NATURAL LIGHT

CH2 targets and maximises the penetration of natural light within the building, reducing the
requirement for artificial lighting.

The buildings north and south facades are comprised of alternate vertical bands of glass and thick
concrete walls containing supply-air ducts (on the south side) and exhaust-air shafts (on the north
side). The shafts widen towards the upper levels in order to facilitate air supply and exhaust.

Conversely, the windows are at their widest at street level, narrowing at the upper levels. This
enables more light to be admitted to the lower levels of the building, where light access is restricted
by surrounding buildings and there is less air demand at the end on the air ducts.

CH2 takes advantage of natural light by:

locating windows at the highest point of the curved concrete ceilings

having an external light shelf on the northern windows that, while protecting the windows
from the direct rays of the sun, also bounces natural light into the building
having moveable timber shutters that remain open to catch the morning sun, closing when
the sun is in the western sky in the afternoon
careful positioning and use of blinds to the northern windows. These windows are divided
into upper and lower sections, each with its own blind. The upper blinds are only needed
when the sun is low in the sky in winter. The lower blind is a partial blind (900mm high), to
protect from the direct rays of the sun, while still letting in natural light.

Cooling system

Overview

A key consideration in the design of office buildings was how to cool the space. Even in Melbournes
winter, cooling is required. Heat load is generated from two main sources:

heat load from people, lighting, computers and other equipment

heat gain or loss at windows or through the fabric of the building.

Conventional air-conditioned buildings deal with this heat load by re-chilling recirculated air.
Typically, to create the desired temperature across the office floor, air chilled to about 13C is
introduced into the office at a high level and velocity, in order to mix with the existing hot air.

The air entering CH2 is approximately 20C (the lower end of the comfort range). The process of
refreshing the air approximately twice every hour means that air leaving CH2 removes around 40 per
cent of the heat load from the building.

The remaining 60 per cent of the heat load is stored during the day and removed at night. This is
done in two ways:

Through the use of the thermal mass of the exposed concrete ceilings. The concrete absorbs
the heat from the rising air which is later removed from the ceiling at night with a 'night
purge'.
By using the chilled ceiling panels to circulate chilled water. The chilled water absorbs the
heat and transports it to tanks in the basement containing Phase Change Material (PMC).
 The PCM tanks store any heat collected during the day, which is then removed at night
through evaporative cooling by cooling towers on the roof.

On particularly hot days, the cooling towers might be used during the day, but this is kept to a
minimum for energy efficiency.

Radiant cooling

CH2s comfortable temperature is achieved primarily by radiant cooling, rather than by cooling the
spaces with chilled ventilation air.

Radiant cooling is based on the principle that individuals are primarily cooled by body heat being
radiated towards cooler surfaces. In CH2s case, cooler surfaces are provided in the form of exposed
concrete ceilings and chilled ceiling panels. In contrast to conventionally air-conditioned buildings,
CH2 is not cooled via the influx of large volumes of cold air. The CH2 system recognises that air
temperature is not the only way to measure and achieve thermal comfort within a building. CH2
acknowledges that humans sense a combination of environmental conditions, such as temperature,
humidity and draughts, to gauge their thermal comfort. Feeling cold is not based on air temperature
alone.

Physiologically, humans possess cooling systems that are sensitive to air humidity, air movement and
surface temperatures. Also, human skin is more responsive to the cooling or heating effects of
radiant surfaces within a room than to direct contact with the air surrounding the body.

CH2 is designed to maintain the office at a temperature of 21C-23C, which is the mean of air and
radiant temperatures. To control the indoor comfort level, the ceilings are kept cooler in summer
than in winter by regulating the temperature of the concrete ceilings and the operation of the chilled
ceiling panels.

