Spowers is one of the driving forces behind sustainable building and development in Australia. As a pradigm shift towards a sustainable society gains momentum we continue to reseach, customise and apply the best technologies and strategies for our clients’ needs.
We aim is to create healthy and inspiring places to live and work whilst reducing pollution through design and our internal operations. Based on our research and development from projects such as Williamstown High School, 60L, MFB and Project Zero and integrating the leading rating tools of the industry such as Green Star we have developed a series of sustainability briefing and design processes that ensure consideration of leading aspects of a sustainable design.
As part of the integrated approach, the design team will be directly involved in the determination of the appropriateness of active and passive energy systems. All options will be assessed using a system of weighting factors. Our approach involves:
- In-house ESD expertise, quality assurance and design tools.
- Database of latest technologies and design strategies.
- Early consultants involvement in projects for integrated planning.
- Strong consideration of the project’s social and economical sustainability.
- Future-proofing I.e. designing the building with respect to changing demands.
- Consequential follow-through from concept to detail to procurement.
At Spowers our focus on Environmental Sustainable Design is in economy of means – a philosophy which challenges currently held beliefs that ESD means significant additional capital cost. Recent projects include commercial buildings where function is not compromised, but energy demand and costs have been reduced by up to 70% from current accepted commercial standards.
Additionally, Spowers is one of only five architectural practices in Australia to achieve an internationally certified Environmental Management System – NCS ISO 14001:2004.
