Plans Filed for Australia’s First Passivhaus Office Tower

PLANNING MARISA WIKRAMANAYAKE 02 APR 24 The Urban Developer

A developer has filed plans in Melbourne for Australia’s first Passivhaus-equivalent 13-storey office tower.

Plans for the 842sq m site at 28-30 Stephenson Street, Cremorne were designed by architects Hassell Studio.

According to application documents before the City of Yarra Council, the building is designed to be “a net producer of energy and a net importer of organic waste”.

The council previously granted a permit for a 10-storey building on the site 3km south-east of the CBD on June 22, 2022.

It comprised 4660sq m of net lettable office space, 60sq m of food and drink space, 731sq m of communal amenities on the rooftop level and the eighth floor, 64 bicycle storage spaces, end-of-trip facilities, and an anaerobic digester, which would create energy for the building.

The new plans are seeking three more storeys to allow capacity for the digester.

Anabloic digestors convert organic waste to biogas, which is used to create energy that can be fed back into the grid.

If approved, the new height would create a total of 6520sq m of net lettable office space.

Passivhaus is a design methodology to limit energy waste and consumption within a building through design, material and construction choices, limiting its ecological footprint and operating costs.

It originated in Germany and has been used in buildings in Europe and has often been used when building detached housing in Australia.

Monash University built the first Passivhaus-designed student accommodation building, Gillies Hall, in Australia but applying the design principles to larger buildings has been slow to take off here.

Advertising agency Taboo Group chief executive Andrew Mackinnon is listed as a director of Matter House, the company behind the application submitted to the Yarra council.

ASIC records show other directors include Rotem Abraham Rotemberg, Yacob Rotemberg and Andrew Lee.

Both Assembly House Projects and Assembly House (not to be confused with developer Assemble) are listed as shareholders of Matter House.

Cobild has been brought on as the builder for the proposed project. 

AUTHOR Marisa Wikramanayake