Project Details

The Challenge

The designers of Thurgoona set out to create a university campus that would function as autonomously as possible, drawing minimally on external services, using material resources sparingly and generating significantly less waste. The sustainability philosophy that informed the project, described by architect Marci Webster-Mannison as a 'deep green ethic' was to be practically demonstrated in the operational systems and symbolically declared in the built forms. The campus, which was to be the home of the School of Environmental and Information Sciences, with other schools coming later, was to provide a healthy, low impact work environment which could be a model for more sustainable ways of living and working.

The Thurgoona project's much higher level of ambition also carries with it greater risks of the possibility of failure. There was resistance by some stakeholders to what were sometimes thought to be extreme design measures; having to comply with existing health and building regulations has meant that some of the systems are not delivering the efficiencies that they could; and there have been problems in commissioning.

Thurgoona needs to be seen as a bold experiment. The ambitions of its designers were high and they have succeeded in creating a campus based on far more rigorous principles of sustainability than any project of comparable size in Australia. This has been achieved by integrating a range of unconventional approaches: a site designed to absolutely prioritize water conservation, buildings of rammed earth construction, natural ventilation combined with with hydronic heating and cooling, renewable energy technologies, composting toilets as standard fittings, extensive use of recycled materials and components, paints and finishes chosen according to exacting environmental criteria. Many other projects have received extensive praise for taking just a few of these initiatives. It is rare for them to all come together in the one project.

Project details

The campus has been built in stages, beginning with earthworks and water management system and completed in 1996. To date it comprises eleven buildings serving functions of teaching, research, administration and student accommodation. Further buildings are under construction and being planned.

Address: Thurgoona Campus, off Sydney Road, Albury NSW 2640

Owner: Charles Sturt University

Buildings:

Student pavilion / cafeteria

School of Environmental and Information Sciences: staff offices and specialist research facilities (Herbarium, GIS Research & Mapping Lab, Information Technology Hub)

Teaching Complex: 200 seat lecture, five teaching spaces (1 X 100 places, 2 X 60 places, 2 X 30 places)

Student Residences: 6 cottages (by early 2001) to accommodate 46 students

This case study will mainly centre on the School of Environmental and Information Sciences which comprise 2969 square metres of office accommodation for staff & postgraduate students, specialist teaching space and research facilities including a herbarium.

This will be broken down to consider the office accommodation wing.

1. Completed February 1999

2. Building area: GFA 2, 100m2

3. Number of occupants: 100

4. Nature of occupancy: 8 hours a day, 250 days a year.

5. Number of storeys: 2

6. Building cost: $3.2 million