The Sydney Harbour YHA (Youth Hostel Australia) offers an exceptional alternative for a building type that traditionally does not perform well environmentally.
Overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, the revamped 354-bed Sydney Harbour YHA has become the first purpose built environmentally sustainable youth hostel in an Australian inner-city location.
Peter John Cantrill, director of Tzannes Associates, says: “The main initiative was to reduce the energy use of the hostel, and that also goes for the embodied energy of the building structure - it’s very light-weight, thanks to a terracotta facade, and the use of timber within the structure,” he says.
In its first year of operation, Cantrill says, compared to equivalent hostel accommodation, the building has achieved a 50 per cent saving in energy use and a 40 per cent saving in water use.
“It’s a trial accommodation building for the Green Star system, so that’s very enco uraging,” he says.
Energy is generated onsite via solar hot water panels and a gas powered generator to supply up to 70 per cent of the hostel’s peak energy demands. The hostel is divided into two wings that include 106 rooms and incorporates ‘The Big Dig Archaeology Education Centre’ on the site, which allows school groups to take part in a simulated archaeological dig to unearth artefacts from the site. The judges say the building represents a great example of a clever design response to a very constrained heritage site, and a traditionally environmentally poor building type.
“Low budget hotels are typically air-conditioned double loaded corridor buildings,” say the judges. 
“This building encourages its users to engage in environmentally sustainable practices and gives users the opportunity to adapt the environment in their own rooms.”

Special Mention: Breathe Architecture for River Studios

The judges were particularly impressed with River Studios’ strong social sustainability qualities, which Breathe Architecture achieved on a very tight budget.
River Studios breaks the cycle of demand and displacement by repurposing vacant city sites, to provide affordable and sustainable studios for the Melbourne art community.
Recycled materials used include cyclone wire fencing and timber framing, and salvaged items such as doors, windows, metal cladding, plywood sheets, and corrugated iron and textile installations.