Thermal mass and the night purge

At night, when the external temperature has fallen below that of the internal concrete ceilings,
windows beneath the low points of the vaulted ceiling automatically open. Cool night air flows in
and across the ceilings underbelly, removing the previous days heat by cross ventilation and by
being drawn up through the exhaust air shafts. Exhaust air in the flues is propelled upwards by the
chimney or stack effect, assisted by the roof-mounted wind-driven turbines (when wind conditions
are right). This process is known as the night purge.
The night purge is controlled by CH2s computerised building automated system (BAS). Using
information gathered from temperature sensors in the concrete at two locations on each floor and
combining this with an external temperature reading (from the weather station on the roof) the BAS
automatically opens the windows at the coolest part of the night usually between 2am and 6am.

If the outside temperature is at least two degrees lower than the temperature of the concrete an
effective night purge can occur. This occurs on a floor-by-floor basis, meaning that some floors may
have a night purge while others do not.

Whether a floor conducts a night purge is also determined by the temperature of the concrete
ceilings. If the temperature of the concrete falls below a set level (usually about 20C in summer) the
windows will close and cease the night purge. This is to prevent the ceilings becoming too cold. In
winter, this set point is raised to approximately 24C.

In very high-wind situations, the purge windows on one side of the building remain shut and the
wind-driven turbines maintain the purging air flow.

Chilled ceiling panels and Phase Change Material

In the most passive mode, the chilled water to the ceiling panels is supplied by three large tanks in
the basement. Each of the tanks contains nearly 10,000 small stainless steel balls filled with a form
of Phase Change Material (PCM). CH2s PCMs are a salt suspension which freezes at 16C.

The water in the tanks is chilled by the frozen PCM balls to about 16C and is then pumped around
the building to the chilled ceiling panels when cooling is required. The water that returns from this
circulation is usually about 2-3 degrees warmer. Heat from the water is transferred to the 16C PCM
balls re-chilling the water. The PCM balls continue to absorb heat (which is energy) enabling the
material to have enough energy to break-down the molecular bonds and move from solid into liquid
phase. Essentially, the balls absorb heat until they melt.

By this process, the PCM acts as a thermal storage battery. When the PCM has melted into liquid
phase, and can no longer absorb heat, the PCM system is shut down and the chillers on the roof are
used to chill the water required to run the cooling system. This occurs more frequently in summer.

As with the night purge process, cool nights are used to dissipate the heat contained in the water,
with water being put through the cooling towers on the roof. Using a trickle evaporative cooling
process, heat is dissipated to the night air and cool water is brought back down to the basement. In
winter, when the night air is very cool, the water that returns to the basement is cold enough to re-
freeze the PCM balls without the need for chillers. In warmer months the chillers (in the rooftop
plant room) provide chilled water to the basement to freeze the PCM balls.
 Shower towers

Located on the building's south faade, CH2s shower towers comprise five tubes of durable
lightweight fabric, 13-metres tall and 1.4-metres in diameter, inside which a water shower induces
air movement and cooling. The ensuing evaporative cooling process cools both air and water.

From a simple shower rose at the top of the tower, water falls through the three-story tube, pulling
air in from openings at the top. Both the water and the air are then cooled by this evaporative
cooling process.

The cool air is fed into the ground floor lobby, shops and arcade to assist with the cooling of these
spaces.

The cool water is used to assist with the cooling of the office spaces by pre-cooling water returning
from the chilled ceiling panels and improving the performance of the phase change material. Some
of the heat absorbed by the water circulating through the chilled ceiling panels is dissipated through
the shower towers (about 0.5-0.7C is removed). This pre-cooling of the water before it enters the
phase change tanks assists the phase change material to last longer before melting.

Heating system

The temperature of the air entering CH2 through the floor vents is usually around 20C. This
provides a basic ambient temperature control which is supplemented by additional cooling via the
chilled ceiling panels and heating (through hydronic heating).

There are times throughout the year when the building does not need any supplementary heating or
cooling to maintain thermal comfort.

When CH2 is in heating mode, additional heating is provided by hot water through an underfloor
hydronic system located around the perimeter windows. Given that air supplied to CH2s office
spaces is already heated to about 20C, when heat is required, it is designed to be supplied at the
points where heat loss is concentrated - the windows.

