“For too long Governments have focused on funding affordable living, meaning many Australian’s have been left in ‘affordable housing’ apartments with high utility costs. This results from poor design, because developers of affordable housing are not incentivised to focus on passive solar design and reduce heating and cooling costs, whilst increasing things like daylight and natural airflow. Instead, many build cheaply to maximise returns which leaves those who can least afford high on-going building costs with years of expensive bills to pay.” said Ben O’Callaghan some 8 years ago and now Government is starting to listen.

By focusing on long-term affordable living solutions, more can be achieved than focusing primarily on mechanisms to decrease housing capital costs, which is the focus of many affordable housing policies. To help move the industry forward, affordable living solutions of various forms (including requirements for better design) should be also be a focus, instead of merely affordable housing.

The affordable living approach is more holistic and ensures that people can access housing that is so well designed that it enables occupants to experience much lower operational costs, in energy, water and health expenses. For example, solar energy, water efficiency measures and more natural daylight, which can combat depression, or using non-toxic materials to avoid illnesses related to off-gassing materials. Currently the future cost burden is passed on to occupants, as sub-par design makes it almost impossible to reduce utility costs, because orientation, insulation levels and window types etc were poorly considered and are fixed once constructed. The other side effect of poor design is that housing stock needs to be replaced substantially more often which will only accelerate with future changes in climate.

Designers like Smart Urban Villages are planning to provide affordable living solutions, not capital-cost focused affordable housing. The ACT Government is also now considering innovative policies to target the missing-middle through their Housing Choices initiative and specifically their demonstration housing project.

After three years of planning, design and construction, the James Cook University Science building called The Science Place has achieved a highly-prized green building rating.

The LEED® Gold Certification is the first LEED rating of any level, for a new building in Queensland. The certification also shows The Science Place has become one of the world’s highest performing and sustainable university science buildings.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely used green building rating system in the world.

The design and construction team applied holistic ecologically sustainable design principles to ensure the building performs well, all year round.

Internationally recognised architects, Hassell Studio, and James Cook University engaged leading sustainability consultants Ecomplish Sustainability and dsquared to provide sustainability services for the whole project. This ensured the sustainability was considered throughout and the building could achieve its high echelons. The very energy and water efficient building will allow the university to minimise costs whilst providing extremely comfortable science and engineering facilities to researchers and students.

A documentary film is now available on its innovations:

Stage 1 of the Education Precinct building in Kelvin Grove in Brisbane has been completed. Builder Hansen Yuncken are about to commence the structural construction works. The design successfully achieved its 5 Star ‘Green Star’ design rating from the GBCA by leveraging the rating tool experience of dsquared and Ecomplish Sustainability, who have also worked on similar projects for JCU and Hassell.

The $75 million building has been designed by a team lead by Wilson Architects and Scandinavian firm Henning Larsen Architects. For more information contact us or visit: www.wilsonarchitects.com.au/qut-education-precinct/

Congratulations to Lend Lease on their MBA Builders Project of the Year MAJOR AWARD – The James Cook University ‘The Science Place.  Completed in March 2017, The Science Place is an $80 million teaching and learning facility which now promotes the sciences and collocates the JCU science community on Townsville Campus to foster interdisciplinary interactions.  Ecomplish has also worked on the project for the last 3 years as the Sustainable Design Consultant with dsquared.

Today, RealEstate.com.au featured Yagoi100, the house with over 100 sustainable design features. In it, Ecomplish Director Ben O’Callaghan explains how the smart combination of key design features can enhance residential quality of life and the local environment, whilst almost eliminating all his utility bills.

To view the short video or photos see: www.realestate.com.au/lifestyle/community-living-is-easy-at-currumbin-ecovillage/

DSquared ESD Consultant Ken Long and Ben O’Callaghan presented on sustainability challenges and successes this afternoon in Brisbane at Green Star rated 480 Queen Street building built by Grocon. The Green Building Day was sponsored by Interface Carpets, Big Ass Fans and the GBCA, and what a great event it was.  Keynote speaker Ian Dunlop gave compelling reasons why we all need to act quickly on climate change and the huge opportunities in the property sector, given its emissions.

Ben also gave an update on Smart Urban Villages, which is driving a new form of practical and more affordable sustainable community living.

Ecomplish Director Ben O’Callaghan has been invited by Green Building Council of Australia CEO Romilly Madew, to present at this year’s Green Building Day in Brisbane on 21 June. More

Construction of the Piggabeen Road childcare centre called Loving Hearts has just commenced.

