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Gippsland Water Factory Vortex Centre
Gippsland Water Factory Vortex Centre
Morwell, Australia
Project Featured on Oct 22, 2013
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Other Projects by DesignInc
Gippsland Water Factory Vortex Centre
Morwell, Australia
Project Featured on Oct 22, 2013
Photography: Reflections Photography, Gemma Siobhan
The Vortex Centre houses the office, laboratory and educational interpretive experience for the Gippsland Water Factory, a major new water recycling plant which was recently completed near Morwell in Gippsland. It was delivered under an Alliance Contract between Gippsland Water, Transfield, CH2MHill and Parsons Brinkerhoff.
The Gippsland Water Factory is a pioneering wastewater treatment plant that incorporates both green engineering principles and recycled water into its design objectives.
The first of its kind in Australia, the plant was developed to treat both the urban wastewater needs of Central Gippsland and trade waste discharges from Australian Paper's pulp and paper mill at Maryvale. Each day the plant treats 15ML of urban wastewater and 20ML of pulp mill trade waste. More than 8ML a day of recycled wastewater can be produced from the treated urban wastewater and made available for purchase by Australian Paper for its manufacturing purposes. The remaining highly treated industrial wastewater is discharged to the regional outfall system, free of odour-causing organics.
The Vortex Centre has been constructed next to the water treatment plant, and further adds to the site’s ‘green’ credentials.
Scope
The brief was primarily to:
• House the essential GWF office and laboratory functions.
• Use the default multipurpose spaces for flexible uses: interpretive experiences exhibits, conferences/ meetings, community gatherings and cocktail functions.
• Incorporate innovative ESD principles.
• Deliver a very low energy solution.
• Practice a ‘Building that Teaches’ philosophy.
• Manage a tight construction budget.
• Deliver within the GWF construction programme.
The resultant design outcome is an iconic oculus shaped structure that hangs off the side of a massive membrane bioreactor tank that forms part of the Water Factory. The Vortex’s shell is made up of seven barrels that fit into one another as they decrease in size, thereby resembling a vortex.
Externally, the Vortex is expressed as a silver metallic object with circular transparent north and south elevations to give natural light and views in and landscape vistas out the ends of the building.
The inspiration for the Vortex is the dynamic movement of fluids down a pipe. A vortex is a whirling motion such a whirlpool or a whirlwind. The interest that scientists have in a vortex is that of a self-organized structure driven by a flow of energy. In nature, shells are the protective outer layer covering sea organisms and other animals. The Vortex building echoes the shape of these protective shell structures.
Innovation
Combining cost performance, aesthetics, water education and ecological intelligence, the facility is a beacon of exemplary sustainable design and innovation.
The structure is built over an artificial lake that delivers cooling to the building together with other passive environmental measures, including natural ventilation and thermal convection. Due to the stable temperature of the lake, the building delivers a very low energy summer outcome.
ESD Initiatives
The Vortex Centre operates as a passive, largely non air conditioned, predominantly naturally ventilated structure. This will be achieved by the following ESD principles:
1. Orientation
The north/south orientation with minimal exposed glazing reduces the thermal load and sun control through all seasons. Controlled daylight can only be introduced through the portal frame glazing to illuminate the building without admitting excessive solar heat. This orientation also allows the building to take advantage of the predominant wind currents to drive natural ventilation flows through the building.
2. Active Water Mass Cooling
By ‘floating’ the building over a water body, the stabilising thermal effect of the water modifies extremes of temperature changes. This water body is also used as a direct source of cooling for the building during summer and heating in winter. In summer, ventilation air is distributed under the floor from cool water from the bottom of the lake which passes through a heat exchanger. This air is used as displacement ventilation to push heat and contaminants out of the occupied zone and provide space cooling.
In peak summer conditions, water can be pumped across the roof surface to reduce heat flows into the building. At night, the water is again pumped over the roof surface to cool it by radiative interaction with the sky. This allows the lake to be kept at a temperature low enough to be used to cool the building. In winter, waste heat from a biogas powered cogeneration system will also be used to heat the interior.
The combination of these design principles ensures the Vortex is a low user of natural gas and power from the electricity grid.
3. Thermal Stack Effect
The upper part of the Vortex which experiences an increase in temperature, is vented by opening motorised dampers when hot air builds up. At this time, cooler air is also introduced at low levels via dampers in the external walls. This thermal stack effect works in conjunction with wind flows to drive the building’s natural ventilation.
4. Insulation
The ETFE ‘glazing’ cushions provide equivalency to triple glazing and the internal shell of the building is highly insulated with a spray on paper composite insulation.
5. Sun Control
Passive sun control devices are used to control excessive sun penetration. For example, the northern elevation will be controlled by integrated ETFE variable skin cushion shading which allows the façade to be ‘tuned’, admitting or excluding sunlight for different seasons and daily conditions.
