Australia’s first carbon neutral office building, Pixel not only pioneered new green building technologies, the building was set up as a laboratory to test the innovations and hence provides the commercial building sector a prototype of offices of the future.
IN BRIEF
Provide 6 Star Green Star Carbon Neutral offices, with display suite area and a green rooftop viewing area for the Grocon team during the development and sales phase at the site. The client required architecture that was “remarkable, striking and memorable, whilst combining ESD principles with practical building design”.
ARCHITECT’S WORDS
Studio505 have designed a very simple and coherent office building, which is woven together from a series of integrated environmental systems and initiatives. With Umow Lai we have sought to deliver the ultimate ESD rateable performance within a coherent architectural product, worthy of the Design Aspiration of the overall development site.
The project features one of the most sophisticated and integrated water treatment and utilisation systems ever to be built. From the extensive native green roof collecting rainwater, to the creation of the Living Edge intensively planted perimeter balcony, the project is not simply a container to collect ESD ideas, but instead a laboratory and holistic tapestry of symbiotic systems.
These systems include one of the most publicly visible elements, being the projects facade. The facade is an integrated system comprising Living Edge perimeter planters, fixed shading louvers, double glazed window walls and solar panel shading.
The facade is developed to enhance the reading of the project in the round, as the first of many projects. Studio505 have developed a complex and simple patterning development to generate a human scale ‘flow’ of elemental and directional textures. The field textures of the pattern allow the reading of the various elevations, with their differing functional and ESD requirements and materials, to espouse coherency through fluidity. Grocon and the design team are committed to delivering the highest scoring 6 star GreenStar Carbon Neutral project in an aesthetically sophisticated and urbane building.
Studio505 have sought to ensure that this first building engages with the low rise nature of the northern Carlton end of the brewery site. Through the manipulation of scale, of the facade, the shading and the patterning, the Pixel design seeks to embody, embrace and enable the vast urban phase change about to take place on this significant site over the coming years.
ACCOLADES
•Highest score achieved in the world under Leed by US Green Building Council (March2012)
•BPN Sustainability Awards, Large Commercial Award & Best of the Best award 2011
•Green Building Award, New Buildings - Asia Pacific, Commercial Project Merit Award 2010
• Banksia Award for Built Environment - Harmonious Man -Made Landscapes 2010
• Premier’s Sustainability Award (Victoria) 2011 - Built Environment
• Premier’s Sustainability Award (Victoria) 2011 - Products or Services
• Victorian Architecture Awards 2011 - Award for Sustainable Architecture 2011
PRODUCTS
CLADDING
CAMBAR PRECAST CONCRETE
EXTERNAL FACADE GLAZING AND ALPOLIC-CLAD SUNSHADES
ROOFTOP
BARDEN STEELDECK INDUSTRIES, KLIPLOK ROOF SHEETING
FACADE DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION
GLAZED CURTAIN WALL
WINDOW/DOOR JOINERY
MATERIALS FABRICATION, EXTERNAL GLAZING, INTERNAL GLAZING AND AUTO DOORS
ARC PLASTERING, INTERNAL PARTITION GLAZING AND DOORS
VOS JOINERY, JOINERY
FLOORING
REUSED INTERFACE BITUMEN-BACKED CARPET TILES
FORBO FLOORING
WALL COVERINGS
PAINTED OFF-FORM CONCRETE AND PAINTED PLASTERBOARD
CEILING
DULUX
RESENE PAINTS (AUSTRALIA) LTD
BLINDS
LIDI AUTOMATIC PERFORATED BLINDS
LIGHTING
ZUMTOBEL LIGHTING
HEATING AND COOLING SUBCONTRACTORS
JL WILLIAMS
HEATING AND COOLING
GROCON-IMPORTED GAS-FIRED ABSORPTION CHILLERS
AIR CHANGE, AIR HANDLING UNIT
KRANTZ PRODUCTS AND SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA, SWIRL DIFFUSERS
CHILLER SLAB PIPING
INNER CITY HYDRONIC
BMS LASERSAT
ALERTON AUSTRALIA
OFFICE FURNITURE
REUSED WORKSTATIONS FROM GROCON STOCK
SIGNAGE
MATERIALS FABRICATION, CUSTOM-FABRICATED
PREMIER GRAPHICS, STATUTORY SIGNAGE
HYDRAULICS
RICHSTONE PLUMBING
