Along the banks of the Parramatta River stands 105 Phillip St – an architectural marvel with a special story.
The city’s first 6 Star Green Star rated building and home to 1,800 employees at the NSW Department of Education, the office building was recently heralded Australia’s 2000th Green Star certified project.
A joint asset of Charter Hall and Dexus, designed by Bates Smart, and constructed by Built, 105 Phillip St boasts a collaborative working environment that is environmentally and socially sustainable.
With a 6 Star Green Star rating under its belt, what makes it a world class sustainable building?
Among its key features are:
- Ultra-efficient LED lighting layout
- Tenant amenity includes hotel grade end of trip facilities, a soccer court and BBQ social area on the roof terrace; as well as interconnected, naturally lit break-out atria for lunch space
- Centrally located for access to public transport
- Rainwater to cooling towers and ultra-efficient base building amenity potable water design
- Healthy building materials used throughout the project with specific attention given to low VOC and formaldehyde products
- The project achieved a 97.1 per cent recycling rate over the course of the demolition and construction activities
- Dematerialisation in the form of exposed services, an integrated fitout and a completely re-designed structure that enabled the project to reduce steel and concrete by 33 per cent from the tender design
- Light wells on the northern aspect of the building promote connectivity, natural light and collaboration amongst the occupants
- The integrated fitout has been designed to adopt activity-based working, which allows the building to cater for a higher number of overall occupants and thus reduces the environmental impact per occupant
Built National Sustainability Manager, Joe Karten, explains that the team targeted Innovation credits to set the building apart from other projects, helping it to achieve its 6 Star Green Star – Office Design v3 rating.
“The Innovation points claimed were already built into the design of the project. However, the initial pathway hadn’t sufficiently sought recognition for each of these features,” Joe explains.
“Through collaboration between Wood & Grieve Engineers and Built, a list of alternative and additional credits was compiled, centred on the opportunity to replace the majority of the Materials category with the Life Cycle Impacts credit from Green Star – Design & As Built v1.1.
“This freed up the innovation category to claim initiatives that both exceeded Green Star – Office Design v3 benchmarks and considered environmental issues outside the scope of the rating tool.
“Furthermore, the abundant access to daylight and views was able to be claimed through recognition of the integrated fitout design layout which prioritised occupant access to these amenities.”
As well as being Parramatta’s first 6 Star Green Star office building, it’s also the first in which Built has connected rainwater to cooling towers and on which it constructed a soccer pitch.