6. Materials Section
The materials used to construct the building were selected to utilise a high recycled content and low off-gassing potential are far as practicable. This has reduced the embodied energy of the building and also enhance the indoor air quality for visitors and occupants. For example, the roof sheeting consists of recycled aluminum. The floor of the public area is hardwood timber from a sustainably managed forest. The insulation is a sprayed on paper composite.
7. Water Efficiency
Make-up water supplied to the lake and building facilities is sourced from recycled water derived from the plant treatment process. The sanitary fixtures and fittings within the building have also been selected to demonstrate water efficient design practices.
Unique Design Qualities
This building is unique in that it uses water rather than air to cool its internal environment. The volume and depth of the lake was carefully calculated to provide adequate thermal mass to maintain a steady state temperature at ± 20%oC.
The internal conditions were also modeled to maintain a comfort zone between 20oC and 26oC in the building’s public spaces.
DesignInc has previously used water to cool buildings in terms of phase change capsules and chilled ceilings (CH2 Melbourne City Council House 2) and active mass slab cooling (Monash Science Technology Research and Innovation Precinct Stage 2), however the quantum leap with the Vortex Centre is in using the stabilising effect of a large body of water to modify the building’s temperature/energy use.
Outcomes
Inherent in the design and interpretive message is the celebration and conservation of water – the essence of the Gippsland Water Factory.
In terms of the building’s environmental credentials, there was no funding for a certified Green Star rating but in the early modeling, the Vortex Centre was comfortably tracking a 6 Star Green Star rating.
The Vortex Centre has also already been a success in terms of visitation. Since its opening in April 2010, more than 2000 primary and secondary school students have visited the Centre.
Featuring interactive displays, touch screens and videos, the state-of-the-art green facility focuses on water conservation and sustainable water management, highlighting water as a precious resource at a local, state, national and global level.
As visitors move through the Centre, they learn about the water cycle, Gippsland’s water catchment and how it is managed, the Gippsland Water Factory treatment process, and how we can all play a part in conserving water and using it more wisely.
Gippsland Water has received a great response from students and teachers alike who have visited the Centre after receiving an information pack that was distributed to all schools.
Partnerships / Collaboration
Community collaboration is showing strong evidence of success of the Vortex Centre as evidenced above. Whilst first time visitors are impressed by the Centre, regular return visitation by school groups and the public alike will be the most important measure of the facilities ongoing success and evidence that the Vortex Centre is truly a ‘Building That Teaches’.
The building may also promoted as a flexible multipurpose facility for community use for meetings, community gatherings and cocktail functions. In this way, it is more than the functional operations centre for the Gippsland Water Factory and is capable of ‘working hard’ as a building that Gippsland Water is actively using to engage with the central Gippsland community.
The Vortex Centre houses the office, laboratory and educational interpretive experience for the Gippsland Water Factory, a major new water recycling plant which was recently completed near Morwell in Gippsland. It was delivered under an Alliance Contract between Gippsland Water, Transfield, CH2MHill and Parsons Brinkerhoff.
The Gippsland Water Factory is a pioneering wastewater treatment plant that incorporates both green engineering principles and recycled water into its design objectives.
The first of its kind in Australia, the plant was developed to treat both the urban wastewater needs of Central Gippsland and trade waste discharges from Australian Paper's pulp and paper mill at Maryvale. Each day the plant treats 15ML of urban wastewater and 20ML of pulp mill trade waste. More than 8ML a day of recycled wastewater can be produced from the treated urban wastewater and made available for purchase by Australian Paper for its manufacturing purposes. The remaining highly treated industrial wastewater is discharged to the regional outfall system, free of odour-causing organics.
The Vortex Centre has been constructed next to the water treatment plant, and further adds to the site’s ‘green’ credentials.
Scope
The brief was primarily to:
• House the essential GWF office and laboratory functions.
• Use the default multipurpose spaces for flexible uses: interpretive experiences exhibits, conferences/ meetings, community gatherings and cocktail functions.
• Incorporate innovative ESD principles.
• Deliver a very low energy solution.
• Practice a ‘Building that Teaches’ philosophy.
• Manage a tight construction budget.
• Deliver within the GWF construction programme.
The resultant design outcome is an iconic oculus shaped structure that hangs off the side of a massive membrane bioreactor tank that forms part of the Water Factory. The Vortex’s shell is made up of seven barrels that fit into one another as they decrease in size, thereby resembling a vortex.
Externally, the Vortex is expressed as a silver metallic object with circular transparent north and south elevations to give natural light and views in and landscape vistas out the ends of the building.
The inspiration for the Vortex is the dynamic movement of fluids down a pipe. A vortex is a whirling motion such a whirlpool or a whirlwind. The interest that scientists have in a vortex is that of a self-organized structure driven by a flow of energy. In nature, shells are the protective outer layer covering sea organisms and other animals. The Vortex building echoes the shape of these protective shell structures.
Innovation
Combining cost performance, aesthetics, water education and ecological intelligence, the facility is a beacon of exemplary sustainable design and innovation.
