The Environments we as architects design already exist. Cities, towns and other human infrastructures are the canvases we work within and are what we iterate upon. With this in mind, the accelerating trend of demolition and reconstruction is completely unsustainable, and culturally erosive as traces of unvalued history are wiped from urban space. While some structures are distinctly incongruent with current society, the vast majority are salvageable in their architectural expressions and cultural functions. As we have done for millennia we must once again build on what we have, rather than restarting and consuming more from a world that cannot provide it. The impetus for this project is the creation of a campus sustainable design team for the University of Sydney. Created as a production-based wing of the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, their long-term role is ensuring the sustainable spatial transformation of the university. Leading this transition is the conversion of Room 405 on L04 of the Wilkinson building (G04) into a workspace representative of this future.

The architectural qualities of the existing brutalist façade provides no help to its interior spaces. Despite large windows, the space is dark, dimly lit and uninspiring. A large central atrium leaves it incredibly exposed to sound from other floors while banal furnishings and its expansive floor plate create no distinct zones. It is also where rising heat accumulates from lower floors, which is only worsened by windows that barely open and a façade that acts as thermal radiator, ensuring it stays hotter longer. Improving this space requires more than changes to this floor, rather the entire wing of the structure must be considered together.  

In response to these challenges, I focused on altering the impact of the environment on the structure. Working from the outside in, I protected the entire-three story façade with a cladding of separated ETFE cushions, design to reduce the heat load on the structure while retaining expansive access to light. To counter the challenges caused by the atrium, I implemented a heliostat designed to increase the top level of the atrium above the core of the building, while also bending light. This allowed the atrium opening on this floor to shrink while retaining the same level of light access to the floors beneath, increasing privacy, reducing sound, and exemplifying innovation. Finally, the floor plate was altered to create distinct zones for the office’s different functions, introducing walls where necessary and creating distinct environments that promote consistent movement throughout the day. This combined with biophilic additions, passive improvements to ventilation and the reduction of hard surfaces, categorically improve the spaces human appeal, without expansive alterations to the buildings structure. What was once a spatial burden has been tactfully redeemed as a poster child of sustainable development.