throughout. For instance, extensive building modelling was used to minimise energy use. From this, Floth chose the best possible systems to achieve the best possible outcome.

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1 Faรงade has the appearance of articulated concrete and glass 2 Material selections maximise building life and sustainability outcomes

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Although 69 Robertson Street has received a great deal of praise, Floth points out that the accolades were preceded by a number of challenges. When originally designing the building, the Green Star Design and As Built ratings system did not exist, which meant the team was originally working to a Green Star Office v3 rating.

That didn’t stop Floth from testing the design and upgrading to the new ratings system, even once construction had commenced. Perhaps the most powerful testament to Floth’s audacity is that the project was recognised as the only building in Australia to have achieved the new Green Star – Design & As Built certified rating.

It is also the first Australian winner of a World Green Building Council Asia-Pacific Leadership in Sustainable Design and Performance Award.

3 Envelope comprises low-e double glazing and integral shading from articulation 4 Floth was the first building to adopt ASBEC standards for a zero-carbon building

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Beyond green building certifications, Floth 69 Robertson Street was the first building to adopt the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council’s (ASBEC) definition of a Zero-Carbon Standard Building.

“Given the cost-effectiveness of the building, it would be difficult to come up with a better solution,” said the team. n

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ADVERTISING FEATURE – KEY INDUSTRIES

SOUNDING OUT THE RIGHT ACOUSTIC SOLUTIONS

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NDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD ACOUSTICS IS NOT ONLY A SCIENCE-IN MANY WAYS IT IS ALSO AN ART. THE EFFECTS OF BAD ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENTS ON USERS ARE WELL DOCUMENTED – NOT ONLY DOES A POOR ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT IMPACT OUR PRODUCTIVITY, BUT ALSO OUR SOCIAL BEHAVIOURS AND HEAL

THE ABCS OF ACOUSTICS

Overall, noise has been found to be a disturbing factor within open plan offices, a contributing factor that adversely impacts both students and teachers in educational facilities, and a very negative issue for both hospital patients and staff.

Understanding the differences between the three and working with an experienced acoustic engineer will allow for more accurate specification of acoustic insulation, which can then be delivered by the manufacturer.

Ultimately, adequate acoustic solutions are a simple way to reduce the negative impacts of noise on our lives and improve productivity, social behaviours and our health.

THE FIRST STEPS TO GOOD ACOUSTICS Understanding the differences in acoustic insulation is the first step in being able to properly specify right products.

While some forms of insulation such as composites, will both absorb reverberant noise and block sound transmission, most will do either one or the other.

So, knowing what to specify will depend on material and construction choices present from the outset of the project. For instance, a concrete wall will almost always minimise any chance of sound transmission between two spaces due to

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its mass. At the same time being a hard surface, it will increase reverberant noise within a space.

Therefore, taking into account the material properties from the outset will allow for more informed decisions about what are the right acoustic solutions that need to be specified to either absorb reverberant sound or block sound transmission.

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS ARE NOT THE ONLY CONSIDERATION Acoustics must always be addressed in a holistic way. In other words, not only does the construction material come into play, but so does the size and shape of the rooms, the proximity of the openings to interior or exterior spaces as well as whether the construction techniques have been within specification.

Then there is there the potential for over specifying as not all areas need be sound proofed, as well as the fact that sometimes a comfortable space is not one in which there is no noise, but rather where there is no intrusive noise.

In these instances, a constant level of background noise level can be utilised to great effect.

In order to design innovative and fully functional environments, it’s best to remember the ABCs of acoustics: Absorb, Block, and Cover.

Holding acoustics in mind from the outset of a project will also leave room for more integrated solutions, meaning that investments are less likely to stand out for the wrong reasons and more likely to function as predicted.

Keeping the design simple and producing adequate detailing minimises the risk of human error when it comes to installation, and the potential need to retrofit a solution later on.

Download the full whitepaper at http://bit.ly/2pMxiEu

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CAN WE FINALLY SAY GOODBYE TO GLASS SKYSCRAPERS? WORDS: MCKENNA MOROZ PHOTOGRAPHY: VARIOUS

THANKS TO THE MODERNIST MOVEMENT, OUR CITIES ARE FILLED WITH GLASS SKYSCRAPERS. NOW, WE ARE STARTING TO REALISE THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THAT.

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s the first ever large-scale glass-andmetal building, the Crystal Palace in London was an architectural wonder.

But more than that, it signalled a new era of architectural exploration; one aligned with a new, modernist optimism and equipped with all its most revolutionary technologies.

While Coley is right to point out that the U-value of triple glazing (around 1.0) is far worse than that of a well-insulated wall (nearing 0.1), this is a narrow analysis of the role glass plays in a building’s energy performance. We should not be so quick to dismiss its sustainability potential.

The now-ubiquitous glass skyscraper is the direct result of the pioneering Crystal Palace’s style. Thanks to modernist architects like Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, our modern cities are literally filled with them.

Dr Philip Oldfield, a senior lecturer in highperformance architecture at the University of NSW, notes that a high amount of glazing (around 80%) on the north façade of a Melbourne tower could reduce the energy needs of a building when used with shading, since the additional solar heat gain would offset cold temperatures.

It is only now that we know how problematic this universally translatable model can be.

Specifically, that these buildings are often built irrespective of the places they inhabit.

POST-MODERNISM AND CLIMATE CHANGE There is a growing consensus within architecture and engineering that we cannot keep designing tall buildings with full-height glazing. Quite simply, it is not sustainable.

Writing for The Conversation in 2015, David Coley, a professor of low-carbon design at the University of Bath, predicted glass would become the major building material casualty of sustainable architecture.

“For decades glass has been everywhere, even in so-called ‘modern’ or ‘sustainable’ architecture such as London’s Gerkin,” he wrote. “However, in energy terms, glass is extremely inefficient – it does little but leak heat on cold winter nights and turn buildings into greenhouses on summer days.”

Tellingly, Crystal Palace was modelled off a greenhouse design.

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And a glass curtain wall does not just function as a window. As sustainability consultant Steve King explains: “Where optical transparency is not an issue, glass can be backed by extremely efficient insulation. Such a wall can far outperform the heat transmission characteristics of traditional wall assemblies.”

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL “The problem is, we’re using glass in the same way in every climate in Australia,” says Oldfield.

“We need to better respond to the unique [characteristics] of our different climates.”

Alistair Grice, commercial specification manager at Somfy Oceania, points out that buildings and façades are often modelled on the year’s worst solar heat gain scenario.

This means that static façades designed to mitigate solar heat gain around the calendar are doing a disservice to the building’s performance by wasting the sun’s warmth in winter months, which could instead be used to passively warm the building.