Hot water pipes are reticulated in the underfloor space along the north and south walls. In the floor
beneath each window is a timber grille supplying radiant heat from the hydronic system. There are
also small wall-mounted radiators along the south wall designed to assist with heat to areas
restricted by full-height partitions.

The heat from the grilles under the windows acts to protect the office area from the cold by forming
a warm air barrier around the perimeters, which rises into the space naturally using buoyancy, not
fans.

Vaulted concrete ceilings

CH2s distinctive vaulted concrete ceilings perform a variety of functions, including providing
thermal mass.
CH2s main floors feature distinctive pre-cast concrete ceilings which bring a number of benefits,
including:

enhancing air stratification in the offices by keeping warmed air further away from
occupants
optimising natural light by locating windows at the highest point of the vault
increasing the surface area of the ceiling, thereby increasing the thermal mass of the
concrete and improving the heat absorption characteristics
providing a void for the collection of the exhaust air, avoiding the need for an array of
surface-mounted metal ducts.

The vaulted ceilings are pre-cast concrete and the floors above are poured in-situ, with both tied to
form the structural floor system for the building.

Western timber shutters

CH2s western faade features a system of recycled timber shutters that protect the building from
the late afternoon sun, while also enabling views out of the building and natural light to enter the
building. The shutters are open when the sun is in the eastern or northern sky, closing only when the
sun is in the west.

One aim of the shutters was to provide a responsive sun shade system for the office. By constructing
the shutters from reused scraps of timber that would otherwise go to waste, they also show how
materials age over time and weather at different points on the faade.

The timber was sourced from Nullarbor Timbers from two hundred derelict and demolished houses.
The timbers are Australian native hardwood species, such as jarrah, ironbark, red gum and blackbutt.
Untreated, the shutters will be left to age and go grey naturally.

The shutters move automatically to a pre-set program based on the seasonal position of the sun.
Therefore the movement occurs daily, regardless of whether the sun is hidden by overcast skies.

The shutters are slatted to maximise the amount of daylight that can be admitted while still
performing their protective function. In summer, the shutters fully close fairly quickly and, when the
sun is nearly square-on to the building, they then open slightly to stop the sun from penetrating
through the slats.

In winter, the shutters close more slowly and do not need to close completely as the sun does not
get square-on to the building. In winter, the main purpose of the shutters is to protect staff from the
glare of the suns rays.

The movement of the shutters is hydraulically operated using vegetable oil. The power required to
operate the shutters is produced by the solar photovoltaic cells on the roof of CH2.

Window treatment

The windows to the north and south elevations have a number of features that assist in the heating
and cooling processes in the building. Simply, the treatment is designed to provide a barrier to 'heat
gain' into the building in the summer and 'heat loss' from the building in winter.

The following features contribute to this process:

 double-glazing
timber window frames, which are a low conductor of heat when compared with aluminium,
reducing the 'heat bridge' effect
external sunshade from balconies (from the floor above) and from fabric shades above doors
to each balcony
chilled beams over the window cooling the air and creating a protective curtain of falling
cold air across the window when heat gain is an issue
underfloor hydronic heating grilles, located adjacent to the window, providing a protective
curtain of rising warm air when heat loss is an issue.

Timber window frames

All of the window frames to the north, south and east elevations are timber, rather than aluminium.
When resourced correctly, timber is a more sustainable material than aluminium and also enables
the window system to contribute to the thermal performance of the building. Timber window
frames are a low conductor of heat when compared with aluminium and therefore reduce the heat
bridge effect that occurs with metal frames. Other features of the timber frames include:

timber being chosen on the basis of being a product with low embodied energy and well-
understood performance and maintenance regimes
finger-jointed construction used for less waste
windows designed for repair and disassembly (screw construction) and with an anticipated
life-span of over 100 years
laminated fabrication used to ensure a well-sealed and air-tight system.

