#6 Star Green Star Building Journey# Darling Quater

6 STAR GREEN STAR RATING - GREEN STAR - OFFICE DESIGN V2

• Status Certified
• Address
  1-25 Harbour Street,
  Darling Quarter
  Sydney NSW
• Certified Fri 24 Sep 2010
• Score 84
• Building Type New Build
• Applicant(s)
  Lend Lease
• Acoustic Consultant
  Wilkinson Murray Pty Ltd
• Building Services Engineer
  Arup Australasia
• Landscaping Consultant
  Aspect Design Studio
• Local Planning Authority
  Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority
• Main Contractor
  Bovis Lend Lease
• Project Manager
  Bovis Lend Lease
• Quantity Surveyor
  Rider Levett Bucknall
• Architect
  FJMT (Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp) Architects

Development Features:

Darling Quater was such a successful projects. The development activated the south of Darling Harbour, providing 58,000sqm green star office space and 8000 retail space and a remarkable playground to public. Additionally, the development achieves financial management, energy efficiency and successful water recycling.      

The driver of this successful project is very interesting, the figure below shows how the progress works.

Sustainable features:

ENERGY

Energy-efficient lighting and air conditioning, onsite energy production via tri-generation and extensive building tuning, have combined to ensure Commonwealth Bank Place produces 40 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a comparable 5 Star NABERS Energy-rated building. This equates to a 72 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when compared to a typical non-Green Star-rated office building in Australia.  

Now that the building is fully occupied, Lend Lease notes that the energy consumption for some uses, such as vertical transportation, is even lower than the original modelling anticipated. Lend Lease attributes this to the large floor plates of the building, coupled with the building’s occupancy by a single tenant and the interconnecting stairs which have reduced reliance on lifts. “The high-performance façade is also providing a significant benefit in minimising the energy consumption associated with the air conditioning systems,” says Harris.

WATER

The implementation of rainwater harvesting and onsite recycling systems at Darling Quarter will result in a 92 per cent reduction in annual potable water consumption - 52 million litres of water annually. This equates to more than 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools each year. Onsite blackwater treatment facilities are designed to treat and recycle 100 per cent of blackwater generated by Commonwealth Bank Place, and treats additional effluent from mains systems through sewer mining.

Designed by Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies, the blackwater system at Darling Quarter uses a dual fixed-film biological treatment process, involving a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) in combination with a membrane bio reactor (MBR).

“As a means of future-proofing the development, it was important to increase the levels of water efficiency as much as possible,” says Jean-Christophe Schrotter, Technology & Innovation Manager at Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies. “The water systems at Commonwealth Bank Place improve upon the technological and efficiency achievements realised by any product or system on the market to date and will hedge the Commonwealth Bank of Australia against projected spikes in the price of water in the near future.”

MATERIALS

The close relationship between Lend Lease, APPF Commercial and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia enabled a fully integrated fitout to be delivered in tandem with the base building works. “This allowed for the base building to be adapted prior to construction to satisfy tenant requirements and design aspirations. The integrated approach prevented significant amounts of material wastage that would normally occur in a traditional construction with a separate fitout,” Harris explains.

Harris believes that delivering Green Star-certified assets is becoming easier for developers, as the choice of ‘sustainable’ materials is increasingly synonymous with the selection of ‘quality’ materials. In the case of Darling Quarter, many of the materials required to meet the architectural and aesthetic aspirations of the development were directly aligned with those needed to achieve Green Star ‘Materials’ and ‘IEQ’ credit benchmarks. “An example of this is Darling Quarter’s façade, which was required for design purposes to have a very high visible light transparency (VLT). The high VLT of the façade allowed us to gain Green Star sustainability benefits through daylight availability to building occupants.” 

Sources:

https://www.gbca.org.au/project-directory.asp#115

https://www.gbca.org.au/green-star/green-building-case-studies/darling-quarter/

http://waterrecyclinginvestment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ISF019_AWRC_D1_DarlingQuarter_4-2.pdf