Posted in building information modelling

Architectural Design Making a Positive Impact on Sustainability in your Liveable City

If you are faced with the question; “Are you part of a liveable city”, would you know how to answer?

Many would consider any city that they live in as a liveable city, but what does that really mean?

The answer revolves around a few simple words that some of us are well versed with, while others are not. – sustainability, conservation, environmentally friendly, eco-friendly and carbon friendly (to name a few).

Creating a more liveable city comes down to several factors, beginning with residential and commercial designs that offer sustainable features.

Modern technology is now proving that there are new ways of building more sustainable homes, commercial offices and even shopping centres. We did some investigating around Australia and found a few architects that deserve to be praised for this kind of work.

BREATHE ARCHITECTURE – MELBOURNE

A Melbourne architectural company leads a great example by designing carbon neutral homes and commercial properties. Several architects met in December 2019 and collaborated on how to achieve carbon neutral home designs. They are now working together to achieve a more sustainable future in Australian cities.

The Design Director Jeremy McLeod, who founded the company in 2001 together with Tamara Veltre, has asked business owners to pledge that they will take their business into a carbon neutral future via an Architects Declare Architects Act movement. It’s a promise where united architects aim to take Australia into the future with new, modernised designs that will be 100% green powered, carbon audited by 30 June 2020 to ensure it’s working, and will be carbon neutral by 30 December 2020.

Visit their website and check out some of their incredible designs already achieving a carbon neutral future.

BENT ARCHITECTURE – MELBOURNE

Another Melbourne-based architectural company that needs to be praised for their outstanding sustainable work is Bent Architecture.

Established in 2003 by Directors Paul and Merran Porjazoski, they have built and designed sustainable buildings that have won a number of national and international awards, including two open design competitions (Growing Up Green Roof and Living Places Public Housing.

They have proven themselves to be leaders in both residential and commercial designs that are environmentally sustainable, and low costing.

LIVEABLE CITIES CONFERENCE: WEBINAR SERIES 2020

The list goes on with several organisations in Australia already making a positive and sustainable impact in our cities that need to be acknowledged and the Association for Sustainability in Business has been lucky enough to be secure some of the experts in the country for our new webinar series.

If you are interested on how others are successfully achieving positive sustainable results within communities, the first webinar of the Liveable Cities Conference: Webinar Series 2020 is all about sustainable design and architecture making a positive impact on the future of sustainable liveable cities.

The first webinar will be held live online on Tuesday 9th of June 2020 between 10:00am – 12:30pm. The schedule includes three successful case studies delivered by keynote speakers, showcasing how sustainability can be implemented into your liveable city through an intellectually sustainable design. Here’s two of the case studies that will be presented online in June as part of the webinar series.

GINNINDERRY PROJECT

Ms Jessica Stewart; the Sustainability Manager of the Ginninderry project will be speaking about how they have effectively advocated homes with smarter energy solutions that have allowed them to uphold their Ginnindery Green Start Communities rating by constructing sustainable dwelling which create the same or more energy than they consume.

EAST VILLAGE AT KNUTSFORD

Ms Naomi Lawrence, the Senior Development Manager at DevelopingWA, will be the second webinar speaker, delivering a presentation on the case study of the East Village at Knutsford, one of the most highly desired villages to live at in Freemantle in Perth.

The three-part webinar series is set to propel you into the future of sustainable design and several steps closer towards achieving the main goal; to improve sustainable lifestyles.

 

 

Carbon neutral bricks shaping a sustainable future for Australia’s building industry

sustainability global warmingClimate change is threatening our world, and our way of life. The building industry is one of the biggest offenders in Australia, accounting for 23 per cent of all carbon emissions in the country. Though sustainable building practices and green building products are finding increasing acceptance, a lot more remains to be done to mitigate the effects of climate change and global warming on the environment. Architects, building designers and specifiers have an important role to play in addressing these issues through sustainable solutions.

Reducing carbon emissions is a convincing first step in the journey to long-term sustainability. For the building industry, a concept such as ‘carbon neutral construction’ is a viable solution and an achievable goal. Carbon neutral bricks, for instance, can deliver all the proven advantages of bricks without the accompanying embodied energy that would otherwise contribute to the building’s carbon footprint.

The problem of embodied energy

One of the most functional, environment-friendly and energy-efficient building products in the market, with more than 5000 years of proven history, clay bricks are virtually maintenance-free, last more than a hundred years, are reusable and recyclable, and have excellent thermal properties that will help the built structure reduce emissions. However, most brick kilns are fired using natural gas, substantially increasing the embodied energy of bricks, which can significantly add to the building’s carbon footprint. This embodied energy can be reduced by replacing the fossil fuel in the kilns with a greener alternative.

The National Carbon Offset Standard sets out minimum requirements for calculating, auditing and offsetting the carbon of an organisation, product or service. For bricks and pavers, the standard encompasses raw material extraction and transport; manufacturing; packaging; transport to customers; application in works; use and maintenance during their lifetime; and demolition and disposal at end-of-life.

Leading Australian clay brick manufacturer Brickworks Building Products has introduced a new line of certified carbon neutral bricks, with the green credentials primarily achieved through the use of sawdust instead of natural gas to fire the kiln. To read more click here.

Australian engineers need to smarten up, Bentley Systems says

Article published by Sydney Morning Herald by Jenny Wiggins, Infrastructure Reporter 7 April 2015

Australian construction companies need to start using global standards and technology on infrastructure projects to remain competitive internationally and cut costs, the chief executive of US software group Bentley Systems has warned.

Gregory Bentley, one of five brothers who founded Bentley Systems in 1984, said British engineering groups had identified opportunities to win global projects by becoming “smarter” and adopting codes of practice that allowed them to work more closely with designers and builders.

These include using common processes such as British Standard 1192, which helps designers prepare information on a project before passing it to a construction team to build it, and building information modelling (BIM) technology, which allows engineers to produce three dimensional models and review a project’s progress while it is under construction.

“It could and should be adopted faster in Australia,” Mr Bentley told The Australian Financial Review. “Australian engineers would come further up the curve on global standards which would improve their competitiveness and their ability to share work on projects elsewhere.”

Mr Bentley’s warning echoes calls by global engineering groups such as AECOM for Australia’s construction industry to adopt new technology faster.

For full article click here.