Upper and lower windows and use of blinds

Each window has an upper and lower section, each with a separate blind, which has the following
benefits:

The use of blinds can be optimised. The upper section is well protected from the sun by the
balcony above and blinds are only needed in the winter when the sun is very low in the sky.
The upper blind also is raised rather than lowered and can therefore be set in an optimum
position.
The lower blind is required for sun protection more often than the upper blind. In this
instance, the use of the blind is optimised by having only a partial blind, 900mm high. The
blind can therefore be set at the optimum level up the window to protect from the direct
rays of the sun, without unduly reducing the amount of natural light entering the building.
Staff can control the use of the blinds to optimise the protection from the suns rays and the
amount of natural light entering the building at any time.

Glare control

Glare is caused by sharp contrasts and is often treated by brightly lighting inner walls or using blinds.
Both of these methods waste energy. CH2 reduces glare while using energy by framing external
views with leaves on the northern balconies and on the south with vertical planters.

Additionally, CH2s window treatment incorporates features to control glare:

Use of reveals: the air supply and exhaust ducts are located either side of the windows on
the south (supply air) and the north (exhaust air) facades. These ducts give the external wall
 enough thickness to form reveals to the windows. The window reveal is a splayed framing to
the window which mitigates the contrast between the very bright outside light and the
internal, relatively dark wall. Glare is caused by sharp contrasts and the half light on the
reveal helps to reduce glare. This is an old device used particularly in Georgian interior
architecture.
External plants: each of the windows on the northern faade has a balcony with trellised
planting on each side, running the full height of the building. These plants provide both
lateral protection from the suns direct rays and help control glare by diffusing light.
Internal plants: plants were successfully trialled in the existing Council House for glare
control and have been installed in moveable internal planters on each side of most windows
on the south elevation. The south-facing windows can be subject to glare reflected from
buildings across the street.

Energy generation

CH2 generates its own energy.

Micro-turbine: Co-generation

A gas-fired micro-turbine located in the roof plant room is used to generate electricity, thus reducing
reliance on the public electricity grid. The process produces waste heat (the water-cooling of the
turbine produces steam) which is used to assist the buildings air-conditioning plant. The co-
generation plant has much lower CO2 emissions than coal-fired electrical generation and provides
60kVA of electricity, meeting up to 30 per cent of the buildings needs.

In CH2, the waste heat is also used for heating hot water for the building and also for cooling via an
absorption chiller.

Solar Power Photovoltaic cells

CH2 includes 23 solar panels, which are equivalent to about 26 square metres of photovoltaic cells.
These are located on the roof and generate close to 3.5kW of electricity from the suns energy. The
amount of energy generated is approximately equivalent to that required to power the movement
of the Western timber shutters.

Lifts The lifts in CH2 generate power in the braking mode.

Solar hot water About 60 per cent of the building's domestic hot water supply is provided by 48
square metres of solar hot water panels on the roof. This is supplemented by a gas boiler.

Carbon neutral The City of Melbourne is certified carbon neutral for its operations. All
emissions associated with running CH2 are offset.

CH2 waste management

Waste generated during CH2s construction was recycled wherever possible.

During construction, the builder was contractually required to produce and implement a
comprehensive waste management plan and to achieve a minimum of 80 per cent recycling of all
waste produced on site (as required by the Green Star credit).
The final recycling of building materials amounted to over 87 per cent of all waste produced in site.

CH2's commitment to recycling has continued with a comprehensive recycling program adopted
within the building. All kitchen facilities incorporate waste separation.

Materials selection

Materials used in a building not only have an impact on environmental performance, they can also
affect the health of its occupants. Materials considered for use in CH2 were evaluated for their
environmental impact according to four priorities:

use and adherence to the principle of lowest life cycle cost for the anticipated 100 year life
(ie. Maximising durability, minimising replacement, maximising maintainability)
minimising embodied energy
minimising indoor air pollutants
use of locally grown, sourced or manufactured products and materials.