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1 FJMT Architecture’s 200 George Street building contains roughly 16,000sqm of sustainable façade panels 2 Australia’s first pressurised, closed-cavity façade with built-in timber venetian blinds

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Somfy produces sophisticated blind control systems that operate according to both the sun’s positioning and a building’s internal temperature. The company was recently chosen to supply the automation solution for Australia’s first pressurised, closedcavity façade with built-in timber venetian blinds at 200 George Street, Sydney.

THE BOUNDARIES OF TECHNOLOGY

The envelope of the 37-storey tower contains roughly 16,000sqm of floor-to-ceiling, moisture-maintenance free, sustainable, closed-cavity façade panels (M-free-SCCF) produced by architectural envelope specialist, Permasteelisa Group. Fullyautomated timber venetians sit within the cavities of the panels and are controlled by a building-wide IP network that in turn offers sun tracking, shadow management and integrated, web-based remote controls.

Alistair Guthrie, an Arup fellow and one of the world’s most prolific skyscraper engineers, has experienced the evolution of glass technology first-hand. He goes so far as to call it the most positive advancement in commercial tower design.

The building’s façade provides a heat transfer coefficient of between 0,90 (blinds down) and 1,20 (blinds up) with ultra-clear, full-height glazing and without the loss of net-lettable-area associated with other double-skin façade systems (DSF).

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The technologies Oldfield refers to include things like DSFs, advanced coatings, vacuum-glazing, and adaptive, biomimetic shading systems.

These applications all significantly reduce unwanted heat loss and gain for a building while safeguarding natural light and views.

“The sort of curtain walls that we now achieve – the size of glass, the selective coatings, the multiple glass layers with automatic blinds – [have] made a huge difference to both the performance of the façade as well as what it looks like.”

Guthrie worked on The Shard tower in London alongside Pritzker architect Renzo Piano. He notes that intense material and product investigation were required to ensure a high level of energy efficiency.

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1 The BIQ House from Arup 2 Blinds at 200 George St are controlled by a building-wide IP network 3 The Crystal Palace in London provided a model for glass faรงades around the world

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“The architect had a vision of this ‘shard of glass’, as he called it: a continuous glass surface which looked like a pointed shard of glass. And so I worked with the architect, façade designers and with the system designers to achieve a very high-performance façade using an active façade system, which incorporated automaticallycontrolled roller blinds,” says Guthrie.

“We’ve begun to reach the maximum performance of 100 per cent glass façades, so if we want to improve performance beyond what we’ve now achieved […] then we need to look at composites of other materials with the glass to provide improved performance,” he adds.

A 2013 study by the engineering company Cundall compared nine façade types, ranging from full-height glazing to punched windows with 33 per cent glazing. This study reveals the validity of Guthrie’s stance.

The study, called ‘Façade modelling – daylight and thermal performance’, demonstrated that punched windows don’t just outperform full-height glazing on thermal performance measures. Surprisingly, they also perform better on measures of ‘useful daylight’, which take into consideration such aspects as glare and reflection.

THE NEXT FRONTIER Nowhere is it more important to achieve sustainability than in tall buildings. In the entire history of global skyscraper construction, we’ve built 3,778 towers over 150 metres in height.

Only four of these have ever been demolished.

According to Oldfield, poor-performing skyscrapers built in Australia now will still be performing poorly in 50 years’ time. By then, the climate is likely to be much hotter.

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Guthrie agrees, saying that improving façade design will have the biggest impact on the environmental performance of our buildings.

“My view on how we should go about [designing] towers is to [move] away from flat, curtain-wall-type systems to make way for more shaped façade systems [with] better performance characteristics for solar shading,” he says. “If we can maximise daylighting and minimise solar gain by using shaped façades, then that would be the way to go.”

Guthrie is also interested in the potential of façade vegetation to reduce environmental impact. For example, Guthrie calculates that, in Melbourne, green walls could reduce the level of pollution particles in street air canyons by 20 per cent while reducing street-level temperature by as much as 9.5 degrees Celsius.

Already we’ve seen green façade strategies being used in Australia, most famously at Sydney’s One Central Park (Jean Nouvel and PTW Architects). There are also plans underway in Brisbane to go further by fixing ‘vertical forests’ to the façades of buildings.

It seems two movements have formed regarding façade design, even though they share the end goal of improving our skyscrapers’ environmental impact. The first ‘movement’ aims to improve the performance of glazing so that views out of a building aren’t affected. The second advocates the provision of more solidity in façade design for improved thermal performance.

In October 2013, it was announced that the ZhongRong Group intended to rebuild the Crystal Palace as part of a £500 million project.

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TRIALS OF CHANGING THE ENERGY STATUS QUO WORDS: DEBORAH SINGERMAN

A RECENT SURVEY FOUND THAT TWO-THIRDS OF VOTERS BELIEVED THE NATION WAS MOVING TOO SLOWLY TO EMBRACE RENEWABLE ENERGY. HOW DOES THIS THEN IMPACT AN INDUSTRY LOOKING AT RENEWABLE WAYS TO POWER COMMERCIAL TOWERS?

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ustralia’s transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy came to a head last September when a power outage in South Australia left around 1.7 million residents with no power. As SA Premier Jay Weatherill explained, two tornadoes damaged the infrastructure and the power system subsequently shut down to protect itself. Backup generators eventually kicked in.

Although interconnectors between Victoria and South Australia were not found to have a role in the blackout, this didn’t stop politicians from leaving themselves open to accusations of leveraging the blackout “to initiate misleading debate over South Australia’s progressive use of renewable energy”.

The federal government’s response to climate change initiatives is often so tepid that a recent survey by The Australia Institute found that two-thirds of voters (55 per cent of whom identified as Coalition voters) believed the nation was moving too slowly to embrace renewable energy.

In April, Labor announced that, further to recommendations from a Senate committee, it would “retire coal-fired power plants and never fund new ones”. From here, bargaining over the balance of old and new sources of energy is only going to intensify.

How does this play out for an industry looking at alternative, renewable ways to power commercial towers? What are the energy-harnessing technologies available, either in development or use?

For Tim Elgood, the Sydney sustainable buildings leader at Arup, Australia’s signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (November 2016) without having a real plan for implementation has created “massive momentum in the industry”.

“I do not think technology, innovation or creativity are constraints but it might be the regulatory [and] governance issues that slow us down.”

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Here’s a closer look at how things are panning out.

COGENERATION AND TRIGENERATION IN ACTION Cogeneration (CHP) utilises a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and heat at the same time. Trigeneration (CCHP) combines cooling with an absorption chiller to generate chilled water for air-conditioning or refrigeration.

