Canberra leading the way in green design

Catty said :

Have you seen the internal plans? Tiny, no space for anything (some of them only 45 sq m. The bottom would fall out of the retail industry – you can’t fit anything into them. Tiny wardrobes, miniscule kitchens, no room for storage. Great if you don’t like clutter I suppose…

Is that 45 sqm for residental apartments? If so, banks will baulk at lending for such small property. Normally the lower limit is 50sqm of living, but some banks may have changed their policy with a trend toward smaller single bedroom apartments.

So . . . the greeness of this development lies not in it’s construction but in the fact that the residents will be so short of space that their consumerism will be severely restricted?

Have you seen the internal plans? Tiny, no space for anything (some of them only 45 sq m. The bottom would fall out of the retail industry – you can’t fit anything into them. Tiny wardrobes, miniscule kitchens, no room for storage. Great if you don’t like clutter I suppose…

Well well well – Nishi, far from being environmentally sustainable as per their marketing campaign, is in trouble for sourcing dirty aluminium … and guess which Australian Government department was going to lease from them on the basis of their enviro credentials?

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/cheap-metal-puts-climate-agency-at-risk-of-union-green-ban-20110920-1kjmr.html

UNIONS have gone on the warpath after learning that the new headquarters for the federal Climate Change Department will use cheap Chinese aluminium, which they say is dirtier to produce than the Australian product.

The national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Howes, raised the matter with Julia Gillard yesterday during a meeting of the unions, industry, the Prime Minister and senior ministers to discuss ways of helping the struggling manufacturing sector.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union was not ruling out a green ban on the site if Australian aluminium was not used. The secretary, Dave Noonan, said it was hard to see how the environment was being served ”by aluminium being produced in a high-carbon environment”.

Ryoma said :

I-filed, I’m not sure, but one thing I know about this development is that it is actually being run by a Japanese developer (Nishi means west in Japanese)

I know this because I showed slight interest in an apartment in the apartment building going up next door, and (especially as I had no real hope of paying the “bargain” price of $620K for what he was spruiking, I asked what was being built further west.

Having lived in Japan, I’m aware that Japanese developers can do things either really well (very efficient use of space, as well as the roof gardens I mentioned earlier) or really badly (i.e not much idea of how to make a building blend with its surroundings, or necessarily any understanding of good passive solar design. Only time will tell which way Nishi goes 🙂

Molonglo Group, Fender Katsalidis and Oculus are Japanese developers? How so? No “Nishi” company is mentioned on the link! : 0

I-filed, I’m not sure, but one thing I know about this development is that it is actually being run by a Japanese developer (Nishi means west in Japanese)

I know this because I showed slight interest in an apartment in the apartment building going up next door, and (especially as I had no real hope of paying the “bargain” price of $620K for what he was spruiking, I asked what was being built further west.

Having lived in Japan, I’m aware that Japanese developers can do things either really well (very efficient use of space, as well as the roof gardens I mentioned earlier) or really badly (i.e not much idea of how to make a building blend with its surroundings, or necessarily any understanding of good passive solar design. Only time will tell which way Nishi goes 🙂

I’d like to know these developers’ longterm track record on sustainability. They are longstanding developers – anyone know what they were building through the 1990s? I reckon they are likely to be found to be cynical opportunists, and their “eco” approach is just a post-lobbying sop to bureaucrats’ desire to tick a box on some planning documentation. I bet there is no evidence of earlier “eco awareness” in their building practices. Anyone able to stump up their history?

Ryoma said :

The two buildings I like for their distinctiveness are the Melbourne and Sydney buildings. They have heritage, and belong to a time when people made buildings with the idea of contributing to the streetscape – not in building yet another square box cheaply.

I like them too, though not in their current run-down multiple-shades-of-cream state 🙁 I always think what a waste when I drive past . . .

As for Nishi, I’d like it to work . . .

i like it. would like to have seen the canberra centre rdevelopment incorporate some of these green features, esp more garden spaces.

so you all rail at outsiders who suggest canberra is boring, then rail at anything different…

Fair go everyone. Almost all posts have been negative so far. Yes, I agree it will look markedly different to anything else around the place, and is probably in the wrong location. I also agree that the formation of a St.Kilda/Glebe sort of vibe happens organically.

But I also think that we need to be open to new ideas coming in. If no-one challenges the status quo on housing, we will end up with more rubbish like the Cameron offices or the indentikit glass “masterpieces” many of our givernment offices end up like.

The two buildings I like for their distinctiveness are the Melbourne and Sydney buildings. They have heritage, and belong to a time when people made buildings with the idea of contributing to the streetscape – not in building yet another square box cheaply.

Also, I give these guys kudos for trying to introduce the concept of a roof garden to Canberra. If it takes off, it would look wonderful, and I hope the idea would be copied across the city. Having lived in Japan, I’ve seen both shopping centres and pubs on the top of office buildings with roof gardens, and they are wonderfully cool oases to relax in away from road noise and concrete everywhere.

We need a variety of building sizes, styles, and ages to get the diverse balance that the world’s best cities have. So I wish the Nishi developers the best of luck.