Project
Council House 2 (Melbourne, Australia)

The city of Melbourne intended CH2the Council House 2 building, which opened in August
2006to exemplify the best of high-performance, sustainable design as a model to other Australian
cities. The 10-story, 135,000-square-foot city office building, which occupies a dense block adjacent
to an existing city building in the heart of Melbourne, incorporates a number of radical strategies,
like sewer mining for nonpotable water and the use of phase-changing materials in lieu of
conventional chillers for cooling water. But its the integration of these performance strategies
particularly in the buildings mechanical systemswith the architecture that makes CH2 stand out as
a case study, even for less ambitious projects and designers.

Melbourne has long been considered a hotbed of architectural experimentation, a

distinction that is waning, much like the diminished visual shock of the landmark Federation Square
designed by Lab Architecture Studios that opened in 2002 [record, June 2003, page 109]. This
penchant for wackiness is lately being replaced by a more overt expression of sustainable design,
such as in Grimshaw Architects naturally ventilated Southern Cross rail station [record, May 2007,
page 243] and, just as visibly, in CH2, designed as a collaboration between DesignIncs Melbourne
office and Sydney-based engineers Lincolne Scott. Its as if the designers of the Southern Cross and
CH2 projects sought to fuse the citys past obsession with form-making to a more recent concern:
climate change.

To maintain 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the building, the designers embraced a combination of passive
and active HVAC systems, including chilled beams. 2008 Russell Fortmeyer / DesignInc

The Nature of Architecture

Its probably safe to say that the average architect doesnt think much about atmospheric
pressure cells, let alone competing cells moving counterclockwise that can completely alter a citys
weather in the course of half an hour. Melbourne architects complain that, due to such atmospheric
conditions, the city experiences all four seasons in one day. DesignIncs Mick Pearce saw
opportunities in these circumstances for the design of CH2. Pearce has long adhered to a philosophy
of biomimicry, whereby artificial systemslike those in a buildingare designed to mimic the
processes of nature. The biologist Janine Benyus, who Pearce knows well, documented such things
in her book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (1997). Pearce implemented the approach
with his design for the 1996 Eastgate building in his native Harare, Zimbabwea building long-
considered a landmark in sustainable design. That naturally ventilated office building relied on
basement rock piles as thermal storage for free cooling in a building designed to mimic an African
termite mound. Were beginning to see a whole new science of biological design, says Pearce. Its
much closer to the thinking that goes into a zoo than an office environment. He connected with the
CH2 project through his friend, Rob Adams, who, as Melbournes director of city design and urban
environment, is largely credited with championing the high-performance design goals of the
building. And thanks to Adamss advocacy, CH2 is the Green Building Council of Australias first Six
Star office building.

With CH2, Pearce and his colleagues at DesignInc sought to implement similar strategies
employed at Eastgate, but within the requirements of Australias version of a Class A office building.
Our climate analysis showed using thermal mass would work well, but Melbournes pressure cells
cause an interval of about three days between hot and cold periods, Pearce says, explaining that
rock piles would have needed to be extremely large in order to store heat or cool long enough. This
three-day period is what we exploited with the design. The challenge was to go for serious thermal
mass, as well as good thermal storage. From the street, the three most public facades on CH2
actively convey this environmental message: hydraulically controlled recycled timber shutters on the
west side automatically open and close depending on the suns position; balconies with planter
boxes on the north shield windows; and the south is defined by fresh-air shafts integrated from the
roof down, set behind five so-called shower towers that act as exposed cooling towers for the
mechanical system.

DesignInc had devised a preliminary scheme that called for tearing down an existing building
adjacent to CH2s site, but they scrapped the idea based on the recommendation of the engineers at
Lincolne Scott, who were brought in to help rethink the project. Over a three-week charrette in
2003, which included city representatives, architects, and engineers, among other interested parties,
the team developed a schematic design incorporating many of the strategies eventually realized in
CH2. Ch Wall, managing director of Lincolne Scott and its Advanced Environmental Concepts group,
says that after the charrette, we had 85 percent of the engineering design done. But he adds that
the more riskier items were isolated in the design so they could be replaced by conventional
strategies in case they failed to perform as expected.

