日本語 
Style and sensitivity: Australia’s construction industry is creating modern eco-sensitive buildings
Building a Future
Australia’s construction industry – worth A$90bn a year – is working towards becoming an international leader in sustainable building methods.
Construction is one of the backbones of Australia’s economy. Construction, supply and project firms account for 14% of gross domestic product, and employ some 730,000 individuals in more than 230,000 companies. The sector is growing at 2.6% a year and has huge untapped export potential.
Green technology focus
Australian building companies will have a significant impact on the global construction industry in the next 15 years, according to a 2004 report – ‘Construction 2020’ – prepared by the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Construction Innovation.
Green calculator
Dubbed the ‘green calculator’, Life Cycle Analysis of Design (LCADesign) gives design and construction professionals an immediate cost and environmental ‘footprint’ assessment of any commercial building.
“Working from the 3-D CAD (Computer Aided Design) for a building, the calculator provides an instant display of the volume and cost of all the materials involved in its construction – at the push of a button,” says the leader of the development team, Dr Peter Newton of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). “At the same time, it can calculate the environmental impact of all those materials – how many tonnes of clay were used to make them, how much water, how much energy, and how much greenhouse gas and other polluting emissions they made to air, land or water.”
The software – which uses industry-standard CAD program data as its input – has been developed at Australia’s Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Construction Innovation, Australia’s national re-search, development and implementation centre, established in 2001. The CRC is developing key technologies, tools and systems to improve efficiency and innovation in property and construction.
The report was compiled following a series of workshops held in every capital city of Australia, gathering
the views of industry leaders and members on the challenges facing the Australian property and construction industry into the future.
The final report identified eight key ways technology can raise Australia’s building and construction sector to a new level of success.
“The first and clearest, agreed across the industry, is that environmentally sustainable construction – the creation of buildings and infrastructure that minimise their impact on the natural environment – is an area of huge potential,” said Construction Innovation CEO Professor Keith Hampson. “Here, technologies like LCADesign [see ‘Green Calculator’ panel] can make a big difference... a calculator that works out automatically from 3D computer aided design the environmental and economic costs of materials in a building – at the push of a button. By 2020, working with industry, we’d expect to have a comprehensive set of eco-design tools for all stages of the construction life cycle, to minimise energy use, greenhouse and other forms of waste or pollution.”
These comprehensive eco-efficiency evaluation tools would provide ready assessment of environmental performance against international best-practice standards. Not only would the ‘green’ calculations be embodied in Australia’s national building regulations, the techniques and software could form the basis of comprehensive management systems that could be exported to other countries.
Other goals recommended by the ‘Construction 2020’ report include the further integration of leading-edge communications and IT technologies, the use of virtual prototyping to enhance efficiencies, and greater health and safety for the workforce.
Architects call for action on water
Australia’s architects are also working to promote a green agenda for design and construction, highlighting in particular the need to protect fragile water resources.
The National President of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, David Parken, told a 2004 environment and heritage government committee that excessive consumption of energy and resources should be penalised.
“Innovative solutions should be rewarded by factoring in the full environmental cost of energy from non-sustainable non-renewable sources,” he recommended.
Australian companies already provide high quality materials to the world – such as BlueScope Steel’s ColorBond steel, with paint highly resistant to the problems of tropical staining.
With world-leading solar technology, water recycling systems, and other sustainable techniques (see panel), Australia is poised to capitalise on its great export potential.
Green future: the new face of enviro-friendly Essendon Baptist ChurchGreen buildings
Australian architects take pride in their ecologically-sensitive design and ‘green’ buildings. One recent example is the extension and redesign of Melbourne’s Essendon Baptist Church, undertaken by Architektonic and ecologically-sustainable development consultant Shane Esmore.
Securing a A$35,000 grant from the Sustainable Energy Authority Victoria, this project acts as a showcase for innovative low-energy techniques, including solar technologies, cost-effective auditorium cooling, natural ventilation, natural/ artificial lighting adjustment, rainwater harvesting, and water efficient appliances including waterless urinals. >> www.tektonic.com.au
Another example of green building in Australia is Toyota’s new corporate headquarters in Port Melbourne, opened in July 2004 (right). It incorporates state-of-the-art sustainable design features including external solar shades; a 90-metre glazed atrium that covers the front of the building; double and triple glazed windows; high-efficiency fluorescent lights; even recycled carpet materials. A 350,000-litre underground stormwater tank collects and harvests water from the roof
to use for flushing toilets and watering landscaped gardens, while the reliance on energy for heating and cooling is reduced with a high level of air filtration and zoned air conditioning.
>> www.toyota.com.au
>> www.austrade.gov.au
>> www.construction-innovation.info
>> www.architecture.com.au
