Sustainability Research Centre (SRCe)

1.    SUSTAINABILITY REEARCH CENTRE (SRCe)

1.1  Why?

Key aspect of creating and maintaining successful community is democratic, equitable participation of its members in meaning full decision-making processes. Community of NAC has long suffered from failures of in various attempts of community “consultations” and “engagements” of the past. We are proposing innovative way of meaningful engagement of community and collaboration with other stakeholders, industry bodies and research institutions - Sustainability Research Centre (SRCe).

1.2  Who?

Reflecting desire to achieving measurable outcomes on three bottom lines – social, environmental and economic, our proposal is to include three basic groups in the process:

-        community

-        industry

-        research

Each of these groups would have their own stakeholders with various degree of interest and impact on the process. Each of the groups and stakeholders would, in our opinion, benefit from collaboration.

Sustainability Research Centre (SRCe) structure

1.3  What?

1.3.1       Collaborative Planning

It is essential that community be the one that sets out specific goals for producing the master plan for the area. It also needs to be involved in monitoring the process and in evaluation of interim outcomes.

In order to achieve Circular Economy principle of “designing out waste” planning would need to include creation of “Digital Twin”, which would enable monitoring performance of elements and systems and ensure circular supply chain. At planning stages, Digital Twin will enable exploring options, measuring expected outcomes from model and fine tuning plans.

1.3.2       Governance

At governance stage, Digital Twin, accompanied with various sensors would enable continuous performance monitoring, data collection and utilization, as well as facilitating smart ways of governance of many aspects of urban community life. Protection of privacy and data security would need to be regulated with full control of community and other stakeholders. Therefore, SRCe would be a custodian of Digital Twin.

1.4  How

1.4.1       Citizen’s Jury

Sortition was, for most of history of democracy, main method of achieving just, equitable representation in decision-making. Elections were introduced relatively late in and with the aim to ensure protection of privileges.

New Democracy Foundation (NDF) has done research and introduce practice on implementation of sortition in planning mechanisms through “citizen’s jury”. Together with the NDT we intend to implement “citizen’s jury” methods in organising SRCe.

New Democracy Foundation - principles and team for North Arm Cove Initiative

1.4.2       Funding

Innovation will be significant contributor to increased land values, “value capture”, in the area. “Circular Funding” would provide portion of that increase be allocated for continual innovation process needed to ensure circular process – monitoring performance of technological systems and general governance of the place. It is expected that in later stages, many aspects of innovation would be generating their own income as well.

In Memoriam - Walter Burley Griffin

Walter Burley Griffin died 86 years ago on this day.

In Australia, he was a foreigner who wanted a better things for this land. He loved its nature and has seen huge potential for the continent.

Many projects of his have been lost through time and due to disrespect for his and Marion's vision. That includes his plans for Canberra that is largely unrecognizable from original plans.

North Arm Cove is preserved its heritage and planning potential. This is what Marion has written in her unfinished (auto)biography, about plans for then Port Stephens City:

"... look at the spectacle of a city completely beautiful, correct in its location, in its design and in its solution of its various types of buildings. There is no reason why the earliest buildings as well as the later ones should not be correct and correctly placed and all beautiful for as we have seen in our preceding studies beauty is not an expense but calls simply for the expenditure of mind and spirit which are not depleted by use but the contrary. In other words it calls for the use of human faculties — thinking, feeling and will (doing)." - from “Magic of America” by Marion Mahony Griffin

On anniversary of Walter Burley Griffin’s tragic death it could be worth having a look at a “paper subdivision” of North Arm Cove and explaining why North Arm Cove Initiative finds that heritage is crucial for future not only of that area.