The original plan for CH2 called for a naturally ventilated building, but Wall says once it
became clear that the building would need to meet the highest standards for occupant comfort
when compared to commercial offices in the local market, they decided against natural ventilation
because of noise and air-quality concerns in the busy central business district location. Instead, to
maintain 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the building, the designers embraced a combination of passive
and active HVAC systems. This meant the floor platewith a width of nearly 69 feetwas not as
narrow as originally proposed (a narrow floor plate assists in cross-ventilation), but it also meant the
designers needed to take a more holistic view of how the HVAC systems would be integrated into
the structure and architecture.

The Sum of All Parts

The success of that integration is felt every day. Consider an operational profile of the
building on a warm dayMelbournes temperatures average 80 degrees F in Januaryas experienced
by an occupant sitting at her desk in the open office plan of the sixth floor. The buildings concrete
structure, poured with 30 percent fly ash, and its wavy, 7-inch-thick precast-concrete ceiling panels
both cool down when windows automatically open from 1 to 6 a.m. to allow in night air. This lowers
the offices temperature 4 to 5 degrees and is directly responsible for a 14 percent energy savings
for cooling. The ceiling is wavy for two reasons: first, to increase the surface area of thermal mass,
and second, to create cavities used for exhaust air. Wall says they researched laser etching the
concrete ceilings to double the surface area, but it proved too expensive (although, analysis showed
it would have significantly improved the thermal properties). However, the ceilings are sandblasted,
which does increase surface area.

Once the occupants arrive in the morning, air-handling units on the roof kick on and supply
filtered, 100 percent outdoor air to cast-concrete ducts running down the buildings south elevation.
These ducts tie into the 6-inch, pressurized cavity of the raised floor on each level. Thats quite tight
compared to most access floors, Wall says, a decision he says was made in order to preserve
market-rate floor-to-floor heights of nearly 10 feet. The air, which is treated for humidity depending
on the wet-bulb temperature of the outdoor air, enters the space via floor-mounted, user-controlled
twist diffusers at each workstation. This cool air heats up and rises through the space and, induced
by the stack effect, is pulled into slots along the ceiling panels and into cavities where it exhausts
into shafts designed into the north elevation. These shafts exhaust through rooftop-mounted wind
turbines. Matthew Jessup, a principal at Lincolne Scott, says computational fluid dynamic (CFD)
modelingand, now, postoccupancy studiesillustrate that this combination of night flushing,
thermal mass, and mechanically supplied fresh air has been more than enough to keep occupants
cool the entire morning and, on milder days, well into the afternoon.

During warm afternoons, however, the building shifts from a passive mode (where outside
air is simply moved around) to an active mode that depends on mechanical cooling. The most novel
aspect of CH2, in this respect, is the use of radiant panels attached to the underside of the precast-
concrete ceiling units. Mechanical engineers like to call this a chilled beam or, in some cases, a
chilled ceiling. Long a solution embraced in Europe, chilled beams have yet to significantly catch on
in the U.S. or Australia. For a conventional installation, the beams, which are basically metal tubes,
are filled with chilled water supplied by a central chiller. Using water as a medium for cooling is
much more efficient than moving cold air around the building, says Wall.

At CH2, the beams are supplied with chilled water from two sources: an innovative phase-
change-material-based storage tank in the basement and a more conventional rooftop central plant
consisting of a gas-fired cogeneration plant. Phase-change materials (PCMs) are natural compounds,
generally salt-based liquids, that collect and then release energy. This typically occurs from a liquid
to solid state and vice versa. PCMs are basically a more efficient version of ice storage, where
engineers have taken advantage of cheap energy at night to make ice, which can then be melted
during the day to provide chilled water to a building. And its much more efficient when compared to
Pearces original concept of using rocks for thermal storage.

