The baseline sustainability credentials of the School of Architecture and
Design relate to its central location, and adaptive reuse of an existing
building. The location of the Inveresk campus provides an incentive for
students and staff to use active transport (walking or cycling) or public
transport. It is located within walking distance of Launceston’s CBD and is
connected to the Newnham campus, some five kilometres to the north, by a
an existing building takes advantage of the embodied energy in the structure
and saves a significant amount of energy over the building’s life compared to
new construction. A review of studies on embodied energy from Australia
and internationally found that embodied energy is equivalent to 20‐25% of
life cycle operational energy in conventional commercial buildings and 40‐
60% for highly energy efficient commercial buildings (Horne and Moore,
2008).
A number of sustainability initiatives have been incorporated into the
provision of heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting; as well as material
selection. The following details were provided by Head of School, Professor
Fay (Fay, R 2008). The design of servicing was based on an early decision by
the client to accept a broader range of thermal comfort conditions in certain
areas. This allowed areas requiring greater thermal and acoustic control
(offices, lecture theatre, seminar room, computer labs and tutorial rooms) to
be located along the eastern side of the building and those with reduced
servicing (ground floor studios and workshop) on the western side. The
movement of occupants between these spaces constitutes adaptive comfort
and is part of the thermal and acoustic control strategy for the building.
A hydronic heating system fired by a gas boosted air‐sourced heat pump was
selected as having the best balance between cost and greenhouse gas
emissions. Hot water for space heating is circulated at 65 degrees C through
radiators in offices and computer labs and to an air handling unit in the
lecture theatre. For the top floor studios, hot water is circulated through
heating coils under the plywood floor. A gas boosted evacuated tube solar
hot water system provides 70% of the domestic hot water requirements for
the school with excess heat directed to the hydronic heating system. Ground
Passive cooling strategies have been used where possible. These comprise
operable windows in offices, studios and computer labs with stack
ventilation in the main building volume. The stack ventilation exits through
louvres in the saw tooth roof and is controlled from the ground floor.
Louvres in the northern and southern ends of the building are controlled by
the building management system (BMS). A raised floor was required to
bring the ground floor offices above the 100 year flood level and this created
an opportunity to use the subfloor space for a labyrinth to to provide cooling
to the lecture theatre and seminar room. The labyrinth is a maze‐like
arrangement of a 0.5 metre high, 623 metre long brick wall. The labyrinth is
purged at night to provide sufficient coolth for the following day. Cool air
from the labyrinth is admitted through floor ducts into the lecture theatre
and seminar room. The labyrinth also provides some winter heating with
warm air from the upper floors exhausted through the labyrinth in the
afternoon, providing stored heat for the following day.
Passive ventilation strategies enable the building to operate on 100 percent
fresh air intake. The only air‐conditioning in the building is a split‐system
unit servicing the computer labs and server room. In 2008 it was planned to
install mechanical ventilation in the internal tutorial rooms and other
internal spaces to improve air quality. The building has an abundance of
natural light through extensive glazing on all four facades and the south
facing clerestory windows in the saw tooth roof. The large full height volume
on the western side maximises the penetration of natural light into the
building, however this comes with glare and heat gain via the extensive
western glazing. Walls of the internal tutorial rooms and offices have walls of
translucent acrylic cladding to maximise light penetration to internal rooms
and corridors. Artificial light is provided by T5 fluorescent lighting with
Energy is provided to the building in the form of electricity and natural gas.
Although most electricity generated in Tasmania is renewable hydro‐
electricity, Tasmania’s grid electricity is contaminated with non‐renewable
electricity coming into the state from Victoria via the Basslink cable. This has
the effect of increasing the carbon emissions for off‐the‐grid electricity to the
extent that natural gas has lower carbon emissions. According to the
National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination
2008, natural gas has an emission factor of 0.185 kg CO2‐e/kWh, the
Tasmanian grid’s emission factor is 0.30 kg CO2‐e/kWh and the Victorian
grid’s emission factor is 1.21 kg CO2‐e/kWh. According to the UTAS Energy
officer, natural gas also costs one half to one third the price of electricity.
Natural gas is used in the school to boost the temperature of solar heated
water and as a back‐up for the heat pump which becomes inefficient in cold,
icy weather (White, M pers comm., 2013).