Firstly - this is where Griffins have met Aboriginal people and truly understood and learnt to respect their connection with land and nature:

"In his Town planning work Griffin would never allow the surveyors to follow the custom of putting the district to the fire nor cutting swathes through the trees no matter what their majesty. He made this requirement of the men surveying Port Stephens. Then he was up there he made the acquaintance of King Billy, an aboriginal who worked with the surveyors. Finding Griffin sympathetic King Billy talked freely with him and gave him much interesting information about the native plants. Through him Griffin learned how precise was their knowledge for King Billy could identify at a distance even a dead tree. The aboriginals were interested, as Griffin was, in the character of the form rather than in the minute distinctions which the botanists as a whole center on which in fact gives them the ability to attach names but does not give them real knowledge of the plants they are listing. King Billy went bare legged through the bush and had no fear. Contact with the ancient peoples should awaken us to the fact that they use a different kind of thinking from ourselves an experience which, if we were open minded, would lead us on to the investigating and mastering of that kind of thinking, to take as much pains as we have taken in the mastery of rational thinking in these modern times." - from “Magic of America” by Marion Mahony Griffin

#NorthArmCoveInitiative

Secondly - as Marion's biography reveals - Port Stephens City was a result of extensive search for ideal location for an urban community:

"The location of the eastern port of Australia as New York is the Eastern Port of the United States. Like New York, Port Stephens has sea level entrance to the interior of the continent. It is in close contact with vital mineral supplies and Newcastle is an already established industrial center near by. During that first year in Australia Griffin advised clients of the nature of this district between Sydney and Brisbane and they purchased this strategic promontory. He designed the city. It was surveyed, the allotments staked out and the whole was sold from the plan in the Sydney real estate office. This meant contour surveys were made in the course of which he became personally acquainted with Aboriginals." - from “Magic of America” by Marion Mahony Griffin

Third- also explained in Marion's unfinished book - layout of Port Stephens city was result of exceptional design efforts, thinking about problems to resolve, including designing urban environment incorporated in nature:

(In) "Port Stephens city plans, Griffin's work brought him into contact with Municipal instead of Federal authorities. Again there was the perpetual fight against bureaucracy. To realize the deadly effect of urban life - all of it really slum life - we shall begin by sketching bits of life in the paradise which is nature, and swing on to recounting at least one man's effort to show that it is not inevitable nor necessary to impose on modern children the restrictions, the filth, the noise and monotony, the prison life in fact, which characterizes our modern urban civilization bringing conflict and war to adult life. Foresight is requisite. Without it man is not human. He becomes not animal but beast. Foresight means planning. Planning must include a totality, from a continent to the tiniest unit, a single home in relation to its neighbors." - from “Magic of America” by Marion Mahony Griffin

Finally, at times when we are searching for ways to create "better Places”, all of the above makes North Arm Cove a different kind of place than other subdivisions.

#northarmcove #NorthArmCoveInitiative #sustainability #circulareconomy

More than 100ha of public open space is envisaged as part of original subdivision

#NetZero Diplomatic Mission in Sydney

As energy prices are skyrocketing around the world, proposed alterations and extensions to Consulate General of Republic of Serbia in Sydney, Australia, will be generating all the power it needs for its operation.

Serbian Diplomatic-Consular facility is situated in Sydney’s heritage suburb of Woollahra. Buildings in the complex have seen better days. They were last restored almost fifty years ago when the Consulate was providing services to the much larger diaspora of former Yugoslavia. Only recently, a settlement among the former Yugoslav states has awarded this complex to the Republic of Serbia.

Half a century of deterioration has called for urgent works on the complex. At the same time reduced staffing needs and an excess of space has fostered the idea to transform a portion of office space into a residence for the Consul General and extend residential quarters to accommodate other consulate employees.

The tender for preparation of design and documentation for this project was won by local architectural and planning practice DESIM; run by Tatjana Djuric-Simovic and Dejan Simovic; alumni of the Architecture Faculty, Belgrade University.

DESIM has sustainability at the heart of its activities, which led to decision that proposed alterations and extensions be completed with minimum impact on environment.

