New Zealand Commercial Design Trends Series NZ Commercial Design Trends Vol. 30/12 | Page 129

Below:The Sustainable Buildings
Research Centre at the University
of Wollongong’s new innovation
campus had strict criteria to
meet in its own sustainable
design. As well as qualifying as a
6 Star Green Star building, it also
set out to meet the demands of
the Living Building Challenge.

The push to design buildings to meet higher
sustainability standards has gained momentum
in recent years, and it’s now become much more
common for new commercial buildings to promote
their Green Star certification.
For the new Sustainable Building Research
Centre at the University of Wollongong, gaining a
6 Green Star rating was an obvious goal. But the
centre’s director, Professor Paul Cooper, wanted to
go above and beyond current benchmarks.
“We wanted to be able to look back in ten years’
time and know that we’d pushed the envelope on
sustainability with this building,” he says.
As a result, it was decided to make the project
part of the Living Building Challenge. This brought
an additional level of complexity to the design, with
its key concept of creating restorative buildings.
“Buildings that meet the challenge need to
actively contribute to repairing the damage humanity has done to the environment, and not just
maintain the status quo,” says Professor Cooper.
To achieve the goals and futureproof the facility,
the university worked closely with lead architects,
Cox Richardson.
The 2600m2 building is part of the university’s
new Innovation Campus. It’s on a prominent site
that’s highly visible to thousands of commuters,
and adjacent to the Wollongong Science Centre.
Cox Richardson associate Michael Bradburn
says the design is based on two linked buildings to
accommodate the two distinct functions it needed
to fulfil.
“The north building is a high-bay laboratory with
a wide span that houses a 5-tonne gantry crane,”
says Bradburn.
This Building Elements Laboratory provides
enough space to build a small house – or sections
of a home – inside, or to perform research projects
such as testing the damage hail can cause to roofs.
The south building has office space for 50
people, three specialist labs, training space and a
large exhibition area on the ground floor.

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