Carbon dioxide levels and ventilation strategies in 'green' office buildings

Energy efficient office buildings are intended to provide a comfortable and healthy environment for their occupants as well as reducing the energy consumption of the building. They are often designed as "showcase" buildings illustrating the potential for savings through some innovative design technology. But do such buildings actually deliver the desired energy savings and satisfactory comfort conditions for occupants? Measurements of a "green" University campus building in Victoria, Australia, designed with an innovative fabric energy storage system, demonstrate that the ventilation system is not providing acceptable indoor air quality conditions. The design strategies used to reduce energy consumption have had negative consequences on the air quality of the building. Insufficient fresh air is being drawn into the building leading to an excessive build up of carbon dioxide. It is recommended that monitoring systems need to use a wider range of measurements than temperature alone to guarantee good quality indoor air and working conditions and that commissioning of buildings should include adequate monitoring of the operational performance of the building. Designers need to be made aware of the potential consequences of their decisions when attempting innovative energy-efficient designs.

A passage from India - Anglo Indians in Victoria : a community gallery exhibition

Drawing on cultural artefacts, images and interactive audio-visual material, this exhibition depicts a vivid portrait of the Anglo-Indian community in Australia.

Old buildings, new landscape : Redeveloping historic neighbourhoods - A case study of Xin Tian Di, Shanghai, China

This paper explores the use of tradition by the redevelopment project ofXin Tian Di (New Heaven and Earth) in Shanghai. The paper also identifies the implications of this urban redevelopment project to historic quarters in Chinese cities. An enormous commercial success and new Shanghai icon, Xin Tian Di project has transformed a former residential neighbourhood into a high end entertainment precinct. While the redevelopment ofXin Tian Di has retained the architectural features of the place, the use and interpretation of tradition by the project is problematic. The project shows a tendency where the established idea of tradition is destabilised and challenged. It also highlights issues of cultural authenticity in the redevelopment of historic quarters.

An architecture of rewards: a new poetics to exhibition design?

This paper argues that the influence of multimedia on exhibition practices can be felt not only by the presence of multimedia interactives in the exhibition itself but more generally by the presence of similar structural principles. The argument is conducted by borrowing from Stephen Johnson’s (2005) thesis that contemporary forms of popular culture, particularly those found in video games, television and film, are based on an ‘architecture of rewards’. In taking this term across to exhibition practices, I use it to analyse an approach to the interpretation of a heritage site, which attempts neither to reconstruct its former uses nor to insert traditional forms of ‘contextual’ displays. Instead, I argue that the curatorial attempt to find ways in which the site could become the principal object of display resulted in the conscious production of narrative gaps which become the structural armature for the encouragement of game playing in a similar process to that discussed by Johnson in relation to video games.

Embodied energy in buildings : wood versus concrete - reply to Börjesson and Gustavsson

We analyse the wood and concrete designs of the Wälludden building described by Börjesson et al. (Energy Policy 28 (2000) 575) in terms of their embodied energy, employing an environmentally extended input–output framework in a tiered hybrid life-cycle assessment, and in a structural path analysis. We illustrate the complexity of the inter-industry supply chains underlying the upstream energy requirements for the building options, and demonstrate that higher-order inputs are difficult to capture in a conventional process analysis. Our calculations show that Börjesson and Gustavsson's estimates of energy requirements and greenhouse gas emissions are underestimated by a factor of about 2, and that corresponding greenhouse gas balances are positive at about 30 t C-eq. Nevertheless, Börjesson and Gustavsson's general result—the concrete-framed building causing higher emissions—still holds.

Multiple criteria sustainability modelling: case study on school buildings

This paper describes development of a computer-based tool for sustainability modelling using multiple criteria, and preliminary conclusions from doctoral research being undertaken into the relationship between key sustainability indicators. The model used in both cases produces a sustainability index with an accept/reject threshold of one that has the potential to completely replace traditional net present value methods. Minimum performance benchmarks are prescribed and must be observed - often by trading off performance across the full criteria set. Sustainability is shown to be capable of objective (numeric)· analysis for new projects, existing facilities, or indeed any product or asset. A combination of investor-centred and community-centred motivations can also be explored in the model. Known as SINDEX, the tool has industry-wide application, both locally and abroad, and represents a paradigm shift in project evaluation techniques. Furthermore, its multi-discipline considerations underscore the importance of a team approach to sustainability modelling and the need for people to work more closely together when dealing with complex problems. The results of twenty case studies of actual high schools constructed and operated in New South Wales (Australia) are also presented and the relationships between the key sustainability indicators are explored and interpreted.

Estimating the increasing cost of commercial buildings in Australia due to greenhouse emissions trading

The ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by most industrial nations will result in an international greenhouse emissions trading market by or before 2008. Calculating the quantity of embodied energy in commercial buildings has therefore taken on added significance because it is in the creation of energy that most greenhouse gas that causes global warming is released. For energy efficient commercial buildings in Australia, the embodied energy can typically represent between 10 and 20 years of operational energy. When greenhouse emissions trading is introduced in Australia the cost of energy will rise significantly, particularly electricity which relies primarily on burning fossil fuels for generation. This will affect not only the operating energy costs of buildings (light, power & heating/cooling) but also the cost of building materials and construction. Early estimates of the potential cost of future greenhouse emission permits in Australia vary between $IO/tonne to $180Itonne. This cost would be imposed primarily on the producers of energy and passed on by them to consumers via higher energy costs. For a typical commercial building this could lead to an increase in the total procurement cost of buildings of up to 20% due to the energy embodied during the construction or refurbishment of the building. To assist in evaluating these potential cost increases McKean & Park, Sinclair Knight Merz and Deakin University have developed a web-based Carbon Cost Calculator for commercial buildings.

Logistics: Our buildings are always particular to places, access, materials, skills and technologies. How do these limits provide us with architectural opportunities?

Presents a discussion on the relations between architecture and spirituality during the 2005 conference of the Royal Architecture Institute of Australia. Reason behind difficulty encountered by architects to associate architecture and spirituality; Inspiration of Jae Cha of architectural firm Light for designing the Bolivian church; View of Kevin O'Brien of Merrima Design on Aboriginal buildings.