The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) awarded property developers Stockland six green stars for the design of Durack 2, a commercial office building in Perth’s CBD.

 Durack 2 is the first West Australian property to receive six green stars from the GBCA. The six star certified rating signifies ‘world leadership’ in the environmental potential of the design of commercial offices (base buildings).

West Australian Mechanical Services Project Engineer Daniel Hunt said the building takes into account all aspects of sustainability to get the six star rating. Elements such as the building location, efficient building orientation and façade design, use of sustainable materials, highly efficient building services, water catchment and water recycling and use of innovative strategies and technologies were all considered and used.

“The building has a lot of mass so that it can contain its thermal inertia, but the hot afternoon sun can be an issue,” he said. “To help solve this problem a fully automated louvre system on the western façade has been incorporated. The automatic louvres respond to the movement of the sun and can reflect the heat away from the building while maintaining natural lighting and views.”

The mechanical design uses an active chilled beam system. Mr Hunt said this type of system is becoming more popular because of the apparent savings in energy use.

The building’s ventilation equipment and attenuation for the mechanical services was supplied by Systemaire, Fantech’s branch in WA. This included: toilet and change room exhaust, carpark exhaust, the tenant exhaust systems, substation ventilation and the outside air ventilation systems.

Daniel said three wind turbines had been installed on the roof to take advantage of the diurnal sea breeze, known locally as the Fremantle Doctor. This will allow the structure to generate its own power for a proportion of the building, and at times to put green energy back into the grid.

“A growing number of property developers around Australia are committed to adopting green building practices so there are more buildings gaining Six Green Stars accreditation for design,” Daniel said. “However, putting all those environmental designs into practice is not easy, so a building that gets six green stars in the ‘as built’ category is a real achievement.”