To work optimally and produce lower-emissions energy, CCHP systems must be sized correctly for the energy use of the building, Jay Gualtieri, managing director of environmental consultant Ausnviro, told Fifth Estate. While CCHP rates well in Green Star, problems can occur if the systems are too large. Often, this means “they simply don’t get switched on”.

The high-profile, low-carbon, 1,400kW trigeneration system at Sydney Town Hall and Town Hall House is expected to cut emissions by more than 40,000 tonnes over its 30-year life span. According to the City of Sydney, the rooftop generation plant has also been a regular exporter of energy to the grid. The plant uses seven 200kW Capstone microturbines that can each turn down to a tenth of their total power output. The de-centralised system produces energy locally while meeting year-round demand for electricity.

OTHER TECHNOLOGIES IN PROGRESS An idea for Legion House on Castlereagh Street in Sydney was to have biomass gasification technology that relied on paper waste to create a recycled paper and plantation woodchip briquette feedstock. This would be turned into gas that would then generate electricity. The greenhouse gases released

during energy production were to equal those absorbed in creating the biomass with Legion House, thereby contributing to its operation as a carbon-neutral building.

The University of Technology’s Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) by Denton Corker Marshall is the university’s first building to offset its energy usage from renewables. The $190-million project, opened in 2014, has a cogeneration plant on its roof. Sustainability Matters reported that the plant produces 20 per cent of the building’s electricity, air-conditioning and heating, and includes a vertical axis (rooftop) wind turbine, solar water panels, photovoltaic panels and solar thermal concentrators. These power the building’s laboratories and classrooms via a micro-grid.

Another cutting-edge development uses an algae façade to sequester carbon and generate biomass for conversion into biofuel. This building has a passive design, meaning the energy loads are lower than a non-passive design, says UTS associate professor Sara Wilkinson.

Wilkinson is part of a team at the UTS School of Built Environment that is developing a prototype algae panel. “Algae has the potential to provide biomass and thus biofuel to meet some of the energy needs of some buildings,” says Wilkinson. She is particularly excited by the “great potential to use algae technology to remediate stormwater and grey water”.

Elgood also suggested that, if we take “the sustainable approach of making the most of what we already have, we should look at what we can do with all those standby generators that sit within buildings waiting for the power to fail. We almost provide 100 per cent back-up power for premium office buildings, and the thought of running those generators on biofuel is technically an option.”

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THE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY’S FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND IT BY DENTON CORKER MARSHALL

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1 Biomass gasification technology relies on paper waste to create gas, which can then generate electricity 2 The UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT is the university’s first building to offset its energy usage from renewables

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ADVERTISING FEATURE – BILLI

CLIMATE CHANGE MEANS A NEED FOR CORPORATE CHANGE

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HE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IS ACCELERATING AT A STEADY PACE. WHILE IT IS UNDENIABLE THAT GREENHOUSE GAS-INFLUENCED CLIMATE CHANGE IS WELL UNDERWAY, WATER AND ITS MOVEMENT IS A PRIMARY MECHANISM THROUGH WHICH CLIMATE CHANGE INFLUENCES THE EARTH’S ECOSYSTEM AND THEREFORE THERE NEEDS TO BE A STRONG AWARENESS TO HOW WATER RESOURCES ARE MANAGED. It is also a fact that water stress is a major issue and without improved management of water resources, sustainable development in all its economic, social and environmental dimensions will be jeopardised.

Architects who incorporate green building principals can create buildings that use less energy, less water, create less waste, are healthier for their occupants and ultimately result in lower operating costs.

Under the current climate variability, water stress is already high and without improved water resources management, sustainable development in all its economic, social and environmental dimensions will be jeopardised

THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE THAT IS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

KEEPING YOUR FOOTPRINTS LIGHT AND EASY The urban environment is currently the world’s single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. It consumes around a third of our water, and generates 40% of our waste.

Therefore, aiming for a low environmental footprint in new and existing buildings will unlock a range of environmental, economic and social benefits.

Green buildings command better social outcomes, many of which revolve around the health and wellbeing of people who work in green offices or live in green homes.

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Companies also can do their bit by embracing Corporate Social Responsibility as a means of improving outcomes for society, the community and the environment, as well as the health of the business.

Carefully implemented policies can help the organisation stand out from competitors, build a good reputation and position itself as favourable among its customers. This can generate new business, better relationships and improved profits.

THE FLOW-ON EFFECTS OF SAVING WATER Incorporating green ideas into every element of a building are far-reaching and well documented.

Saving water has been proven to be an effective means to address climate change, create sustainable and thriving communities, and to drive economic growth.

Green Star certification has been shown to use 51% less potable water than the average Australian building, proving not only are saving on bills, but also a range of other savings related to directly to the environment.

Making buildings more sustainable is no longer a choice- it is now simply a matter of environmental urgency. Therefore, specifying sustainable products that go beyond simply saving water and energy can improve green building specifications and encourage energy savings In turn, this will also make a lasting impact on the wellbeing of the environment and for those who use their spaces.

It also has a further positive influence on attracting, retaining and maintaining a happy workforce.

The benefit of implementing policies such as saving water and helping the environment has been shown to have a flow through effect to all areas of the business, including the bottom line.

Download the full whitepaper here. http://bit.ly/2qHUh7Q

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INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS: A MAGIC WAND FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND EFFICIENCY? WORDS: GERALDINE CHUA

“BUILDINGS NEED A BRAIN TO INTELLIGENTLY CONTROL THE MANY SYSTEMS AND THOUSANDS OF DATA POINTS THEY CAN GENERATE. BUILDING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS PROVIDE THAT BRAIN.”

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ccording to a report by Technavio in December 2016, the global integrated building management systems (BMS) market is expected to record a global compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.47 per cent between 2017 and 2021. A more recent analysis predicts the global home energy management systems market will grow from $1.12 billion in 2016 to $2.64 billion in 2021. That’s a CAGR rate of 19 per cent over five years.

BMS: A WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT?

Impressive as the forecasts may be, the Australian building and property industry still has a way to go to reach a future in which BMS is the norm. For many projects, sophisticated building and automation systems remain an afterthought in the design process.

From air conditioning to lifts to fire control and lighting, BMS is capable of integrating individual building equipment into a single, front-end interface.

“Australia is not pioneering the evolution of BMS, but it isn’t behind on the uptake either,” notes Azheem Haseeb from Siemens’ building technologies division.

Building automation and management systems are less commonplace, and may even be resisted in middle- or lower-tier buildings. In these instances, owners may not see the financial benefits of installing a piece of software or system that comes with a hefty price tag.

