FAVOURITES - 10 August 2009 - Winner of the Sustainable Architecture Award at the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) Victorian Chapter Awards was Lend Lease building, The Gauge.

Located in Victoria Harbour in the Docklands precinct, construction of the project commenced in 2005 and was completed in April 2008 and achieved Australia’s first 6 Star Green Star – Office As Built v2 Certified rated building.

According to Lend Lease: “The objectives for The Gauge were to demonstrate real and measurable environmental gains over The Bond, at a lower price, in a building that the industry sees as readily accessible in an overall push to make the highest level of sustainability mainstream.

“Symbolically, The Gauge responds to the two significant environmental challenges facing Australia, greenhouse gas emissions and water supply.”

Following is a case study statement from Lend Lease on The Gauge:

Water saving initiatives in The Gauge’s design will reduce potable water consumption by a further 30 per cent when compared with leading 5 Star Green Star rated buildings, while the focus on energy efficiency coupled with the on-site cogeneration system will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 30 per cent when compared with leading 5 Star Green Star buildings.

The building model employed by Lend Lease allowed successful refinement of the engineering processes, systems and materials, integrating and streamlining the techniques from beginning to end. The result has been the delivery of a 6 Star Green Star rated A Grade office building at a competitive development cost.

The Gauge represents a milestone for the Australian property development industry. It achieves environmental leadership through reducing consumption, on site generation and recycling and a 6 Star Green Star rating at a price point accessible to the majority of the market.

Lend Lease Project Director, Chris Carolan, has reflected on how The Gauge is changing the landscape of sustainable development. “This is not a peripheral building,” he said. “It is not just a building with clever ideas. It is not an experiment and it is not a one off. The Gauge is influencing the mainstream in Australia because it demonstrates that the highest level of environmental performance can be achieved in a building that the industry considers ‘normal’. When sustainability becomes normal rather than an ambition, we are on course to make real progress.”

The Gauge – Sustainable Design Features

Management

• Comprehensive commissioning of all services
• Diversion of 94 percent of construction waste from landfill
• Provision of Building Users’ Guide to enable the building to achieve its intended environmental performance
• Base building and tenancy sub-metering. Monthly reporting.

Indoor environment quality

• Single pass air conditioning with 100 percent fresh air supply
• Chilled beam airconditioning providing radiant cooling
• White noise system throughout with zoning and frequency flexibility available
• Electric, internal solar blinds on north and west facades with occupant override
• Glare control provided by double layer façade shading
• Optimisation of artificial lighting levels within the occupied space
• Individual task lighting controlled by the occupant in the Lend Lease fitout
• Maximisation of natural light through low tint full floor to ceiling glazing, two full height atriums and a segmented core with windows

Energy

• Passive chilled beam technology providing space cooling
• Heat recovery via return air from office spaces
• Natural gas fired cogeneration unit located on the roof of the building generating more than 25 percent of the base building’s peak electricity demand
• Heat by-product used for domestic hot water and space heating
• Efficient lighting design – 1.95W/m2/100lux
• Office lighting zoning – switched zones of no more than 100 square meters
• Localised task lighting at workstations in Lend Lease tenancy
• In-slab radiant heating on ground floor
• Heat extracted from exhaust air at the top of the atrium to pre-heat air supply in winter months
• Base building and tenancy sub-metering

Water

• Black water sewage treatment system on site
• Water treated within building is re-used for toilet flushing
• High efficiency fixtures and fittings in toilets
• Cooling tower control systems limit water wastage
• Fire system tank enables collection and reuse of fire system water
• Rainwater capture for irrigation of adjacent parkland
• Use of lowest water consuming urinals available

Materials

• Recycled waste storage located throughout the building
• Fitout integrated with base building construction to minimise waste
• 20 percent replacement of cement with fly-ash, an industrial waste product
• High level of post consumer recycled content in majority of steel used
• Avoidance of PVC pipework
• Sustainable timber used throughout – either Forestry Stewardship Council rated or post consumer recycled

Transport

· Bicycle racks, lockers and showering facilities for 72 office employees

· Bicycle storage for 12 visitors to the building

· Limited car parking spaces

· 30 percent of parking spaces are for small cars or motorcycles

· Excellent links to public transport

Land Use

· Reuse and remediation of a heavily contaminated industrial site

Emissions

· A stormwater management system treats all stormwater leaving the site. Stormwater is collected for irrigation of the adjacent Victoria Green

· Blackwater treatment system enables significant reduction of sewage delivered to sewage system

· Zero ODP refrigerants and insulants

Innovation

The project was awarded four points for innovation. Three of these points were awarded due to the project exceeding Green Star benchmarks for waste, car parking and water management.

Project Recognition

· May 2008 -

· June 2008 – The Gauge became the first building to receive the ESD Award of Excellence by VicUrban, which signifies World’s Best Practice in Ecologically Sustainable Development, under the Melbourne Docklands ESD Guide.

· October 2008 - The Gauge won the prestigious Charter Keck Cramer Property Development Award at the Australian Property Institute Excellence in Property Awards (Victorian Division) and was commended for the Colonial First State Global Asset Management Environmental Development Award.

· November 2008 - The Gauge won the BPN Environ Sustainability Award in the Large Commercial category.

· December 2008 - The Gauge received its 6 Star Green Star – Office As Built v2 Certified rating, establishing that it had delivered on the promise of its design.

· April 2009 - The Gauge won the inaugural Built Environment Award at the Victorian Government’s 2009 Premier’s Sustainability Awards

· July 2009 – The Gauge won the Sustainable Architecture Award at the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) Victorian Chapter Awards.

Project	The Gauge
Address	825 Bourke Street, Victoria Harbour, Docklands, Vic
Owner	Australian Prime Property Fund (APPF) Commercial
Developer	Lend Lease Development
Commercial Office	NLA 9,000m² across six levels
Retail	NLA 1,300m ²
ESD/Green Star Consultant	Lend Lease design
Architecture	Lend Lease design
Architect	Darren Kindrachuk, Lend Lease design
Electrical/Fire Hydraulics/Structural	Lend Lease design
Façade	Connell Wagner
Mechanical & ESD modelling	Cundall
Project Management & Construction	Bovis Lend Lease
Acoustics	Bassett Consulting Engineers