The structure is built over an artificial lake that delivers cooling to the building together with other passive environmental measures, including natural ventilation and thermal convection. Due to the stable temperature of the lake, the building delivers a very low energy summer outcome.
ESD Initiatives
The Vortex Centre operates as a passive, largely non air conditioned, predominantly naturally ventilated structure. This will be achieved by the following ESD principles:
1. Orientation
The north/south orientation with minimal exposed glazing reduces the thermal load and sun control through all seasons. Controlled daylight can only be introduced through the portal frame glazing to illuminate the building without admitting excessive solar heat. This orientation also allows the building to take advantage of the predominant wind currents to drive natural ventilation flows through the building.
2. Active Water Mass Cooling
By ‘floating’ the building over a water body, the stabilising thermal effect of the water modifies extremes of temperature changes. This water body is also used as a direct source of cooling for the building during summer and heating in winter. In summer, ventilation air is distributed under the floor from cool water from the bottom of the lake which passes through a heat exchanger. This air is used as displacement ventilation to push heat and contaminants out of the occupied zone and provide space cooling.
In peak summer conditions, water can be pumped across the roof surface to reduce heat flows into the building. At night, the water is again pumped over the roof surface to cool it by radiative interaction with the sky. This allows the lake to be kept at a temperature low enough to be used to cool the building. In winter, waste heat from a biogas powered cogeneration system will also be used to heat the interior.
The combination of these design principles ensures the Vortex is a low user of natural gas and power from the electricity grid.
3. Thermal Stack Effect
The upper part of the Vortex which experiences an increase in temperature, is vented by opening motorised dampers when hot air builds up. At this time, cooler air is also introduced at low levels via dampers in the external walls. This thermal stack effect works in conjunction with wind flows to drive the building’s natural ventilation.
4. Insulation
The ETFE ‘glazing’ cushions provide equivalency to triple glazing and the internal shell of the building is highly insulated with a spray on paper composite insulation.
5. Sun Control
Passive sun control devices are used to control excessive sun penetration. For example, the northern elevation will be controlled by integrated ETFE variable skin cushion shading which allows the façade to be ‘tuned’, admitting or excluding sunlight for different seasons and daily conditions.
6. Materials Section
The materials used to construct the building were selected to utilise a high recycled content and low off-gassing potential are far as practicable. This has reduced the embodied energy of the building and also enhance the indoor air quality for visitors and occupants. For example, the roof sheeting consists of recycled aluminum. The floor of the public area is hardwood timber from a sustainably managed forest. The insulation is a sprayed on paper composite.
7. Water Efficiency
Make-up water supplied to the lake and building facilities is sourced from recycled water derived from the plant treatment process. The sanitary fixtures and fittings within the building have also been selected to demonstrate water efficient design practices.
Unique Design Qualities
This building is unique in that it uses water rather than air to cool its internal environment. The volume and depth of the lake was carefully calculated to provide adequate thermal mass to maintain a steady state temperature at ± 20%oC.
The internal conditions were also modeled to maintain a comfort zone between 20oC and 26oC in the building’s public spaces.
DesignInc has previously used water to cool buildings in terms of phase change capsules and chilled ceilings (CH2 Melbourne City Council House 2) and active mass slab cooling (Monash Science Technology Research and Innovation Precinct Stage 2), however the quantum leap with the Vortex Centre is in using the stabilising effect of a large body of water to modify the building’s temperature/energy use.
Outcomes
Inherent in the design and interpretive message is the celebration and conservation of water – the essence of the Gippsland Water Factory.
In terms of the building’s environmental credentials, there was no funding for a certified Green Star rating but in the early modeling, the Vortex Centre was comfortably tracking a 6 Star Green Star rating.
The Vortex Centre has also already been a success in terms of visitation. Since its opening in April 2010, more than 2000 primary and secondary school students have visited the Centre.
Featuring interactive displays, touch screens and videos, the state-of-the-art green facility focuses on water conservation and sustainable water management, highlighting water as a precious resource at a local, state, national and global level.
As visitors move through the Centre, they learn about the water cycle, Gippsland’s water catchment and how it is managed, the Gippsland Water Factory treatment process, and how we can all play a part in conserving water and using it more wisely.
Gippsland Water has received a great response from students and teachers alike who have visited the Centre after receiving an information pack that was distributed to all schools.
Partnerships / Collaboration
Community collaboration is showing strong evidence of success of the Vortex Centre as evidenced above. Whilst first time visitors are impressed by the Centre, regular return visitation by school groups and the public alike will be the most important measure of the facilities ongoing success and evidence that the Vortex Centre is truly a ‘Building That Teaches’.
The building may also promoted as a flexible multipurpose facility for community use for meetings, community gatherings and cocktail functions. In this way, it is more than the functional operations centre for the Gippsland Water Factory and is capable of ‘working hard’ as a building that Gippsland Water is actively using to engage with the central Gippsland community.
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