A research leader engaged in some of the most exciting initiatives in building technology and design in Australia will join as guest speaker at the BPN Sustainability Awards next week.

Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) director Professor Paul Cooper will describe some of the cutting-edge research taking place at the recently established centre.

Opened August, the new centre is the first project in the country to shoot for Living Building Challenge certification – reputedly the toughest such scheme in the world.

What will prove even more interesting to architects, designers and the wider building industry is the ongoing research going in within (and indeed including the centre's building fabric). Work includes the prototyping and testing of sustainable building technologies, designs and materials that will help revolutionise Australian buildings.

The SBRC Building was designed by Cox Architecture

Professor Cooper is charged with leading those efforts, the aim to research, collaborate and link with industry to improve the country’s building stock.

Previously, Cooper has been involved in research on a wide variety of topics in energy systems, energy efficiency and fluid mechanics. Over the past 30 years he has focussed his teaching and research on the improvement of the efficiency with which we use energy and other resources, particularly in the built environment and in industrial processes.

He believes now a critical time in the development of our society and that the work at the SBRC – at the University of Wollongong - will play an important role in helping effect a rapid transition to a society that has a dramatically lower impact on our environment than at present.

The SBRC will also be hosting a symposium on Inspiring, Sustainable, Living Buildings on October 24, as well as their first public open day on Saturday October 25. Visit the SBRC website for more details.

All the Sustainability Awards winners will be announced on the night of October 23, painstakingly judged from a host of impressive finalists across the building project and product innovation categories.

Tickets to the event are available via the Architecture & Design website.