Tech

Australia is creating stunning buildings that adapt to their environments

Ariel Schwartz

2015-12-15T13:54:51Z

Rooftop Penthouse photo MHDNUnion — A glass penthouse in Bondi, Australia. Andrew Michler

When researching the most interesting sustainable buildings and regions for my book Hyperlocalization of Architecture, I kept ending up in Australia.

From the largest office building in the southern hemisphere to a tiny cabin in the outback, these projects consistently challenge and provoke. They push to the outer edges of environmental architecture.

One of the stand-out features in Australian contemporary building design is a quality of movement — a kind of kinetic design that allows buildings to be adaptable and comfortable. Some buildings open to provide a path for the prevailing cooling breeze, or close to protect from wildfire or prying eyes.

In the book, architect Sean Godsell describes it as "animated architecture" that keeps buildings from being predictable.

Kinetic architecture creates extraordinary experiences by engaging with building occupants. Most importantly, it's perfectly adapted to a region already undergoing the stress of climate change.

RMIT University's design hub in Melbourne has an exterior made of sandblasted glass disks, which pivot through the day like vertical blinds to control interior light and heat gain. The facade changes tempo throughout the day; sometimes it's a teal grid in direct daylight, then a more delicate steel blue lace when backlit by the sun.

The Anz Center, a bank headquarters located in Melbourne, is one of the largest open offices in the world. The eclectically designed interior, dotted with somber natural tones, primary colors, and oversized objects, brings the expanse down to a manageable scale.

Photovoltaic panels and wind generators dot the roof, a tri-generation power plant reduces the facility's CO2 emissions, and river water cooling is used for the air conditioning. The building also has an extensive black and grey water reclamation system, as well as rainwater collection. It's an environmental village cloaked as an office building.

The front units of the K2 Apartments, a public housing complex in Melbourne, are staggered to provide light for the buildings behind. The relationship to the street acts as a buffer between the public and private spaces.

Rainwater is captured for the public garden and private courtyard. Solar, thermal mass, ventilation stacks, and glass act in unison to passively provide comfort year around.

This Victorian house in Melbourne house seems to wink at passersby. By lightly sketching the neighboring ornate century-old design onto an austere facade, the architects question traditional notions of taste.

The house has three skins: perforated metal, glass, and a curtain behind it that runs two stories. The house is not static; there are many movable parts that change the environment at will.

The idea of the Park Bench House is that you need to change the design only slightly for it to become a rudimentary shelter.

The proposal for the design, which has not yet been built, is that it's a bench during the day, and with the flip of a lid, it becomes a bed for the homeless.

Melbourne's four-story Pixel Building is actually a machine designed to squeeze out every drop of water and energy onsite. For example, let's say you’re a raindrop. You may get very lucky and fall onto the vegetated roof and get pumped into the rainwater-storage tank. You will be filtered and then used to wash a human hand.

Now you will find yourself in the exterior planter bed being filtered again and reused in the shower. Your third trip around you may be used to flush the toilet, and while you will now head to the street sewer system, you previously helped the anaerobic digester create methane to heat water for the raindrops that follow after you.

Facing one of the great tourist beaches of the world, a plain and decrepit Art Deco apartment block in Bondi has been revitalized by a futuristic penthouse, rising from the pale blue stucco. The penthouse creates fresh living space in the highly-sought neighborhood.

The project adds much-needed density by inserting it on top of the existing neighborhood. Call it “symbiotic architecture” or “parasitic design." The process claims existing, often decrepit buildings to add new functions in established surroundings.

This library and community center in Surrey Hills opens to the street like an unclasped jewelbox. The building includes a small library and resource center, a community center, offices, and a children’s daycare. This means many daily visitors and a substantial need for cooling.

Surry Hills Library Community Centre (1)

That begins with the automated two-story wooden louvers that control solar exposure through the course of a day. The southern glass prism atrium, the building’s most notable feat of engineering, is the visual center and also functions as the main air exchange. The outer layer captures fresh air from the rooftop and distributes it to an underground labyrinth, where it is chilled and introduced to the building.

Surry Hills Library Community Centre (2)

Commonwealth Place, originally envisioned as a town square, is an interpretation of the rolling hills of Canberra. It is cleaved, flipped, and then pushed to the sides to make way for a grand access point to Australia's capital city.

Tucked under the sides are a restaurant and gallery. The structure is also a place for children to roll down a grassy hill, or bike through a manmade chasm.