Melbourne’s six star rated CH2 (Council House 2) building took out the Green Building Award at the 2005 United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Awards held on June 3.
Acting Lord Mayor Gary Singer said he was glad to see the City of Melbourne’s six star rated CH2 (Council House 2) getting the recognition it deserved.
“CH2 is intended to be a role model for sustainable building in Australia and awards such as this are invaluable in helping to get the message out there,” acting Lord Mayor Gary Singer said. “The United Nation’s Association award follows the Green Building Council of Australia’s six star rating awarded to CH2 in April this year – these are remarkable accolades considering the building is only halfway through construction.”
The $51 million, ten-storey building is currently under construction in Little Collins St and has sustainable technology incorporated into every aspect of its design.
“CH2 incorporates a number of ideas inspired by nature to create a building that operates in harmony with the wind and the sun. There is a beautiful simplicity in its design,” Singer said.“For example, the building’s internal air circulation system, which supplies fresh air without the need for energy guzzling machinery, was partly inspired by termite mounds. There is a lot of ingenious bio-mimicry in the design and construction of CH2,,” he said.
While CH2 is winning honours at home, the Lord Mayor John So has been promoting the building internationally at World Environment Day activities in San Francisco. Using CH2 as an example, the City of Melbourne is promoting Melbourne as a centre of environmental excellence and urging widespread uptake of CH2-style technologies.
The Lord Mayor spoke about CH2 at the World Green Building Council’s mayors’ luncheon and also when San Francisco signed up to the United Nations Global Compact, a joint initiative between the UN and business which promotes human rights, worker’s rights and sustainable development principles. San Francisco has become the first city in the US to sign the compact, while Melbourne was the first city in the world to sign.
The sustainable features of CH2 include: a water mining plant in the basement that will use membrane filtered sewer water to reduce mains water supply; phase change materials for cooling; automatic windows that will open at night to cool the building; vaulted concrete ceilings that will improve air circulation, cooling and natural light harvesting; a façade of louvres that will track the sun to shade the Western façade; and, the use of wind turbines to draw hot air out of the building.
CH2 is the only building in Australia to be awarded a six star rating under the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star Rating Tool. As the Green Star rating is comparable with other rating tools used overseas, CH2 is believed to be the greenest building of its kind in the world.
Compared to a five star rated building CH2 will: reduce electricity consumption by 82 percent; reduce gas consumption by 87 percent; reduce emissions by 87 percent and reduce mains water supply by 72 percent.
CH2 will be completed in early 2006.
Source: Building Products News.