This was achieved by implementing principles of Circular Economy – designing out waste and extend use of existing elements, while re-using as much as possible. The only parts of the existing facilities proposed for demolition are two garages, materials from which will be used in restoration of remaining parts of the complex.

Utilising Dejan’s expertise as a certified Passive House Designer, all parts of the building, existing and newly built, are designed to high performance Passive House standard. That would mean that heating and cooling demand will be reduced by maximizing use (and reuse) of energy generated and acquired by the building itself. Overall energy consumption would be reduced to less than 25% of its “business as usual” expected use. That 25% is proposed to be generated by PV solar panels on building’s roofs, therefore making this diplomatic complex independent of the local energy grid.

Passive House standard will be achieved partly due to the solid build of the original building that requires relatively small amounts of additional insulation, and has relatively small glazing areas.

In spiration for proposed extension are Sydney’s classic “terrace houses” with compact volume and utilization of common walls. New external walls are proposed to be of structural insulated panels (SIP) while internal structural walls are of cross laminated timber (CLT) panels. The horizontal structure will also be composed of SIP panels.

Additional external staircases to residential parts are inspired by Serbian national architecture and its element of “doksat”.

Of course, all appliances will be electrical, including hot water heat pumps. Even the parking area will be equipped with chargers for electric vehicles.

Apart from saving on energy and reducing the CO2 footprint, the additional benefit of Passive house design is a healthy internal environment – constant optimum air quality and comfort, uninterrupted supply of filtered fresh air, and noise reduction in working and living interiors in an otherwise noisy city locale. Filtered air supply that replaces complete internal air volume every three hours has the additional benefit of filtering out smoke from bushfires as can often affect Sydney.

Although it is a relatively small project, less than 1000m2, combination of different uses, as well as a need for renovation, partial change of use of existing facilities and construction of additional residential units has added to complexity of the project. Passive House principles also involve additional design detailing and quality control through independent certification; during design as well as construction phases. At the end of the project, air-tightness performance is tested in order for project to achieve full certification.

Approval for the project has been obtained form the local council earlier this year in surprisingly short time, without many objections. However, the COVID pandemic has delayed the process of tendering for contractors to execute this project.

While this is probably the first diplomatic mission in Australia that is designed to Passive House standard, other countries, like Belgium, are building all their government buildings to this standard, which includes embassies in Congo and Morocco.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

Form Follows Performance - Part 2

World will have to be re-designed in coming times.

Lets do it properly this time.

What is performance in architecture? For me, it was always about finding the balance between various efficiencies and flexibility in uses:

• Efficiency and flexibility in use of resources like

  • Space

  • Volume

  • Materials

  • Energy

  • Information

  • Knowledge

  • Time

• Efficiency and flexibility in communication

  • With Clients

  • With membranes of project team

  • With contractors/builders

  • With employees/colleagues

  • With authorities

• Efficiency in amenity and affordability

  • optimizing amenity to budget

  • optimizing performance to budget

  • taking in account whole of the lifetime of the project

  • providing flexibility for the change of use through time

  • optimizing performance and minimizing environmental impact

• Efficiency and flexibility in planing, anticipation, contemplation

  • Efficient and flexible use of space in our cities (and other places humans inhabit)

  • Efficient use of infrastructure and investment

  • Efficiencies and flexibility in communication with stakeholders

  • Optimizing benefits while minimizing impact on environment

In few weeks, May 18th, will be 30 years since my graduation. Being involved in profession even before that through my father’s practice and high school study for architectural technician, and practicing on three continents, I could say that I have pretty good idea of where architectural profession is. And I can vouch that it has lost its way since the time when architects were head/chief (arkhi) builders (tekton).

Nowadays, our “designs” are meant for being presented, shown off, through various mediums and being awarded by peers, but not necessarily being built and used buy our clients and communities.

One aspect where I couldn’t master efficiency is Care. Care for Client. Care for Community. Care for Climate and Nature.