The Epoch Institute Sustainable Carbon Neutral Fitout won the runners up prize in the Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Awards 2022!
One Twenty successfully produced a healthy office fitout with a Carbon neutral result.
This project is unique in the width of its scope across a small office fitout. Its sustainable initiatives stretch across the stages of design, construction and day to day work practices. This has arisen from a collaborative approach between the client, builder and architect.
The existing office space was the opposite of sustainable. It was a dark soulless space with no windows and hence no natural light or ventilation, relying instead on energy sapping halogen lighting.
The Epoch office is an institute that was launched in 2020 and its goal is to reimagine people, place and planet. Its specific mission is to inspire and educate businesses and communities to adopt environmentally conscious values so that both people and nature can thrive into the future. It is a co-working space, a think tank and a boutique conference facility that is unique in Australia.
This project is an exemplar in reusing waste in the construction industry. 46% of Landfill in Australia is construction waste. This project eliminated waste wherever possible along all lines of the construction chain. The aims of the project were:
1. Increase the re-use of construction waste
2. Enhance total life cycle energy efficiency in the building
3. Substituting non-renewable energy sources for renewable ones
4. Increased control over pollution via low-VOC materials, natural ventilation and biophilia
5. Building for longer lifespans and reusing/recycling
6. Take advantage of sustainable passive design principles
7. Produce a space for further community engagement
Through the creation of the new space, we aim to inspire and educate individuals, organisations, communities, businesses and governments to adopt new ways of thinking and new technologies around construction, placemaking, collaborative systems and ethical behaviours. It was essential that the space itself was created through the commitment to sustainable principles by all the contributors.
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