Barwon Water - creating an iconic headquarters building through regenerative design

Barwon Water’s brief was to demolish the two existing brutalist buildings and replace them with a new headquarters building. 

After several options were explored, our integrated team of architects, designers and engineers proposed to reimagine rather than demolish, meticulously transforming existing 50-year-old buildings to 5 Star Green Star performance. 

The existing building superstructure was re-skinned with a site-specific, high-performance façade that achieves 75% reduction in solar heat gain. The engineered diagrid aesthetic was developed using dynamic solar and thermal modelling. Taking visual cues of patterning, repetition and articulation from the surrounding buildings, the façade pays homage to Geelong’s industrial spirit. 

New connections to Geelong’s civic and cultural precinct are established by a new public forecourt at street level. A linking atrium maximises daylight within and views from the building and provides much needed additional floor space for enhanced staff amenities.

Barwon Water’s head office is a sustainable and connected workplace that has revitalised central Geelong and retained Barwon Water’s 100-year connection to the site.

Considering the options
Barwon Water’s options to consolidate all staff in one modern office facility assumed relocation to another site entirely would be the likely outcome, due to the challenges of the existing site. The options included the refurbishment of the existing property because selling the building to a third party would be a missed opportunity to revitalise and activate a key part of central Geelong and relocation would likely result in accommodation within another, potentially substandard existing Geelong office building. 

In a decision supported by both the design team and client, the organisation ultimately chose to refurbish the existing Ryrie St building as it offered the best social, environmental and economic outcomes. It certainly wasn’t the easiest option, due to the unknown building conditions that, although typical of building refurbishments generally, presented significant design challenges. The existing buildings contained asbestos, had very poor energy performance and did not meet contemporary standards for access, adequate natural lighting, fire services and staff amenities. The floor plates lacked flexibility and were spatially inefficient, with the occupant to net lettable area ratios, well in excess of best practice guidelines.

Turning challenges into opportunities
Seeking to drive operational efficiencies and cultural change by unification of the client’s workforce under a ‘single roof’, a fundamental challenge for the Barwon Water project was the existing site composition of two disparate buildings, poorly connected by a narrow service wing. 

Additionally, the decision to re-use and retain the existing concrete and steel base structure presented many challenges in both design and construction. However, early studies recognised considerable savings in embodied emissions by retaining the structure and minimising new structural materials, with the additional opportunity to recycle a high percentage of ‘demolition’ material from the site. Aiming to significantly reduce building energy use, the team also challenged the standard approach to HVAC design, with a new and innovative air-conditioning and air distribution system which, in turn, required integrated consideration of conditions and testing that were beyond the original brief and standard Australian façade design. 

Barwon Water supported innovative design solutions, encouraged by the prospect of reduced energy usage during operation.

Solution
A series of feasibility studies were undertaken, exploring several options for the site, ranging from adding floors to a complete reconstruction of the building. The successful proposal involved inserting a third tower between the building’s two existing wings, providing much-needed additional floor area and generous spatial connections across the entire building, while allowing over 80% of the original superstructure to be reused. While simple in its conception, this approach was challenging in design and execution, and was only made possible through the early involvement and sustained, integrated efforts of designers from all disciplines. 

A central atrium was carved out of the heart of the new building plan, providing an important physical catalyst for corporate cultural change. A space around which staff engagement flourishes by informal working, serendipitous encounters and small-scale communal activities – supported by shared amenities and break-out areas around the atrium’s perimeter. As both the ‘heart’ and ‘lungs’ for the building, the atrium improved staff engagement and comfort while framing key views and letting natural daylight permeate deep into the building.

The facade is contextual. Its engineered aesthetic, paying homage to Geelong’s industrial spirit, was fabricated by a local glazing company not far from the site itself, to reinvigorate and support local industry. 

The refurbished building is wrapped in a tailored, high-performance facade that responds to site-specific environmental conditions and plays an important role in achieving the project’s 5-star Green Star rating. Its diagrid design takes visual cues from the building’s eclectic context – notions of patterning, repetition, articulation, light and shadow were drawn from existing coffered slabs within the building, the neoclassical façades of nearby heritage buildings and the rhythm of the inverted buttresses of the adjacent iconic brutalist State Government Offices. Particular care was taken so that the proportions of facade modules and its overarching geometries lent an air of lightness and dynamism to the building’s necessarily stocky form, while the external colour palette was selected to subtly shift and shimmer in changing daylight.

Outcomes
A key design element was reuse of the original building structure. This alone has saved more than 1 million kilograms of CO2 (equivalent) through minimising the use of new construction materials. In addition, more than 80% of material removed from the site during demolition was recycled. Sustainability principles were embedded into the building design through the Green Star – Design certification process. 

Barwon Water was committed to developing a genuinely sustainable building, in both design and operation. To translate Green Star credits into genuine sustainable outcomes, we utilised an outcome-based approach, adapted from our integrated cycle water management planning, resulting in a 70% increase in energy efficient building design, including: 

• High performance double glazed façade, including elimination of 95% direct solar penetration, by aluminium sun shades and fritting to glass. 

• Reuse of existing concrete structures.

• Innovative and highly efficient Bauer HVAC system 

• Rainwater toilet flushing.

• 50% reduction in outflows to sewerage.

• 30m long rain garden irrigated by stormwater.

• Green roof with native plants. 

• Energy and water efficient appliances. 

• Five kilowatt solar panels.

• 25% less car parks than minimum planning scheme requirements. Secured bicycle storage and modern end of trip facilities.
  

  
  

In the first six months of operation, the building achieved impressive sustainability outcomes, including: 

• 70% reduction in electricity usage (292 MWh vs 1000MWh). 

• 84% reduction in gas usage (315,000 mega joules vs 2,000,000 mega joules). 

• Captured and reused 120,000 litres of water. 

• Diverted 50% of waste from landfill.

The commitment to achieve real operational emissions reductions – rather than simply achieving a green, design-based rating – was further demonstrated by initiatives that included an extended commissioning period, with air testing alongside a project performance requirement to achieve international best practice levels of air tightness. Well beyond industry standards, these unique innovations achieved real efficiency outcomes in operation within the Australian construction industry context, where many buildings fall short because the impacts are not understood, or buildings are not tested in operation, over time.