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BMS refers to “smart” controller networks installed to monitor and manage a building’s technical systems and services. Current systems have digitised, and many are now web-enabled and based on open communication protocols.

As Schneider Electric puts it, “buildings need a brain to intelligently control the many systems and thousands of data points they can generate.

Building management systems provide that brain.”

“When a building has been completed, the impact of its structure on its energy consumption performance is normally fixed until refurbishment occurs,” explains a 2010 government paper on BMS. A more complex way of understanding the benefits of BMS lies in the actual control strategies in place: by monitoring real-time conditions and recording trends, BMS can help management identify energy-intensity improvement opportunities.

For example, it is standard practice today for building teams and consultants to calculate fresh

air delivery requirements based on the maximum number of people a space can hold. A well-operated and strategised BMS can minimise loads where there is no demand by stemming the flow of fresh air when there are less people in a space, and increasing it when there are more occupants.

Aside from maximising operational efficiency and providing occupants with more comfortable spaces, BMS allows building managers to be more proactive with their projects. Managers can now be automatically notified of any faults.

Some automation systems can even organise an automated changeover when a system fails.

“A correctly configured BMS with an adequate number of correctly located monitoring points is the only way a building manager can be quickly alerted to problems which could otherwise remain undetected until annual inspections or external audits are undertaken,” the 2010 paper points out.

By giving managers the information they need to rectify issues through consultation or engineering solutions, maintenance and capital costs of equipment and systems may be reduced.

Avoiding or delaying equipment replacement and upgrades also means less embedded energy will be consumed down the road.

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CASE STUDY: HINDMARSH SHIRE COUNCIL CORPORATE OFFICES The award-winning Hindmarsh Shire Council Corporate Offices by K20 Architecture (2014) is a great example of how BMS may be used to promote sustainability. The office suite uses 60 per cent less electricity than the building it replaced, despite the fact the new space is twice the size.

“The purpose of the system was to raise awareness of the building’s ability to minimise energy and water consumption, as well as [to] provide information about the low levels of contaminants,” the project architects explain.

The BMS installed at Hindmarsh innovates with its high-performing air displacement system. The building draws in fresh air from the exterior – the temperature of which is naturally regulated by the earth – which is then redistributed throughout the building via plenums and air displacement floor grilles.

Not only does this system reduce the heating and cooling loads of the building, it enables fresh air supply. This is a major contributor to enhanced internal work environments and productivity, and the benefits are delivered directly to occupants.

A MAGIC WAND SOLUTION? The danger of playing up the virtue of BMS is that it may promote the false belief that smart systems are a sustainability ‘cure’ for buildings. It is important to remember that building management systems are only as good as their operation and maintenance.

“Building owners first need to know how they want to control the facility – what is critical infrastructure, and what isn’t,” Haseeb cautions.

1 The Hindmarsh Shire Council building uses 60 per cent less electricity than the building it replaced 2 The building’s temperature is regulated naturally by the earth 3 An air displacement system enables fresh air supply to offices

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BMS tuning is also critical to ensuring that equipment operates in a stable, predictable and repeatable manner. Then there is BMS optimisation, which focuses on operating the equipment in the most energy-efficient manner without affecting controlled variables.

System maintenance is another factor that building owners and managers must take into consideration. All critical components should be identified and checked at regular intervals, and any strategies put in place should continually be updated according to the needs of a building. n

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ARCHITECTURE’S DIGITAL REALM WORDS: JASMINE O’DONOGHUE

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IN AN INCREASINGLY COMPLEX AND FASTPACED BUILDING INDUSTRY, ARCHITECTS ARE TAPPING INTO DIGITAL DESIGN TOOLS TO UNLOCK TIME SAVINGS, MANAGE COSTS AND CREATE MORE SPECTACULAR BUILDINGS

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n a fast-paced and increasingly challenging building industry, architects are tapping into digital design tools to unlock time savings, manage costs, and create more complex and spectacular buildings. Australia has always been a big adopter of new tools, with building information modelling (BIM) quite extensively used in the marketplace and particularly on large-scale projects.

“These tools allow us to explore directions and geometries which are simply not possible to imagine with the mind alone. This is very exciting, because it creates opportunities to find new efficiencies and ordering principles,” says Owen. “It can also make a building more environmentally efficient, as it can maximise natural ventilation, solar access and shade to reduce energy usage and running costs.”

But the technology doesn’t end there. Not only are these innovations capable of providing significant productivity benefits, they also facilitate the creation of more efficient buildings and new geometrics.

COORDINATION

PRODUCTIVITY The main advantage of using digital design tools lies in productivity. Digital tools can take care of the more mundane elements of design, allowing architects to reclaim more time for creativity.

For example, Autodesk’s computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software, AutoCAD, is billed to reduce design time by 41 per cent and improve productivity by 69 per cent.

Design lead at Elenberg Fraser, James Harbard, says the ability of these tools to provide control over iterative design is “a blessing”.

“If you’ve got a floor plan that’s changing every couple of days, [digital design tools allow] us to quickly update our model based on a very limited amount of information, so we don’t have to remodel it every time it changes,” he says.

“Scripting helps us have a singular idea that can be translated over a large scale very quickly.”

Projects are becoming increasingly complex, which can in turn make coordination difficult.

“You’ve got to be connected,” explains Autodesk Australia’s regional director, Andrew Cunningham. He says his vision is to have a project-centric view of the world, with common data environments or common model environments, “so the architect is working on something in real time”.

Cloud-based digital design tools can additionally be used to centralise data, allowing live updates to be made to the project at any time and from anywhere.

At Tony Owen Partners, the only limitations they’ve encountered with the software have been caused by interfacing with trades and contractors who have not themselves adopted the technology.

THE FUTURE

ACHIEVING GEOMETRIES

Cunningham says Australia is “very advanced” in adopting technology, and that trends in the industry are moving towards surveying and laser scanning.

Tony Owen Partners uses digital design tools from day one of their projects. These tools allow them to identify critical criteria that will inform the design, and to experiment with different geometries. The team uses Maya, Rhino and Grasshopper at conceptual design or pre-DA stage, and Revit and Rhino later during documentation.

“You can put advanced sensors on anything - you can track temperature, noise and movement and all these sorts of elements - and then connect them to the cloud. [Because] Australia [is] very willing to adopt cloud technology, [architects] can exploit the internet of things and that analytic capability in a cloud environment to benefit their design,” he says.

