The Sustainable Case Study: Council House 2 (CH2) – Part I

In order to study sustainable approaches to design, I’ve selected the building, Council House 2 (otherwise known as CH2), as the focus of a short research project.  By studying CH2, I intend to focus on concepts and methods of sustainable design that the design employs as well as looking into its results.  Some specific thoughts regarding such results are the cost and gain of sustainable practices in terms of money, and, furthermore, in terms of its occupants (staff productivity increased by 10.9%*).

Council House 2 (CH2) Exterior

The argument I intend to find in this analysis is that energy-efficient building practices can influence not only healthier spaces, but be successful in terms of business; these concepts are crucial for advocating more sustainable design.

I intend on contacting the architect(s) and engineer(s) who designed the project for specifics on the building structure and the design concepts it employs in order to create diagrams/models.  I might employ animations to show target certain qualities that the building deals with.

A preliminary bibliography includes:

1. Fortmeyer, R. “Melbourne’s great experiment: Council House 2,” Melbourne, Australia. GreenSource: the magazine of sustainable design v. 4 no. 3 (May-June 2009) p. 66-71

2. Dagnino, A. “Council House 2, Melbourne.” Domus no. 916, suppl. (July-Aug. 2008) p. 51-5

3. Tan, S. f. “CH2 6 stars, but how does it work?” [Council House 2, Melbourne, Australia. Architecture Australia v. 96 no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 2007) p. 101-4

4. Adams, R. “CH2: on the path to zero emissions [Melbourne, Australia].” Topos: the international review of landscape architecture and urban design no. 60 (2007) p. [66]-9

5. Fettig, Tad and Karena Albers.  “E2: Design, Melbourne Reborn.”

5. [tentative] documents from the architect(s)/engineer(s)

(*This was statistic taken from the Council House 2 Wikipedia page.)