Ecomplish has been the sustainability advisor on the project since 2015.

Ecomplish conducted a feasibility study and set the sustainability targets for the project. The project is on track to deliver the nation’s most sustainable early learning education facility.

More 

Today Ecomplish provided a professional sustainability tour to a group of executives from Satterley, Australia’s largest privately owned land developer based in Perth. They found it invaluable and we are finding more people making the trip over from W.A. to find out how Australia’s most awarded estate, The Ecovillage at Currumbin has succeeded and failed over the past 10 years of its young life. Others to have attended professional tours this year include Sustainable Settlements W.A, Silkwood, Villa World, Channel 9 and groups from South Korea, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan. Star Entertainment came as well, as they are looking to use tools like Green Star Performance to reduce their environmental impacts whilst being more efficient to save on costs.

Dean Landy kindly presented Ben with a copy of his new book, Creating Vibrant Communities, printed just hours earlier, after hearing Ben’s presentation at the 9th International Urban Design Conference in Canberra last week.

Smart Urban Villages was founded precisely because it wants to see such elements becoming the norm for urban living.” Ben said.

Dean’s book will be available for purchase from 17 November 2016 via: http://creatingvibrantcommunities.com

Ecomplish have recently completed building sustainability assessments for multiple sites in south east Queensland. Over 60 opportunities were identified, which will improve the buildings and their operations; these are set to save the owners over 20% on their electricity bills alone.

Ecomplish Director Ben O’Callaghan provides sustainable design and living advice to Queensland Ripley Valley residents in the latest version of the Sekisui House Ripley Today newspaper.

At the University of Technology in Sydney on March 17, Ben O’Callaghan presented to over 150 people about the importance of sustainable housing and the new Smart Urban Villages housing model. At the event, Cohousing guru Charles Durrett also captivated the audience with stories from around the world, about what makes a sustainable community so powerful and an answer to many of the challenges the word is facing.

Ben has been invited to present at Big Blue Sky, an event designed to set the scene for the ‘future of life and work’ on the Gold Coast and surrounds.

It is the catalyst where the city’s brightest minds collaborate with Global Visionaries and YOU to write our next chapter. Co-Founded by Dr Christine McDougall and Lou and Iain McGregor, Big Blue Sky is about listening, collaboration and taking inspired action to reframe the ‘story’ of the Gold Coast and position it as a global example in Intelligence, IT and Innovation.

Focus:

1. Re-writing the Gold Coast Story. How do we position our City as a leading hub of Intelligence, IT and Innovation in Australia?
2. 100% sustainable: What does this mean for life and work on the Gold Coast? How do we do it?
3. Provisioning the Impossible: A major blockage to Entrepreneurship and Emerging business all over the world is money. How do we disrupt these blockages and use the resources we have to the best of our ability?

Full details and program:   http://bigblueskyevent.com/speakers/    Anyone can register to attend.

In this video, dsquared Director Paul Davy explains the benefits of the new combined Green Star tool over the superseded legacy versions. dsquared and Ecomplish are working on some projects together and we welcome your interest in our powerful combination of service offerings.

More:  http://www.gbca.org.au/green-star/rating-tools/green-star-design-as-built/user-experience/?src=AugGBV

Come and hear more about leading affordable sustainable community development in Canberra, 30 August 2015.

Ben was an invited guest speaker at Making Cities Liveable 2015 in Melbourne CBD. The new Smart Urban Villages model was outlined – and many questions followed about its innovative approach, to deliver affordable living. The lively support received was very encouraging and gave the co-founders some extra energy to achieve the next milestone. Thanks to all those who have since subscribed to the Smart Urban Villages newsletter or recommended a site in their local city or town.

Ecomplish have been appointed at the Sustainability & Green Star Consultants for the new Education Precinct Building at the Q.U.T. Kelvin Grove campus. For more information on this new role please contact us.

James Cook University has appointed Ecomplish to write Sustainable Building Design Guidelines for all future development.

These have been completed with DSquared Consulting, who are nationally recognised sustainable building designers and engineers.

James Cook University have commissioned Chameleon Productions (a division of Ecomplish) to document the construction of the new Science Place project in Townsville, Australia. It might be a long wait for everyone to see the finished product, in 2017 when the building is completed – but well worth it! Stay tuned.

The professional cinematography will be undertaken using a mix of local and regional resources, and use time-lapse footage to maximum effect. What a great way to highlight all the sustainability features in the new $80M facility.

Want to film something similar?   See our Media division.