This year the digital Sustainability Summit on 11th November presents five outstanding sessions that will explore a range of diverse subjects guaranteed to both excite and inform. 

Now in its 15th year, the Sustainability Summit, along with the Sustainability Awards, celebrates all matters sustainability providing a knowledge-based resource with the latest information on practice, projects, products and people. 

With another expert panel at hand, the fourth session entitled, Water-Sensitive Design – 2021 & Beyond will explore the big questions of water, design and sustainability for the future. As the driest inhabited continent in the world, Australia is also the world’s highest consumer of fresh water and with Climate Change a reality what does that mean for architects and designers and design per se?

Moderator for the session Paul Haar (Haarchitecture) commented on the session saying, “This session will bring together a tremendous group of deep thinkers, rigorous researchers and creative practitioners in water-sensitive design, a subject so crucial for the hotter and drier times we have ahead in Australia. We’ll drill into best architectural and engineering responses to potable water conservation, rainwater harvesting and wastewater recycling. And we’ll take a broader look at the dynamic role that water can play in bringing nature back into our cities, in rewilding urban spaces by design to make them more enjoyable and sociable whilst also helping to alleviate our climate and biodiversity emergency.”

Along with Haar the panel will comprise of,

  • Dr Peter J Davies (Macquarie University)
  • Lisa Howard (Taylor Cullity Lethlean, TCL)
  • Markia Neustupny (NMBW)
  • Stuart Khan (School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW)
  • Tone Wheeler (Environa Studio)
  • Troy Creighton (Stormtech)

This exciting group of expert practitioners and highly acclaimed academics will pursue every perspective of water, its management and use, the changing weather patterns and how to ensure a future safe environment. 

As cities expand and the climate becomes more unpredictable, the need to design buildings and neighbourhoods, and even entire cities that use less water, has become more important than ever. This session will examine a range of planning, design and technology strategies, including using water as a ‘secondary sustainability enabler’ such as its use in hydronic heating. This discussion will examine the many ways materials, technology, urban planning and landscape design can effectively address the challenge of water conservation across the built environment.

Markia Neustupny (NMBW) explained, “I'm interested in the relationship between water and everyday life. As an architect of public and private spaces, I'm aware that how wet areas are put together affects the day-to-day things we do. I hope that during the Sustainability Summit there will be a chance to talk about the potential for design of amenities to challenge the status quo of water use and help bring joy to water activities.”

While Stuart Khan, (School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW) elaborated, “Securing sustainable water supplies for Australia’s towns and cities is among the greatest challenges that we face going into the next decade. The east coast drought of 2017-2020 was an enormous wake-up call, reminding us that many of our towns and cities are vulnerable to severe shortages during extended droughts. Population growth and climate change are leading to increased difficulty in balancing water supply and demand.

"Furthermore, in many cases we have exhausted the opportunities for conventional water supplies such as dams on rivers within reasonable distances to large population centres. This means that we will need to rethink how we supply water for many urban centres and we will see increased attention to less conventional sources, such as seawater desalination and purified recycled water. Furthermore, the ways in which we design out cities will need to adapt to incorporate greater water efficiency, opportunities for water reuse, and reduced environmental impacts from freshwater harvesting and wastewater discharge."

As well as Water-Sensitive Design – 2021 & Beyond at the 2021 digital Sustainability Summit there are four more sessions to enjoy – 

  • Circular Economy Ideas For Adaptive Reuse Of Buildings
  • Designing The Perfectly Sustainable Building
  • Everything Architects Need To Know When Designing With Timber
  • Women In Built Environment Sustainability Leadership

Mark the 11th November in your diary and we look forward to seeing you at the 2021 digital Sustainability Summit. Register your interest and buy your ticket here.