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1 Realm Adelaide by Elenberg Fraser 2 Eliza Apartments by Tony Owen Partners

CASE STUDIES: DIGITAL DESIGN TOOLS AT WORK REALM ADELAIDE BY ELENBERG FRASER

Realm Adelaide will soon be tallest residential tower in Adelaide. Yet, the project’s design leader, James Harbard, says digital design tools allowed them to achieve a higher level of development on a budget “not that much more” than other buildings going up in the CBD. Harbard says digital design tools also allowed them to get the project to the best possible place in a tight time frame.

One of Realm’s key features is a geometric arrangement of perforated gold screens across the east and west façades, which were managed through the parametric process. The screens provide the apartments with solar and wind protection.

“The screening was driven by both sunlight and daylight analysis, both to the apartments and to the [façade’s] heat loads in terms of

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how those screens worked and how we could actually quantify what we were achieving with them and the impacts that they were having on the apartments,” says Harbard.

ELIZA APARTMENTS BY TONY OWEN PARTNERS

Eliza Apartments is located on Hyde Park along Sydney’s Elizabeth Street. The 17-storey building by Tony Owens Partners contains 19 units. The profile of every level is different.

The tapering shape of the penthouse maximises solar access and views to Hyde Park, and terminates the fluid geometry.

3D-modelling software and Rhino scripting was used to create a façade that progressively responds to changing conditions.

The façade of Eliza Apartments was made from hundreds of individually-shaped, laser-cut metal panels. This same process was used to create the fluidly-shaped sandstone panels. n

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WHAT MAKES A LIFT GREEN? WORDS: NICHOLAS RIDER

IN COMMERCIAL STRUCTURES, LIFTS TYPICALLY ACCOUNT FOR FIVE TO TEN PER CENT OF THE BUILDING’S TOTAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION. SO, HOW EXACTLY CAN WE CHANGE THAT?

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ew, high-performance commercial towers are joining the crop of green buildings popping up around the country. In 2016, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) announced that it had certified 80 per cent more Green Star buildings than in previous years - a large chunk of which came in the form of commercial projects.

These advances reflect a growing awareness from all spheres of influence about the built environment’s carbon footprint, which accounts for around 30 per cent of our total emissions. Most bigger green ratings systems are aimed at reducing this statistic.

The GBCA, for example, dedicates 24 of a possible 110 credits in its Green Star Performance v1.1 assessment tool to a building’s

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greenhouse gas emissions and peak electricity demand. However, GBCA doesn’t certify, prescribe or promote individual products or systems. While this helps Green Star remain current, it also places the onus on designers to do their research when it comes to sourcing responsible materials and systems. For instance, when it comes to designing lifts.

“Lifts can be a significant portion of the energy consumption of a building,” says Jorge Chapa, head of market transformation at GBCA. “It’s usually five to ten per cent of their energy use. You have to look at how we reduce the amount of energy used per lift ride, and I guess how you minimise the amount of lift rides that are happening in the building.”

So, how exactly do we do that?

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LIFTS IN ACTION Today, specifiers have access to a diverse range of energy-efficient lift options. Some of these boast functions such as regenerative drives, machine-room-less (MRL) technology, standby mode, destination dispatch, and energy-efficient lighting. Of these upgrades, regenerative drive technology is perhaps the most significant.

Regenerative drives capture the electrical energy (heat) otherwise lost by a motor operating at higher capacity than necessary, then feeds it back into the building’s grid. When a motor is in reverse rotation – as when a lift travelling downwards has a heavy load – a regenerative drive takes the electrical energy generated by the motor and recycles it. This reduces energy consumption of lifts by up to 70 per cent in some cases.

MRL lifts have also proven effective at cutting the total emissions of buildings. They use permanent magnet motors and gearless traction machines, which can reportedly save up to 50 to 80 per cent in energy usage compared to traditional hydraulic and geared traction elevators.

A reduction in lift machine size has been a huge improvement for lift technology, according to Steve Newton, the national transit management and top range manager

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at Schindler Australia. Schindler’s 5500 series, for example, uses about 30 per cent less energy than comparable lifts thanks in part to its reduced machine size. The Schindler 5500 features high-efficiency regenerative drives, traction media belts in place of ropes, a gearless machine, LED lighting, and a standby function.

“Smaller machines and less friction – it’s all about using less energy,” says Newton.

Finnish lift company Kone has a suite of products with reduced machine sizes, energy regeneration options, standby modes, and a vector-controlled drive system that manages motor current and torque. For instance, the Highrise Minispace requires 60 per cent less space than a conventional traction elevator machine room.

Together with other features, this significantly minimises mechanical and electrical losses.

ThyssenKrupp’s ‘Twin’ system uses another unique mechanism with two cars. These cars are arranged on top of one another, yet operate independently on a single hoist-way.

Unlike a double-deck lift system (which consists of two attached cabins: one for odd floors, one for even), Twin can park one car while the other stays in operation.

Even when passenger volumes are low, no energy is consumed moving empty cars. n

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1 Schindler’s 5500 series (left) uses approximately 30% less energy than comparable lifts thanks in part to its reduced machine size 2 The Schindler 5500 series uses regenerative drives, traction media belts in place of ropes, a gearless machine, LED lights and a standby function 3 Kone’s Highrise Minispace (right) requires 60% less space than conventional traction elevator machine rooms

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Continue the investigation Additional product, supplier & contractor information from our projects and features

INTERNATIONAL TOWERS SYDNEY

SPRING HILL CONSULTING SUITES

FLOTH

PROJECT TEAM Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners www.rsh-p.com

PROJECT TEAM Architect: Shane Thompson Architects www.shanethompson.com.au

PROJECT TEAM Architect: Mondo Architects www.mondoarchitects.com

Builder: Spraybuilt www.spraybuilt.com

Consultants: Floth Sustainable Building Consultants www.floth.com.au

Structural Engineer: Short Engineering www.shortengineering.com.au

Builder: James Trowse Constructions www.jamestrowse.com.au

Heritage Consultant: JM Pearce Architects jmpearcearchitects.com.au

Project Manager: Russell James Project Management

Mechanical Engineer: Ashburner Francis www.ashburnerfrancis.com.au

PRODUCTS Carpet Tiles ECS Level 4 Certification by the ACCS, Godfrey Hirst www.godfreyhirst.com

Developer: Lendlease www.lendlease.com/au/ Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: Norman Disney Young www.ndy.com Photographer: Brett Boardman www.brettboardman.com

Electrical Consultant: Project Solution Engineers www.psengineers.com.au

5415 Underlay, GECA Certified, Regupol Traffic Engineer: MRCagney www.mrcagney.com Hydraulic Consultant: Thomson Kane www.bse.com.au

