55 St Andrews Place

Cundall acted as principal consultant, design manager, building services engineer and ESD consultant for this 6,000m² building upgrade and integrated fit-out of the existing building for the Victorian Government. The fit-out achieved a '4 Star' Green Star rating.

The key building improvements were:

• Building fabric - increased daylight and reduced solar heat loads inside the building by replacing the dark, punched windows with clear glass and automated external blinds
• HVAC - replaced existing diffusers with swirl diffusers, reconfigured the fresh air intake (to avoid vehicle exhaust emissions), increased the outside air quantities above minimum code requirements, cleaned the existing ducts, implemented a new control strategy and re-commissioned the entire system
• Natural ventilation - provided a naturally ventilated, non air-conditioned resource room (or wintergarden), at the north end on the top floor
• Lighting - new T5 lamps and troffers were designed to provide background lighting levels (160 lux). Task lighting was provided to each desk to allow occupants to increase the lighting level locally to suit their personal requirements. A new lighting control system was installed
• Water - improved water efficiency through installing flow restrictors to taps and showers. Rainwater tanks were installed in the basement
• Materials - reduced internal air pollutants by selecting low off-gassing paints and carpets and separately exhausting print/ photocopy rooms

The work that Cundall carried out for this redevelopment has been captured in the newly published book, Sustainable Retrofitting of Commercial Buildings, Warm Climates.