The Living Building Challenge is the built environment’s most rigorous performance standard.

To be certified, projects must meet challenging energy, waste and water, targets over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy. Entries are assessed against seven performance criteria called ‘petals’: place, water, energy, health & happiness, materials, equity and beauty. The brief for this development asked: ‘What does the world’s most sustainable retail centre look like?’

The design solution is holistic, multifaceted and layered; doing more with less within in a retail context. Strategies include innovative water catchment and waste streaming, local food harvesting and integrated educational programs. A canopy, reminiscent of elegant Victorian markets and steeped in historical references embeds the site.

The abstracted sawtooth roof is an exploration in phenomenological concepts: the former flower farm greenhouses and the Brickworks industrial structures; coupled with the ephemeral lightness of clouds; transient, impermanent, renewed.Collaboration
Aurecon, CJ Arms, eco harvest, Biomimicry Australia, Future Food, Reedbed Technology, Watpac