Small sustainability showcase packs a punch

Small sustainability showcase packs a punchAt 1,722 sqm, Floth’s headquarters at 69 Robertson Street in Brisbane may be small, but it has garnered global attention for leading-edge sustainability solutions delivered on a conventional budget.Engineering firm Floth bagged the WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff Award for Best Sustainable Development – New Buildings at the recent Property Council of Australia / Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation & Excellence Awards.The three-storey office in Fortitude Valley achieved the first 6 Star Green Star Design & As Built certified rating in Australia, and the first 6 star NABERS Indoor Environment rating. It has also won a leadership award from the World Green Building Council, and was the first to meet the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council’s definition of a zero-carbon standard building.Anthony Marklund, Floth’s ESD principal, says the interest the building has attracted has “thoroughly exceeded our expectations”.Marklund says his team has demonstrated that “a world leading sustainable building can be delivered on a standard budget and can effectively achieve zero carbon while providing superlative indoor environment quality”.Among the many energy efficiency initiatives are solar passive design, heat recovery air conditioning, LED lighting with occupancy and daylight controls, and an extensive roof-mounted photovoltaic array.The constraints of a 520 sqm site proved challenging, particularly “bringing daylight and external connection to the central office space”, Marklund says. This has been overcome with an “elegant solution” – a generous lightwell between the building and its neighbour that provides a “high quality view and a sense of space”.Most structural materials were sourced locally, including masonry from Ormeau with raw materials extracted from the Gold Coast area.”As Australian suppliers weren’t familiar with providing local material data, we had to work with manufacturers to track down where the raw material for their products comes from,” Marklund says.And in an act of true sustainability, the original Queenslander on site was relocated to the small town of Esk, to provide a home for a family of eight who had lost their house to fire.Marklund says the fully-serviced and fitted-out 1,722 sqm gross floor area office building was “very economical” at $2,200 per sqm gross floor area (GFA). The benchmark cost range for an equivalent conventional building is between $2,100 and $2,800 per sqm GFA.”The fact that the final project cost sits towards the lower benchmark while delivering unmatched sustainable design and performance demonstrates that the project has exceeded the building’s planned objectives,” he says.”Floth’s drive is not to increase project budget nor apply exotic technologies, but rather to eloquently design practical and cost-effective sustainable buildings.” And the team has certainly achieved this.