PREAMBLE TO SPECIAL ISSUE City of Melbourne About 15 years ago the City of Melbourne came up with a scheme that would transform completely the face and the fortunes of the city. At the time the city, like thousands of others around the globe, emptied at night as tens of thousands of commuters decamped in their cars for the suburbs. The Council's Postcode 3000 scheme, launched in 1992, outlined plans to entice residential development back into the city, through financia l and technical incentives, technical advice, a review of technical requirements , research and statistical data , promotional events and publicity. It is hard now to believe - wal king through the bustling streets lined with converted apartments and thriving businesses - that anyone was ever sceptical about the potential for city living Melbourne-style. The success of Postcode 3000 far exceeded even the most ambitious targets and the City of Melbourne became one of the fastest growing municipalities in the land . With its visionary new Council House 2 (CH 2) building , the City of Melbourne is once again planning a lifestyle revolution. This time the subject is sustainability and the target is the construction industry. Using the CH 2 office building as a living , breathing example , the Council intends to demonstrate the potential for sustainable technologies to transform the way we approach the design , construction and indeed entire philosophy of our built environment. Just as Postcode 3000 reinvented the city, the City of Melbourne wants to see the CH 2 example copied , improved upon and enthusiastically taken up throughout Melbourne and far, far beyond. As before , there are a great many sceptics. The City's approach to this has been to patiently press ahead with construction of its best source of proof - CH 2 itself - while actively and energetically encouraging lively debate - from the greatest enthusiasts to the harshest critics al ike . CH 2 STUDY AND OUTREACH PROGRAM AND THE ACADEMIC CASE STUDIES The Study and Outreach Program is a coordinated City of Melbourne effort to consolidate the various opportunities for study, research , documentation and promotion afforded by CH 2. It comprises support for academic research , workshops , presentations, site tours, web content and information for students, among other measures . The case study extracts published for the first time in this journal are among several projects the Council has pursued with academics and universities to drive debate on the case for sustainable development. In time , longer versions of these studies, and others, will be published on the www.ch2 .com .au website. The studies are a fabulous resource but do have some limitations. For instance, they are based on information available on the CH 2 design prior to its finalisation , which makes certain descriptions of systems and findings obsolete compared to completed construction by mid 2006. In particular, important changes have already been made to the wind turbines and the heating , cooling and ventilation systems . Furthermore, many of the innovations in CH 2 have been subject to limited if any prior academic research . This means the academic knowledge base is small and some of the comparisons made in the papers to prior resea rch findings are arguably akin to comparing apples with pears - interesting but ultimately not the same thing at all. Some of the studies in this Special Issue of AJCEB make compelling points in favour of the case for sustainable development. Others reflect a more subtle and sometimes overt scepticism that might be encountered in any broad cross section throughout the community. The CH 2 team welcomes all of the debate but, over time , ultimately intends to prove the doubters wrong. Collectively, the studies all demonstrate the enormous value to be gained by researching the case for sustainable development and the scope for a great deal more study and documentation in the field into the future. INTRODUCING THE CH 2 BUILDING AND THE DESIGN APPROACH CH 2 is a 1 O-storey office building for about 540 City of Melbourne staff, with ground-floor retail spaces and underground parking at 218-242 Little Collins Street. It is due for completion by the middle of 2006 . The building has sustainable technologies incorporated into every conceivable part of its 10 storeys. A sewer water-mining plant in the basement, phase-change materials for reducing cooling energy demands, automatic night-purge windows , undulating concrete ceilings for high thermal mass, a fa(fade of louvres (powered by photovoltaic cells) that track the sun - even the pot plant holders have involved a whole new way of thinking. Although most of the principles adopted in the building are not new - using thermal mass for improving comfort and reducing energy use, using plants to filter the light - never before in Australia have they been used in such a comprehensive , interrelated fashion in an office building. The Australian Journal of Construction Economics and Building [Vo15, No 2] I 1 Selected Site for CH 2 The gross floor area is 12,536m2 comprising : • 1,995m2 basement areas • 500m2net letable area - ground floor retail • 9,373m2tota l net letable • 1 ,064m2gross floor area - typical floor • 80 bike spaces • 9 showers fo r cyclists • 20 car spaces. One disabled space. The car park is designed for flexibility of use and can be converted to office space or other uses in the future. CH 2 emissions will be 64 per cent less than a five-star Australian Building Greenhouse Rated building and , when compared to the existing Council House, the building is expected to : • reduce electricity consumption by 85 per cent; • reduce natural gas consumption by 87 per cent; • produce only 13 per cent of the emissions; and • reduce consumptions of mains supplied potable water 72 per cent. Sustainable design innovations : • Australia 's first large-scale chilled ceil ing installation • Sewer mining to recover and recycle Class A water from the adjacent public sewer • World-first phase change material application of its type • Two-component lighting system for ambient and task needs • Australia 's first application of energy-generating inner-city roof­ top vortex wind turbines • Australia/world third installation of shower towers • Integrated indoor environment control • Daytime air conditioning • Night flushing for thermal mass cooling and energy saving • Rainwater harvesting and fire sprinkler test-water re-use CH 2 has been designed to reflect the planet's ecology, which is an immensely complex system of interrelated components. Just as it is impossible to assess the role of any part of this ecology without reference to the whole , CH 2 comprises many parts that work together to heat, cool , power and water the building , creating a harmonious environment. For example , in nature, dark colours absorb heat and hot air rises . Accordingly CH 2's north fac;;ade will comprise 10 air extraction ducts covered by dark coloured material that absorb heat from the sun , helping stale warmed air inside the office rise up and out of the building and driving the night purge . The south fac;;ade will comprise light-coloured material covering the ducts that draw in fresh air from the roof and distribute it down through the building . Staff will be able to control the flow of this 100 per cent fresh filtered air to their work spaces by floor vents. Louvres made from recycled timber will shade the west facade. Energy from photovoltaic roof panels will power the louvres, which will move according to the position of the sun. Together these features combine to create a controlled and healthy indoor climate to support a more effective work environment. 2 The Australian Journal of Construction Economics and Building [Vol 5, No 2] wind turbines roof top energy The QK~I,1:i1lMelil,lm I~ Int~~ ~~hl.1l tiI~ ~iglt(}i rI(llJiJ\j'j'Q ~1lI:;' :.o:I$ I W~r I"(J.I ~ICf811re. ir411coo br oorth ... nlJe1' ' !-\!I~k~t' and psll$'.;s. 8114:11 ~9-nrOO tfl'Pll.p;)~l!41 &Jie.ne~ . ---