Vinyl Marmoleum, GreenTag Level A Certified, Forbo www.forbo.com

Town Planner: Buckley Vann www.buckleyvann.com.au

Wet Area Plasterboard GreenTag Level A Certified, Knauf

Surveyor: Saunders Havill Group www.saundershavill.com

Design Panel Watershield, GreenTag Level A Certified, Knauf www.knaufplasterboard.com.au

Energy Efficiency Engineer: Anderson Energy Efficiency www.andersonenergy.com.au Photographer: Christopher Frederick Jones www.cfjphoto.com.au

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Batt Insulation (Walls) GECA Certified, Fletcher Insulation www.insulation.com.au

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Ceiling Thermatex Ceiling Tiles,Knauf Ceiling Tile Frame, Knauf www.knauf.com.au QuietStuf Ceiling Insulation, Autex Quietspace Ceiling Insulation, Autex www.autex.com.au Melamine GreenTag Level A Certified, Laminex www.laminex.com.au Glazing G.James www.gjames.com Concrete Blocks Perpless concrete blocks www.lyndonsmasonry.com.au Roof Roof panels, EPD – product-specified, Kingspan www.kingspan.com Cladding FC & CFC Cladding, EPD – industry-wide, James Hardie www.jameshardie.com/products/ externalcladdintg Decking Latitude Decking, Urbanline www.urbanline.com.au

FACADES

ENERGY HARNESSING

BMS

CONTRACTORS Ken Shuttleworth

CONTRACTORS Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp www.fjmtstudio.com

SUPPLIERS Siemens www.architectureanddesign.com.au/ suppliers/siemens-building-technologies

Permasteelisa Group www.permasteelisagroup.com Renzo Piano www.rpbw.com Arup www.arup.com Jean Nouvel www.jeannouvel.com

Denton Corker Marshall www.dentoncorkermarshall.com Solem Consulting www.solem-consulting.com/en/ welcome-solem-consulting Peddle Thorp Architects www.pta.com.au

Schneider Electric www.architectureanddesign.com.au/ suppliers/schneider-electric-pty-ltd CONTRACTORS K20 Architecture www.k20architecture.com

PTW Architects www.ptw.com.au Bureau Proberts www.bureauproberts.com.au Stefano Boeri www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/ SUPPLIERS Somfy www.somfy.com.au

DIGITAL DESIGN

LIFTS

SUPPLIERS Autodesk www.autodesk.com.au

SUPPLIERS Orbitz Elevators www.orbitzelevators.com.au

CONTRACTORS Elenberg Fraser www.elenbergfraser.com

Schindler Australia www.architectureanddesign.com.au/ suppliers/schindler-lifts-australia

Tony Owen Partners www.tonyowen.com.au

Kone www.architectureanddesign.com. au/Suppliers/KONE-Elevators ThyssenKrupp www.architectureanddesign.com.au/ suppliers/thyssenkrupp-elevator-australia Fuji Elevators Australia www.fujielevatorsaustralia.com.au CONTRACTORS Silver Thomas Hanley www.sth.com.au DesignInc www.designinc.com.au McBride Charles Ryan www.mcbridecharlesryan.com.au

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Get the Information you need AustraliA’s leading source of new & exciting building and Architectural products

showcase index

2

ways to use infolink: ONLINE

e-newsletter

visit architectureanddesign .com.au/products to download information and/or enquire directly to the advertiser

subscribe to architecture & design newsletter & get new products & news sent directly to your email

PAGE CODE

acoustics

showcase index

PAGE CODE

Floors & flooring

Acoustic ceiling tiles

65

688AX

Anti-slip glass flooring

65

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Acoustic, perforated plywood and plasterboard

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Terrazzo flooring

63

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Ideas for living with Darren Palmer

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710AX

Slim-walled basins

65

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BATHROOMS & LAUNDRIES

heating

Robust tapware

63

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Slim-walled basins

65

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Wash basins for aged and disability

66

692AX

Luxury fireplaces

insulation Insulation for floors, roofs and walls

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION Steel and timber composite structural beam

65 691AX

CEILINGS, INTERNAL WALL MATERIALS & PARTITIONING

Kitchens & Kitchen Equipment

Acoustic ceiling panels

66

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Acoustic ceiling tiles

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Acoustic, perforated plywood and plasterboard

66

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Aluminium panels for external and internal use

63

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MDF wall and ceiling panels

62

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Ideas for living with Darren Palmer

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Sanded wall panels

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Steel and plastic storage tray systems

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Stainless steel balustrade and fencing

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Stone cladding

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Sustainable plywood

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Electronic catalogue of engineered building products

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Timber ceiling beams

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DOORS & DOOR HARDWARE

Terrace covering with bladed, retractable roof

shelving & storage

Software

Structural Elements Steel and timber composite structural beam

Curved sliding automatic door

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Fire shutters with integrate egress doors

66

703AX

Insulated and uninsulated aluminium sliding door systems 66

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Waste Management Metallic drainage grates

Waste Management

EXTERIOR WALL MATERIALS Aluminium panels for external and internal use

63

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Aluminium screens and cladding sets

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Sanded wall panels

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Stone cladding

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FIRE PROTECTION Fire shutters with integrate egress doors

Roofing & Fittings

Instantaneous water heaters

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SPECIFY IDEAS FOR LIVING WITH DARREN PALMER There are a few things that light me up in my work and in design generally. Obviously aesthetics are a huge attraction but ever since designing my first kitchen I have been enamoured with anything that surprises with its functionality.

Real ‘James Bond’ stuff where televisions are revealed out of cabinets or doors seamlessly glide over the face of their neighbouring panels.

Any product that adds functionality to the room, but in a really considered and surprising way, is what I always wanted to know about.

Now, to be working with the world leader in this type of technology for the home, from kitchens to cupboards, robes to entertainment areas, I feel grateful that I have the inside info on all of the latest and coolest fittings for designers and home owners alike, and I can share them, now, with you.

For more information visit our website: www.ideasforliving.com.au Darren Palmer Interior Designer, TV Presenter & Author

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FUTURE PROOFING YOUR HOME STIEBEL ELTRON’s comfort 3 phase instantaneous water heaters supply hot water to the degree required and precisely when needed. A single appliance can be used for multiple draw-off points in parallel, and offer the perfect solution for unlimited hot water demand in your bathroom or kitchen.

Our wide range of products, including highly efficient electric instantaneous water heaters, are available for a huge variety of requirements and offer all the benefits of a decentralised domestic hot water supply system. Take advantage of STIEBEL ELTRON’s decades of experience and appliances that have been tried and tested in the field, with over 22 million units sold and counting.

