In December 2019, in suburban Melbourne, a shopping centre that can justifiably claim to be the most sustainable in the world opened. Burwood Brickworks shopping centre is currently the only privately developed building in the world open to the entire community which demonstrates a regenerative benefit to the site it occupies.

As the ‘Best of the Best’ winner in the large commercial category of last week’s 2020 Sustainability Awards, Burwood Brickworks Shopping Centre is a self-sufficient, doesn’t exceed the resources of its location and contains socially equitable, culturally rich and ecologically restorative spaces that connect people to light, air, food and community. It produces more energy than it consumes, captures and re-uses all the water it needs, incorporates biophilic design, avoids the use of toxic and worst-in-class building materials, and has a net positive waste impact.

The centre is vying to achieve Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification, the most rigorous sustainability standard in the built environment in the world, administered by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). Globally, just 24 buildings have achieved full LBC certification, and aside from Burwood Brickworks, no other retail project in the world has aspired to do so.

The result is a building that operates with the simple efficiency and beauty of a flower, as the LBC demands. It redefines sustainability in retail, a sector synonymous with waste.

Burwood Brickworks is one of very few retail buildings with a permanent art installation on the ceiling of the internal mall and façade of the centre along Middleborough Road painted by Wurundjeri, Dja Dja Wurrung and Ngurai Illum Wurrung artist Mandy Nicholson which tells the indigenous tale of the forming of the Yarra River.

Key materials and products used in the construction of Burwood Brickworks included:

• All timber used in the construction is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified or salvaged.

• Formaldehyde-free plywood

• Recycled hardwood

• Recycled crushed concrete

• Recycled crushed glass

• Salvaged materials including doors, bricks, timber flooring, pallets, access panels, basins, mirrors, shelving, and more, including salvaged bricks that were made on the site in the 1950s.

• Re-purposed oil drums, bathtubs, re-purposed railway sleepers and recycled micro-fibre leather lounges in tenant fitouts.

• Mycelium lights: a mushroom-shaped, natural fungi which organically deteriorates over time.

• Carbon neutral marmoleum flooring made from linseed oil.

• The use of Declare Label products including flooring, Speedpanels, Nubrik Avalanche Brick, Accoya Wood and many others. A Declare Label is a nutritional label for materials and equipment. They aim to provide transparency in the industry in terms of ingredients, sourcing and life cycle information.

While the centre is vying to achieve Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification, the most rigorous sustainability standard in the built environment in the world, administered by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI).

Globally, just 24 buildings have achieved full LBC certification, and aside from Burwood Brickworks, no other retail project in the world has aspired to do so.

The result is a building that operates with the simple efficiency and beauty of a flower, as the LBC demands.

It redefines sustainability in retail, a sector synonymous with waste.

Images: Supplied