Built environment

How do we unlock geothermal energy potential in high-performance buildings? Plumbing Industry Climate Action Centre CEO Shayne La Combre has some thoughts.

The Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas is the world’s first hospital to earn LEED Platinum.

It is now widely accepted that ventilation plays a major role in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and other airborne pathogens, but what are we doing about it? Professor Lidia Morawska fills us in on what is happening – and what we need to tackle next.

Since 1988 the Sydney Football Stadium has been the Harbour City’s premier rectangular field venue, regularly hosting internationals played by the Kangaroos, the Wallabies, Socceroos and Matildas as well as NRL, Super Rugby and A-League games. Find out how the design team had particular sustainability aspirations at heart.

By embracing the Passivhaus standard, a new apartment building in Palma, Spain, classifies as an nZEB (nearly zero energy building).

The development of a sophisticated control system for an iconic home in Melbourne’s leafy suburbs has not only provided greater comfort to its occupants but broken new ground in predictive climate control systems. Sean McGowan reports on a house that has been home to four generations of the Featherston extended family, having evolved every step of the way.

For more than 30 years, 101 Collins Street has remained one of Melbourne’s most prestigious office building addresses. Now on a path of decarbonisation, its management team aims to leverage the innovation of the HVAC industry to deliver a fully electrified building.

Canberra Grammar School’s new Snow Concert Hall features a subterranean design boasting an innovative ground‑source heat pump system. 

The new Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) at Tufts University is a nifty response to a challenging brief.

Some building owners are happy if their edifice performs adequately. For those making decisions about Quay Quarter Tower, the aspirations were considerably higher. Behold the winner of the 2022 AIRAH Award for Excellence in Innovation.

Located in the heart of the CBD and overlooking the river, Brisbane Quarter is Brisbane’s first truly integrated, world-class mixed-use precinct. Consisting of three buildings, the project presented the ideal scenario for a district-style heating and cooling scheme. Sean McGowan reports on the design and construction of the HVAC systems serving this $1 billion development.

HVAC&R specialists have key role to play if Australia is to meet emissions targets and keep building healthy, argues ARBS Chairman Tony Arnel.

There is a growing chorus that now, perhaps more than ever, institutionalised professions need to question conventional practices in response to evolving public need.

One of three similar facilities to be built in regional Victoria, the Ballarat GovHub is helping to revitalise the CBD of this regional centre and centralise government services in the area by accommodating up to 1,000 workers. Mass timber is at the heart of the building’s superstructure.

Over the past decade the HVAC industry has experienced a maturity in fault- detection diagnostics. From a technical standpoint this has resulted in historical analytics, streaming analytics, forecasting, modelling, and a welter of other innovations changing the way to figure out what’s wrong with our buildings. Ideally this data can be used to radically change the way things are done, make BMS professionals more efficient, and actually generate some outcomes for facility owners and building owners.

District heating and cooling could offer an important pathway to decarbonisation – and one of the biggest barriers to its uptake might simply be our mindset, writes Mark Vender.

Using a hybrid of dynamic thermal simulation and detailed hourly spreadsheet calculations, the analysis identified design and operation strategies to size PV and batteries for various degrees of grid independence.

Located in South Korea’s capital, the HQ for a luxe fashion brand boasts several sustainability initiatives, including a high-performance façade.

The Australian building industry is on the path to electrification, signalling an end to a reliance on natural gas for hot water, heating and cooking. Sean McGowan explores how this path is being forged with Bruce Precious M.AIRAH, principal consultant at Six Capitals Consulting; Yale Carden, M.AIRAH, founder and managing director at GeoExchange Australia; VA Sciences’ James Moyes and Simon Witts, M.AIRAH; and RMIT industry fellow Alan Pears. 

Hospitals aren’t just another building; they are a processing facility in which lives are being saved daily – this requires reliability and energy. So, can we please stop bundling them in with other building types when it comes to talking about green buildings? James Moyes, Simon Witts, M.AIRAH, and Broden Kay are asking this pointed question.