Dr. Mathias Irger's recipe for building a sustainable future

National Head of Sustainability at Cox Architecture, Dr Matthias Irger, says the time for action on sustainable and regenerative design is now. 

“We all have to try a lot harder and do it a lot faster. We owe it to the future generations,” he says. “Currently, we are using many times what the earth can sustain.”

He says a focus on circularity is one of the key ways to save carbon in building design. 

“In a perfect circular economy, there is no end of life; instead, materials and products are continuously reused, recycled or remade. Therefore, we need to extract fewer resources, and waste becomes a form of resource,” he says. 

Circularity also supports biodiversity, as less land is sacrificed to extract resources. However, Dr. Irger says “this is not enough to address the crisis”.

“We need to focus on conservation strategies and really actively regenerate our planet”.

This is where regenerative design comes in, design that aims to have a positive impact across all levels.

“We need to enter into positive territory to undo the deficit of what the planet can currently manage,” he says

One of his favourite regenerative design examples is the University of Wollongong's Sustainable Buildings Research Centre, designed by Cox Architecture. 

It was the first building in Australia to achieve full certification under the Living Building Challenge, a rigorous sustainability standard for building.

Above: National Head of Sustainability at Cox Architecture, Dr Matthias Irger / Supplied.

“The building produces more energy every year than it’s consuming, thereby chipping away on the carbon footprint of the embodied carbon within that building,” he explains.

“It used a lot of reclaimed locally, responsibly sourced materials such as recycled brick and timber from old bridges and incorporated a lot of biophilic design elements through different referencing of nature or integrating natural materials.”

“Most importantly, the indoor environment is productive, pleasurable and healthy through lots of light and lots of natural vegetation”.

After 10 years a post-occupancy evaluation revealed occupants were more productive and feeling healthier.

“And I think that’s really the power of the regenerative approach,” he says.

“You have not only the outcomes of reducing carbon and reducing energy but you have an actual impact on how people use that building and their happiness and enjoyment in that space and I think that’s one of the best benefits that regenerative building can really achieve.”

He says ultimately, it’s about doing more with less, commenting that the less materials you use, the less carbon you create and the more costs you should save as well.

“My strong belief is that sustainability should not cost more; it should do the opposite.” 

He says when designing it’s important to consider if you can reuse the whole building or at least components of it.

“At the moment, we don’t see the end-of-life waste of a building as a resource, yet at the end of life, the building is a giant resource land. It’s actually a lot of money locked in there. We have to find ways to unlock this capital,” he says.

“We have to start today to design buildings in a different way so we can reap the benefits as soon as possible”.

Listen to our podcast interview with Dr Matthias Irger here.

Main image: Envato.