Organica Engineering was appointed ESD Engineer for Knox Council and k20 Architecture for two early years hubs in Melbourne in 2016-2020. The Bayswater and Wantirna Early Years Hubs Projects.
The centres provide modern facilities and improved services to young children and their families in Knox Council, in Melbourne’s East.
The Bayswater Early Years Hub
The Bayswater Early Years Hub was a flagship project for Knox City Council setting new benchmarks for Environmental Sustainable Design. The building was named the ‘sunflower’ by k20 Architecture to evoke the idea of following the sun with passive design. The project is the result of a highly integrated collaborative approach to triple bottom line application of sustainable design principals. The resultant “vision” creates a facility focused on minimising human impact on the environment through an eco-centric design while championing the user experience and surrounding environment as the key drivers for the built space.
Sunflower has created a new civic identity and engagement of the local community via reinforced social cohesion by bringing together new early learning spaces, maternal healthcare, allied health, a series of supporting services and community rooms to the existing community reserve containing the local school and a bowling club.
Sunflowers integrated approach to Sustainability is evidenced through an impressive 100+ year building lifecycle performance and a vast array of Best Practice Environmental Design and Planning initiatives demonstrating both passive and active building systems including;
- Innovative Internal Building Planning providing ‘Structure Free’ Floor Plates maximising Future Adaptability and Biophilic Connectivity of Internal Spaces to Nature
- High Performance / Healthy / Low Embodied Energy Building Fabric
- High Performance Low Energy Environmental Control and Monitoring Systems
- Net Zero Operational infrastructure in the form of Large Scale Renewable Energy Plant Covering most of the roof.
- A world first implementation of Zinc-Bromide ‘flow’ batteries using 180kWh of ZBM2 batteries
- High Performance integrated WSUD Implementation incorporating rainwater harvesting and on site retention in support of a comprehensive regenerative Native Vegetation strategy.
This project won the following awards:
- Winner 2020 LGPro awards -The LGPro Awards for excellence recognise and celebrate outstanding projects and initiatives being delivered by Councils across Victoria. In 2020, both projects were finalists in the category of Community Assets and Infrastructure – Over $2 million.
- Winner 2019 International Architectural MasterPrize awards- The Bayswater project was announced winner of the Architectural Design/Green Architecture category in the 2019 International Architectural MasterPrize Awards. This award is one of the most respected in the architectural field.
- Winner 2020 – Victorian Chapter – Australian Institute of Architects Award for Sustainable Architecture – Bayswater Early Years Hub. The Jury acknowledged the project as demonstrating excellence and innovation though the seemingly balanced integration of Process, Design and Performance within the field of Sustainable Design.
- Winner 2021 – Knox City Council Design and Development Excellence Award – Civic and Institutional, Bayswater Early Years Hub
- Finalist 2020 – Victorian Premier Design Awards- Architectural Design, Bayswater Early Years Hub
- Shortlisted 2020 – World Architecture News Awards – Sustainability, Bayswater Early Years Hub
- Shortlisted 2020 – Sustainable Building Awards- Education and Research, Bayswater Early Years Hub