Inhabitat » CH2: Australia’s greenest building

March 13, 2007

CH2: Australia’s greenest building

by Jorge Chapa

When Melbourne decided to create a new building to complement their existing offices, they decided to set an example to the rest of the Australia. Completed in 2006, Melbourne’s Council House 2 building, or CH2, as it is known, is the first building in Australia to achieve a six star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.

The 10 storey building was designed by DesignInc in conjunction with the City of Melbourne and is located on Little Collins Street. CH2 obtained the six green star in part because of it’s many innovative and technological features including photovoltaic cells, chilled ceilings, blackwater sewage recycling systems, all within a budget of 50 million Australian dollars.

But by far the most striking features of CH2 are its recycled timber louvers controlled by photovoltaic cells and the five shower towers, 1.4 meters in diameter and 13 meters long, that draw air from over 17 meters above street level, in which water droplets evaporate slightly as they use up energy and thus cool the air. Shower towers lower air temperatures to around 21°C (from around 35°C) and lower water temperatures to 12°C.

Other features worthy of notice are wind-powered turbines which will help cool the building at night, internal thermal mass, a gas fired co-generation plan, as well as the recycling of the waste heat generated inside the building for their heating/cooling system.

It is expected that the sustainability features of the building will have paid themselves in a period of about 10 years. All that plus the expected increases in productivity, lower maintenance costs and bragging rights for the city make CH2 one of the finest examples of Australian sustainable architecture. For considerably more information, including a detailed report on the building, visit the City of Melbourne CH2 website.

+ CH2 Melbourne

CH2,

9 Responses to “CH2: Australia’s greenest building”

Preston Says:

March 13th, 2007 at 10:19 am

Cool post Jorge, real nice…

Nick Simpson Says:

March 13th, 2007 at 3:18 pm

This looks bizarrely like a uni project I did last semester! All public buildings should be doing this and taking the lead…

Katasha Says:

March 13th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

Nice… green… post :)

PaulS. Says:

March 14th, 2007 at 1:13 am

Hmm, that wood exterior passed their fire code requirements? I would expect the wood would have to be treated with a fire retardant chemical, which might, over the years leach out and need to be replenished periodically.

Burt TUNZI Says:

March 14th, 2007 at 9:32 pm

Looks great,

As usual, it relates to cost.

Fixed costs, and variable costs.

No mention of ground source energy? Efficiency, air filtration, etc.

Will have to read the full feature about the building.

B.T.

Jorge Chapa Says:

March 15th, 2007 at 12:02 am

Paul: I’m sure that you are probably right and that they have to retreat the timber every once in a while. I do believe that they designed them to be easily dissassembled, so at the very least the maintenace cost will likely be lower. As for the fire retardant chemical, looking at all the resarch work that was done for the building, I’m sure that they chose the least environmentally damaging one.

Burt: The overall cost of the building was higher than that of a standard office building. However, they did a cost study which showed that the sustainability features, all 11.3 million australian dollars worth of them, would pay themselves back in about 10 years, and this is just on energy savings. Do read the whole thing as it is fairly well documented as to what measures they took when designing and constructing the building.

anna Says:

March 15th, 2007 at 10:24 am

the wood is on the outside so is far less of a fire hazard than if it was inside, and yes it is probably treated, but the benefits it offers in terms of shading and resultant energy saved is worth it.

another really good thing about this building is how much it adds to the streetscape. the facade is constantly changing thanks to the sun shades and the bright yellow turbines add a bit of humor and make a nicely oblique referene to a contentious sculpture that used to live just down the street (it is also bright yellow). the slabs are really nice too, they give the space inside the building a more engaging quality because of their wave like section.

it’s a cracker of a building, Melbournians love it :)

meef Says:

March 16th, 2007 at 4:06 am

nicee….

Dane Nolan Says:

June 18th, 2007 at 12:29 am

Paul: This project is a world leader and one of the best steps forward for ESD in commercial buildings, why look for problems? lets see your name next to a better project. good work Mick and DesignInc.

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