Relying on electricity over gas for power, STIEBEL ELTRON’s electric instantaneous water heaters represent a shift in the focus of energy generation towards green sources. Renewable energies will be the norm for the future of energy supply, as more and more people recognise their environmental and cost benefits. Having proven themselves too harmful to the climate and ever more scarce, fossil fuels are on the decline. With 62% of energy consumed in Australian homes being used for heating, cooling and hot water, utilising renewable forms of energy is the logical decision, with plenty of scope to implement this transition in your own home. Future proof your home now. Make it renewable-friendly.

Choose STIEBEL ELTRON.

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SPECIFY FIVE INCREDIBLE REASONS TO SPECIFY ECOPLY PLYWOOD On the surface, it’s not an uncommon story, an Architect and Carpenter couple work together to build an amazing space for their home and to showcase their talents. The big difference however is the motivation here. Five motivations in fact – five little reasons that Mickey Wolf and Steve Boyle from SBUILT renovated their family home in Brisbane. The couple’s five children became the very inspiration for the beautiful home they created.

Wolf and Boyle selected materials that could cope with the day-to-day rigours of five energetic children. These materials include Ecoply® plywood and Formrite®. Ecoply has been used extensively on the new lower level of the renovation on the entire ceiling and fifty percent of the walls.

To contrast the plywood walls and ceilings, black-faced Formrite with ply edges was selected. Formrite is usually used for concrete formwork but its durability and smooth protective coating also makes it suitable for cabinetry.

Sustainability is a driver in the decision-making at SBUILT. Led by a desire to look out for the next generation, materials are chosen that will last and have been produced in a sustainable way. It’s clear that Ecoply and Formrite have found a new fan in Boyle. And with their eye for design, details and the environment, Boyle, Wolf and SBUILT are sure to find plenty of fans in the future. ecoply.com.au

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WANT QUALITY THAT LASTS AND INSTALLATION THAT’S FAST? EASY. Easycraft decorative wall and ceiling panels allow you to make a stylish statement in both traditional and contemporary spaces, and offer the flexibility to create bespoke finishes.

EVER ART WOOD® SERIES

Manufactured from tough MDF with a consistent density, thickness, width and length, easycraft panels are free from defects. They also outperform plasterboard for impact resistance and abrasion, and achieve high levels of acoustic performance.

• Easycraft panels come pre-primed, reducing labour time on site • The easyjoin system allows one easycraft board to join easily and seamlessly to the next • Easycraft panels will stand the test of time and reduce ongoing maintenance costs

Covet’s aluminium screens and cladding sets a new benchmark in naturallook timber alternatives.

To discover more visit easycraft.com.au stylish solutions for walls and ceilings

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Beautiful, Japanese made, timber alternative.

Designed with excellent weather resistance, and performs well to Australian fire standards.

Available in a selection of profile sizes, cladding panels, textural surfaces, and unique installation options. +61 3 9398 8128 wecovet.com.au

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ALUMCANBOND AN IDEAL REPLACEMENT AND ALTERNATIVE TO NON-COMPLIANT COMPOSITE PANELS

MONDÉCO RAPIDE REVITALISES TERRAZZO FLOORING

ALUMCANBOND is a 4mm Aluminium Core Panel which is fully noncombustible and suitable for external panels and internal structures where non-combustibility and fire resistance is needed.

Terrazzo flooring dates back to Ancient Rome where its vibrant, wearresistant and flexible qualities proved popular with architects building the first modern empire.

ALUMCANBOND is an ideal replacement and alternative to non-compliant composite panels which were responsible for the recent Lacrosse high-rise building fire in Melbourne. ALUMCANBOND has been certified as a noncombustible building material under the AS 1530.1

Today terrazzo remains the first-choice for designers across the globe.

Flowcrete has reinvented the traditional Resin Terrazzo system with Mondéco Rapide, a fast-curing, flexible terrazzo resin system which offers significantly reduced project downtime and can be laid over a variety of substrates. Mondéco Rapide provides a luxury finish with extensive design potential including colour and pattern options featuring locally sourced Australian marble aggregate blends.

ALUMCANBOND is manufactured from high grade Aluminium throughout with the front and back skins 0.7mm thick, separated by a corrugated Aluminium core. Unlike other non-combustible and fire proof panels and sheets ALUMCANBOND does not use mineral core fillers to achieve fire resistance and is therefore lighter in weight with equal or better structural strength.

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SURFACE – THE LATEST METHVEN TAPWARE COLLECTION Surface, the latest release from Methven is a uniquely bold, streamlined geometric tapware collection combining clean lines and elegant floating planes. With this new design being recognised at the 2016 Chicago GOOD DESIGN Awards.

Surface is constructed from the highly durable and award-winning Eco Brass. This revolutionary high quality and high strength material is both lead and heavy metal free, containing less than 0.2 percent lead. Helping preserve water quality for both consumption and bathing in addition to being incredibly robust.

As a result, Methven offers an industry leading 20-year warranty on both parts & labour. This bold, award-winning collection is guaranteed to turn heads for years to come.

690AX

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Contact Flowcrete Australia at australia@flowcrete.com to discuss your project today.

707AX

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OPENING THE FIRE DOOR ON A NEW DIMENSION IN FIREPLACE DESIGN Combining strength in design with quality hand crafted finishing, Sculpt Fireplace Collection are offering some of the world’s most sought after high-end luxury fireplaces. Intent on providing the market a new dynamic collection of designer wood fires that incorporate technology, performance and innovation.

At Sculpt Fireplaces we have gathered, tested and complied award winning fireplaces. Our exclusive range includes unique options like suspended fireplaces, 100 percent pure cast iron Cheminees fireplaces, panoramic fireplaces, the largest single and double sided wood fireplaces available in Australia, the first remote controlled wood heater and the only four sided wood fireplace available in Australia and New Zealand. info@sculptfireplaces.com.au | 1300 851 304

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SPECIFY NEW METALLIC COLOURS FOR STORMTECH GRATES Inspired by worldwide colour trends Stormtech has launched three new metallic colours – Sunlit Brass, Blazing Copper and Rustic Bronze – to offer more creative options to designers, specifiers and consumers.

The colour finishes are available across the whole range of Stormtech’s designer grates and drains, from their standard 100, 65 or 38 Range through to fully customised options.

These metallic finishes will add sparkle and give a sleek and luminous finish to any contemporary design, offering a luxurious and glamorous feel whether it be timeless brass or trendy copper.

Stormtech has been providing inspiring architectural drainage solutions for home and commercial building projects for over a quarter of a century. Used in bathrooms, showers, thresholds, paved areas, driveways, pools and pool surrounds, Stormtech grates and drains are known for sleek design, innovation and practicality.

All Stormtech products are Australian made and WaterMark certified. With a proud commitment to eco-friendly design, Stormtech offers the only linear drainage product in the world with Global GreenTag certification.

