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A perfect green building?
The new Grocon Pixel building in Melbourne, a joint design venture between architects studio505, sustainability and services engineers Umow Lai and structural engineer, VDM Consulting, has achieved the highest ever Green Star rating in Australia with a perfect score of 100 points.
The Pixel building is the first ever carbon neutral office building in Australia, and gained an extra five points for innovation, equating to world leadership.
According to the Green Star Council CEO, the Pixel building, having achieved the maximum Green Star points ever awarded under Green Star, 'could arguably be said to be Australia's greenest building and is quite possibly the first building of its kind in the world.'
'This building will redefine the way buildings are built in the future.'
Included in Pixel's five innovation points were points for carbon neutrality, a vacuum toilet system, an anaerobic digestion system and reduced car parking.
The water management initiatives used in the building mean that it is aiming for water self-sufficiency, and it also features a special type of concrete known as Pixelcrete, which halves the embodied carbon.
On top of the building are the world's leading wind turbines, invented in Bendigo, a Melbourne University designed 'living roof', which re-introduces some Victorian grassland species to the Melbourne area, and tracking photovoltaic roof panels.
Pixel also features smart window technology that allows windows to open automatically on cool nights to cool the building, and a distinctive sun shade system on the exterior of the building provides maximum daylight into the office space while protecting it from excessive glare and heat in the summer.
Pixel is also being assessed under the USA LEED and UK BREEAM rating systems, aiming to exceed the highest score yet achieved under either of those tools.
(Images courtesy of Grocon and studio 505.)
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The Pixel building is the first ever carbon neutral office building in Australia, and gained an extra five points for innovation, equating to world leadership.
According to the Green Star Council CEO, the Pixel building, having achieved the maximum Green Star points ever awarded under Green Star, 'could arguably be said to be Australia's greenest building and is quite possibly the first building of its kind in the world.'
'This building will redefine the way buildings are built in the future.'
Included in Pixel's five innovation points were points for carbon neutrality, a vacuum toilet system, an anaerobic digestion system and reduced car parking.
The water management initiatives used in the building mean that it is aiming for water self-sufficiency, and it also features a special type of concrete known as Pixelcrete, which halves the embodied carbon.
On top of the building are the world's leading wind turbines, invented in Bendigo, a Melbourne University designed 'living roof', which re-introduces some Victorian grassland species to the Melbourne area, and tracking photovoltaic roof panels.
Pixel also features smart window technology that allows windows to open automatically on cool nights to cool the building, and a distinctive sun shade system on the exterior of the building provides maximum daylight into the office space while protecting it from excessive glare and heat in the summer.
Pixel is also being assessed under the USA LEED and UK BREEAM rating systems, aiming to exceed the highest score yet achieved under either of those tools.
(Images courtesy of Grocon and studio 505.)
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