The University of Newcastle had a vision to achieve a sustainable state-of-the-art building to house its creative disciplines of Media Arts Production, News and Digital Media, Animation, Creative Arts, Performing Arts, Song writing and Music Production.
Q Building is the new home to two of the University’s industry and community engagement facilities. It houses the Future Arts and Science and Technology Lab (FASTLab)– a living lab and translational research centre, as well as the Integrated Innovation Network Hub (I2N) dedicated to the incubation, start-up, scale-up and launch of new commercial ventures.
First 6 green star rating in regional NSW
Contributing significantly towards the Newcastle community, WSP along with Hansen Yuncken and EJE Architecture, delivered the 6 Green Star rating, making it the first in regional NSW.
The Green Building Council Australia (GBCA) certification represents sustainability across all elements of the project. Developed for the Australian environment, Green Star is an internationally recognised rating system setting the standard for healthy, resilient, positive buildings and places.
Sean Holmes, WSP’s Associate Director – Sustainability says that the mass timber design significantly reduced the embodied carbon in the building.
“Using our Future Ready™ framework, we provided holistic sustainability advice to set the building on a trajectory to world leadership performance. This included advice on waste management, solar PV system design, an innovative electrochromic façade, as well as a rainwater capture, storage and reuse system.
“We also conducted a life cycle analysis to show deep whole of life carbon reduction of 92% compared to a business as usual approach.”