Cbus is keeping many of the details of its new $1 billion “sky village” office tower in Melbourne under wraps but according to the trickle of information seeping out this is a project that will be well worth keeping an eye on.
Construction company Multiplex, which recently inked the deal as builder, said this week it could be its most sustainable build so far.
Among the accolades is that the tower at 435 Bourke Street in the Melbourne CBD will be one of the first in the world to use a solar skin façade and first in Victoria to use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO100) renewable diesel.
It will also feature low carbon concrete and low carbon reinforcement.
Architecture firm Bates Smart couldn’t be drawn much on details except to say the building will set a new benchmark for sustainable office development and design.
The 211 metre high tower, for around 5500 workers, will target a 5.5 star NABERS Energy rating and a 6 Star Green Star Buildings rating and a Platinum WELL certified rating.
It will comprise about 60,000 square metres of space over 48 levels, with 1300 square metres of retail space, 116 car parks, a sky garden and several landscaped open air or mixed mode terraces.
But the new project will come at a carbon cost. It will occupy a 33,000 square metre site where buildings at 140 and 150 Queen Street and 27 McKillop Street sites have been demolished and another building at 423 Bourke Street will go the same way.
Yet Cbus Property says its commitment to net zero carbon, which has been fast-tracked to 2022, will remain in place with the building designed to achieve net zero carbon in operation, with “20 per cent of its fully electric base building electricity requirements generated on site by its solar skin design”.
And the balance of the building will be powered by off-site renewable electricity.
Cbus Property’s chief executive officer, Adrian Pozzo said the vision was to create “another world-class commercial building that represents Cbus Property’s leadership in resilient and sustainable people-centric development, while enabling a diversity of experiences and working environments that respond and adapt to dynamic and evolving customer requirements.
“435 Bourke’s industry-defining sky garden, ground plane and mixed-mode terraces will set an incredible new benchmark for diverse and naturally ventilated extensions of traditional workspaces.
“Contributing to this new idea of a vertical campus in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD with atrium-style physical and visual connectivity, 435 Bourke will meet customer demand for a holistic and collaborative work-life approach as a truly world’s-best-practice office tower.”
Multiplex’s regional managing director Ross Snowball said the company had committed to having a positive and material impact on the environment.
That meant finding ways to reduce embodied carbon.
“We’ve been able to do that at 435 Bourke Street with our low-carbon structural solution, and in addition we are introducing HVO100 fuel to power the tower cranes, which is expected to provide a 90 per cent reduction in carbon emissions compared to regular diesel fuel.”
The builder said the project will employ around 3500 people during construction “with a focus on supporting employment of underrepresented cohorts and training and upskilling the next generation of skilled trades persons in the industry”.
It said the building’s architectural façade would incorporate “mass monolithic materials of glass reinforced concrete and terracotta combined to create a fascinating and complex external structure”.