The first 6 Star Green Star public building in WA

The City of Gosnells’ Mills Park community facility, designed by Hodge Collard Preston Architects and AECOM, has become the first public building in Western Australia to be awarded a 6 Star Green Star rating. The project has also achieved the first 6 Star Green Star - Public Building Design v1 rating in Australia.

AECOM’s sustainability lead for the project, Michael Thompson, said the City incorporated a large number of low-cost initiatives into the publicly funded building. “Rather than trying to force expensive and over-engineered systems into the design, we went for initiatives with synergy; initiatives that work well in a building like this one,” he said.

The facility uses low-energy LED lighting and will have a smart, responsive air-conditioning system. A 30 kW solar array will be capable of generating up to 15% of the building’s electricity requirement annually. According to Thompson, the building’s efficiencies could save the City of Gosnells “up to $145,000 a year in running costs”.

While construction on the new facility begins this month, the City is also focusing on improving the ecological state of Mills Park. The degraded wetland area will be rehabilitated, habitat will be regenerated, endangered or threatened species will be encouraged back and contaminated areas will be remediated. Additionally, local watercourses such as the Canning River and Yule Brook will be protected by an extensive stormwater treatment system.

Photo courtesy of Mike Edwards Design.

Native, drought-resistant plantings will form the basis for all landscaping, protecting Mills Park from the dry Western Australian climate. The City has also selected toilets, taps and showers with very high water efficiencies and combined the irrigation and toilet flushing systems with a 50,000 L rainwater re-use system, reducing annual water consumption by up to 70%.

Existing site resources will be used to reduce the consumption of new materials in the construction, and locally manufactured materials and products will be used wherever possible to reduce transport-to-site emissions and promote local economic stimulus.

“The parkland around the building used to be of high ecological value; we’re hopeful that we can elevate the park to a better ecological state than it has ever been,” Thompson said.

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