Water harvesting in the form of rainwater collected in four 22, 700 L poly
tanks is used for toilet flushing, cleaning and irrigation. The tank sizes were
designed to meet 100% demand in years fo average rainfall with mains
backup provided for drought years.
Materials were selected on the basis of amount of embodied energy and
greenhouse gas emissions, toxicity, durability and maintenance. Materials
selected included: in situ concrete, concrete block walls, plantation hoop pine
plywood wall and ceiling cladding, flooded gum plywood, flooring, routed
plantation formwork –plywood feature cladding, metal and fibreglass walls
cladding, hardboard and caneite wall finishes, linoleum benches, rubber
flooring and carpet manufactured with post consumer recycled content. In
many instances, surfaces have been left in their natural state, rather than
painted. Natural oils and water‐based polyurethane have been used where
Insulation in the form of 30mm foil backed polystyrene panels is provided to
the external walls and underside of the existing roof.
The building was constructed on a modest university budget, and cost
$1,450/ square metre including fees and services (Fay, 2008).
Modelling of the design predicted a 40‐50 per cent energy cost saving and
greenhouse gas reduction and a 54 per cent saving in water use compared to
conventional university buildings. In its first year of operation, energy use
(electricity and gas) for the building was 0.42 GJ/square metre which was
slightly less than the target energy consumption at the design stage of 0.43
GJ/square metre, 68% of all UTAS buildings and 58% of the average for
Australian university buildings. By 2008, energy consumption had increased,
but still compared favourably to other UTAS buildings (81%) and the
average consumption for Australian university buildings (72%) (TEFMA,
2007 and 2008). These figures are summarised below.
Figure 4.2 Energy consumption (electricity and gas) of School and Architecture and Design
School of Arch and Design GJ/sq m UTAS average GJ/sq m National average GJ/sq m Target GJ/sq m 2007 0.42 0.62 0.73 0.43 2008 0.51 0.63 0.71 0.43
The increase in energy consumption between 2007 and 2008 may be partially
explained by the increase in student and staff numbers. During this period,
student numbers increased by 5% and staff numbers increased by 19%. The
total number of building occupants increased by 7%. It could be argued that
the increase is staff numbers is likely to have a greater impact on energy
consumption than the increase in student numbers as staff tend to spend
the 21% increase in energy consumption is greater than can reasonably be
attributed to the increase in building occupants. The installation of radiant
heaters on the ground floor would also be likely to increase energy
consumption. The provision of additional comfort in the form of heaters and
carpet may have increased the attractiveness of the building so that students
stayed longer and occupied the building more after hours. Although energy
consumption for this building has increased, it is still performing better than
the national average.
Savings in water consumption are less conclusive. The AMS record of water
usage for the building in 2007 was 466kL of mains water and 35kL of
rainwater. However the rainwater tanks have a capacity of 132kL, so it was
likely that they had not been filled sufficiently to cope with demand. These
figures indicate that rainwater has the potential to contribute about 30% of
the water consumption for the building.
After being occupied for only a few months, the building won the Public
Architecture Award, the Sustainability Architecture Award and the Heritage
Award at the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Tasmanian
Architecture Awards 2007. Later that year, it won the RAIA National Award
for Sustainable Architecture and the Lachlan Macquarie Heritage Award.
The citation for the Tasmanian Sustainability Architecture Award (RAIA,
2007) included:
The UTAS School of Architecture and Design stands out not only for
its demonstration of architectural excellence but also for its
demonstration of best practice sustainable architectural design…. The
resultant flexible, adaptable, healthy, naturally ventilated and visually
stimulating environment for learning has been realised at a highly
affordable cost….The building stands as a working demonstration to
the generations of architectural students passing through, that
environmental sustainability can be aspired to without compromise to
The Head of School, in a paper on the building’s sustainability, wrote:
From the first day of occupation, students and staff have enjoyed
working in the building. The ambience of the spaces, the quality of
natural light, the extensive use of exposed timber, the innovative use
of materials and technologies and the visible application of
sustainability principles represent to the community of users the
values developed within the school and described by one colleague as
‘humane modernism’ (Fay and Owen, 2008).