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STAINLESS STEEL BALUSTRADE & FENCING

MAXI BEAM – NOW MORE ADAPTABLE THAN EVER

Miami Stainless has a range of architectural balustrade & fencing products for residential and commercial applications.

Designers have embraced Supaslat MAXI BEAM’s unique ability to enhance any interior space without the hassle of working with solid timber.

We continually develop new and innovate products making Miami Stainless an industry leader in architectural stainless steel.

Through new innovative developments, Supaslat MAXI BEAM are now as adaptable as your imagination.

• • • •

MAXI BEAM is now available in tailor-made shapes, extra-large sizes and longer unsupported spans. Now with more finishes, beams can be matched perfectly to panels, blades and slats. The most exciting development is integrated lighting so you can have beams which light-the-way!

Wire balustrade systems Handrails & fittings Posts & spigots Glass balustrade accessories

Our products lines are sourced to meet the highest specifications and standards. Our commitment to quality products, exceptional service and value for money is testament in our continued growth for the past 15 years.

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Release your creativity with MAXI BEAM! www.supawood.com.au

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SPECIFY ARCHITECTURAL ANTISLIP GLASS FLOORING

MITEK’S EASYCAT APP: CHOOSE THE RIGHT EBP

Glassworks’ ArchiLam AntiSlip Glass Flooring comes in a variety of pattern grips in clear, low-iron extra clear or smooth opaque finishes for a surface that is safer to walk on than conventional flooring.

EasyCat App is a free electronic catalogue of engineered building products (EBP) produced by MiTek Australia. It contains the latest data sheets and links to instructional videos demonstrating correct installation procedures for EBP’s.

706AX

ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

RITEK® XL WALL® FOR ALL INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL WALLS

UNIQUE STEEL AND TIMBER COMPOSITE STRUCTURAL BEAM

Ritek® XL Wall® can be used for all internal and external walls. The company’s drafting team custom design the panels to ensure the Ritek® XL Wall® is delivered to your site prefabricated and ready to install.

TecBeam® is a unique, patent-protected, light-weight steel and timber composite structural beam. TecBeam®designed floors can often replace structural steel beams, generating savings in time and cost.

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RENSON SKYE: EXCLUSIVE TERRACE COVERING WITH BLADED, RETRACTABLE ROOF Fitted with rotatable and retractable aluminium blades, Skye roof offers protection against the sun, rain and wind.

On a summer evening, you can view the starry sky directly from your terrace.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

INTRODUCING MICA: SLIM-WALLED MODERNIST BASINS FROM KOHLER Thin and elegant-looking, KOHLER Mica basin’s ceramic material is extremely strong and durable. Its CleanCoat™ stain-resistant coating keeps it glossy, easy to clean and durable, making it easy to maintain its beauty without compromising quality.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

TROLDTEKT AND TROLDTEKT PLUS

CULTURED STONE®

BY BORAL®

Troldtekt and Troldtekt Plus are two leading acoustic ceiling tiles from Ceilector.

Troldtekt is a classic acoustic panel, while Troldtekt Plus uses a non-toxic PVA adhesive to back the panel with a 25mm or 35mm layer of acoustic panelling.

Cultured Stone® is a unique cladding product cleverly engineered to look like natural stone, but with all the benefits of new technologies. Cultured Stone® can be used on both internal and external walls.

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SPECIFY MATRIX WASH BASIN RANGE DESIGNED FOR AGED CARE AND DISABILITY SECTORS The Matrix range from Pressalit is a dedicated collection of wash basins developed for people with limited mobility. They are suitable for static insulation and, with height-adjustable mechanisms, the shallow bowl aids wheelchair access.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

FIRE SHUTTERS WITH INTEGRATE EGRESS DOORS Greene Fire’s fire shutters can accommodate large occupant loads and provide wide-span opening protection to solve your egress problems. They are available in both manual or motor-operated designs with single or multiple swinging egress doors.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

SMARTRAY SYSTEMS

BY HETTICH Intelligent and compact, the SmarTray organiser from Hettich is made from highquality steel or plastic and come with a host of features.

Between these two material types, SmarTray is appropriate for a range of applications.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

CURVED SLIDING AUTOMATIC DOOR Auto Ingress Automatic Doors provides innovative access solutions with its range of automatic door equipment. These doors complement modern architectural developments with their slim design and quality construction.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

SCHUECO ASS INSULATED AND UNINSULATED ALUMINIUM SLIDING DOOR SYSTEMS Schueco ASS insulated and uninsulated aluminium sliding door systems offer a range of styles, easy-glide operation, perfect weather-tightness when closed, and high levels of transparency thanks to narrow profile widths and slim sight-lines.

704AX

ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

ACOUSTIC, PERFORATED PLYWOOD AND PLASTERBOARD PANEL RANGE Keystone Acoustics offer a selection of plywood and plasterboard that can be used for a huge range of applications. Products are supplied to individual configurations along with a range of slotted and unique designs.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

AIR-CELL THERMO REFLECTIVE FLEXIBLE INSULATION FROM KINGSPAN INSULATION The Kingspan AIR-CELL range is a high-performance, thermoreflective insulation solution for floors, roofs and walls.

It is fibre-free, flexible and suitable for both residential and commercial applications.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

ARMSTRONG’S WOODWORKS™ WOOD CEILINGS Armstrong has harnessed the enduring, natural beauty of wood for a range of Australianmade ceiling panels. The panels allow you to bring a little nature indoors, combining functionality with elegance and a wide range of choice.

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ARCHITECTUREANDDESIGN.COM.AU/PRODUCTS

Invisible by day FORMIDABLE BY NIGHT

Trellis doors for straightine commercial applications

Folding closures

Trellis doors for curved commercial applications

RETRACTABLE CONCERTINA TRELLIS DOORS FOR COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Safety barriers and crowd control barriers

Overhead shutters

Trellis doors for counter tops, serveries and canteens

SECURITY that’s affordable and attractive

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Wherever, whenever, however you work.

The latest RED BOOK is out now!

The all-new, expanded edition of the industry’s most respected design guide is your go-to resource for fire, acoustic and thermal wall, ceiling, column and beam systems.

• • • •

Over 425 new systems Digital Red Book Companion application A new Thermal focus Condensation solutions

• • • •

Expanded Technical Details section New cladding options Dedicated EC08 section Stand-alone Ceilings section

Available in hard copy through your Gyprock representative, or in PDF format at gyprock.com.au/redbook.

For a revolutionary new experience, with faster navigation and added features, try the Red Book Companion application. Simply SMS “Red Book” to 0400 813 813.

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