The chief benefit of PCMs is that they have a significantly higher freezing temperature
(around 60 degrees F) than other substances, which means water returning in the loop system via
evaporative cooling towers needs to be cooled less than usual. Although HVAC systems using PCMs
have been installed in the U.S., they are relatively uncommon anywhere. At CH2, the 30,000 PCMs
they look like baseballsdivided among the basements three tanks can be used 80 percent of the
year. Otherwise, the chilled beams rely on the rooftop chiller and cooling towers during peak loading
conditions in summertime, which is typically the last 2 hours of the work day. The architects
supplemented the cooling towers with so-called shower towers, which act like public art anchored
to the south elevation. The towers are 40-foot-high, 5-foot-diameter vertical shafts of ETFE material
with a shower head installed at the top and a glass catchment basin at the bottom. The towers
provide chilled water to the mechanical system (cooling it nearly 10 degrees F), while also cooling
the air for ground-floor retail spaces. Wall says the towers cool water much more efficiently than the
CFD analysis originally indicated. At night they glow like five tubes along the column lines, while
water cascades across the glass basins. Pearce likes the way the towers add to the buildings
dynamismthe moving wood panels on the west side, the spinning rooftop turbines, and the sway of
the plants on the north sideall sustainable signposts meant to engage the citys residents.

The description of CH2s mechanical system can make it sound easy to accomplish, but many
nuanced considerations and details are required to make it work. For one, Wall says they had to
install chilled beams at windows to cut the heat load from sunlight but were able to incorporate the
beams into light shelves that could be used to control daylighting. A common concern regarding
chilled beams and ceilings is condensation, a topic that raises Walls ire. As an engineer, I find this
topic hugely annoying because we only have to maintain indoor humidity between 40 and 60
percent, he says. In a museum, you need 45 to 50 percent humidity, so anyone saying you cant do
a chilled beam in this city is saying you cant design a museum. Since CH2 isnt naturally ventilated,
the facade was designed to be relatively airtight, helping to prevent condensation problems (the
HVAC system also offsets high humidity when the windows open for night purging). All of this is
monitored with the building management system through 2,500 probes and control points located
throughout the structure. So far, the mechanical system hasnt had major problems.

By far, the most challenging aspect of the buildings systems has been the unusual sewer-
mining plant in the basement. This system draws nearly 12,000 gallons of raw sewage per day from
the citys drains, filters out the physical waste, and then treats the water through a series of high-
tech components. Coupled with a rainwater collection system, the mining plant supplies all of CH2s
nonpotable water requirements, including the HVAC system. Eventually, its hoped that the plant
will feed nonpotable water back to the city for fountains and irrigation, as the system is designed to
handle 26,000 gallons per day. This system uses one-third the energy of a desalinization plant,
Pearce says, in sly reference to political plans afoot for such a plant in the Melbourne area, a region
long-plagued by drought.

From Energy to Occupancy

The designers and the client for CH2 all stress that while energy and water savings are
worthy goals, the comfort of the occupants is the ultimate reason for the environmental strategies
deployed in the building. Pearce says a hallmark of the Australian attitude toward sustainable design
in offices is equitythus, an occupant on the top floor would have a similar environmental quality as
one on a lower floor. At CH2, windows narrow toward the upper floors and widen toward the lower,
so intense daylight at the higher offices will appear similar to lower floors. To ensure equity,
DesignInc and the city are working with the London-based postoccupancy expert Adrian Leaman,
with the Usable Buildings Trust, on statistically gauging occupant satisfaction with the work
environment in the next several years.

John Williams, a director in DesignIncs Melbourne office, says the city has invested so much
into CH2 in hopes that it could influence the development of subsequent buildings, including
housing, that involves city government. The city projected a 4.9 percent increase in effectiveness for
the staff of 540 employed in the building, which translates into nearly $1 million in annual savings.
Seeing those goals through was always Pearces aim. He says he likes to come to a place, build a
building, and stay there afterward to make sure it works. He adds, Thats the only way you can find
out about your own profession.

By Russell Fortmeyer (Architectural Record)