Sustainable+CBD+Buildings+CH2

include component="page" page="Sustainable CBD Title Page" include component="page" page="Sustainable CBD Links" Council House 2 Council House 2 is a building located at 240 Little Collins Street owned by the Melbourne City Council. Its architect was Mick Pearce and it was opened in August 2006. It was rated a 6 star Green Star building by the Green Building Council of Australia. CH2 uses its environment to create energy.

Its emissions are 64% lower when compared to a standard 5 star building, it was designed to have a good quality indoor environment as well as being a leader in sustainability.

CH2 interacts with the environment to help reduce energy usage when there is no one there or during different times of the day depending on the temperature, etc. It uses solar power and solar hot water, to help reduce electricity and gas taken from the grid.

CH2 has a four-stage cooling plan:
 * 1) At night windows open automatically to help cool down the building with outside air.
 * 2) Concrete keeps inside air cool in the morning
 * 3) Shower towers drop water down 15 metres so it cools down, air from that is used to cool the first level and the water is used to cool metal balls which stay cool.
 * 4) It lastly uses conventional energy to cool building when none of the others are an option, it has 2 fresh air changes per hour with hot air rising and being channelled out of the building. If necessary turbines can assist in removing hot air.

**Features** __Lighting__ __Energy__ __Water__ __Air flow__ __Heating and cooling__ __Transportation__ __Design__ __Ratings__
 * Shading screens.
 * Plants are used to filter the light.
 * Natural light is abundant but not overwhelming.
 * West faced louvers made from recycled timber which are powered by photovoltaic cells (type of solar panel).
 * Photovoltaic array 3.5kw (tracks the sun).
 * Chilled water cooling system.
 * Co-generation plant.
 * Consumes only 15% of the energy of a regular building.
 * Water mining plant in the basement.
 * Solar hot water collectors.
 * Multi-use water treatment plant.
 * Uses only 30% of the water of a regular building.
 * The south face comprises light coloured ducts that draw in fresh air from the roof and distribute it down through the building.
 * Occupants can control the fresh air flow to their work spaces by floor vents.
 * Phase change materials for cooling.
 * Wavy concrete ceilings which provide thermal mass.
 * Purge windows allow automatic venting of warm air at night.
 * Exhaust ducts modelled on termite mounds for expelling warm air (precast).
 * Chilled ceiling panels/beams.
 * CH2's north face comprises 10 dark coloured air extraction ducts that absorb heat from the building.
 * Massive energy consuming air conditioners and heaters that use no more than the energy of the sun and the wind.
 * 80 bike spaces and 9 showers for cyclists.
 * 20 car spaces plus one disabled space.
 * The car park can be converted to office spaces or other uses.
 * Building design cuts CO 2 emissions by 87%, electricity usage by 82%, gas usage by 87% and water usage by 72%.
 * Roof landscaping.
 * Green Star: 6 stars.

Our opinion
In our opinion CH2 has a lot of features and quite a few original ideas, our favourite part was the four stage cooling plan with the shower towers to cool down water and air. It was probably the most complex building with all its unique features and sustainable ideas.

More photos

=CH2 Virtual Tour=

media type="youtube" key="vJV0wnbAZ6M?fs=1" height="385" width="640"

=CH2 Animation=

media type="youtube" key="N1CkwnqrYrE?fs=1" height="385" width="640"

include component="page" page="Sustainable CBD Links" include component="page" page="Sustainable CBD footer"