Six- star system fails to earn its stripes

Planning authorities have welcomed initiatives by the likes of Frasers Property in Sydney and Plus Architecture in Melbourne but guidelines and incentives to provide ecologically sustainable development (ESD) for residential buildings are considered inadequate.

"The thing that's really pathetic is the current assessment tool only considers beat loss." Plus Architecture director Craig Yelland said of Melbourne's system.

"If you built an igloo or brick building without windows, you'd get a great rating. It's a Band-aid solution for developers that do crap houses. The only thing it considers is insulation."

Mr Yelland's recently approved Society building in Praban, which has almost sold out to mainly generation Y buyers, has Moped and bicycle parking to encourage more environmentally friendly modes of transport and the units are smaller in size and rainwater is collected and used for the gardens.

Despite a lack of incentives —such as providing credit for people who put energy back into the power grid — Mr Yelland praised council town planners, who were generally supportive of ESD principles.

"Some town planning departments offer benefits for ESD initiatives. They'll let you do an extra apartment, for example," he said. "It's negotiable. There are rules and grey areas that are interpreted and can be negotiated with the developer. They'll say 'if you do this, we'll give you that'. I have found alt town planning officers across Melbourne, without exception, are supportive."

Also in Melbourne dKO principal and architect Koos de Keijzer has seen the first few stages of his Aurora project, a six-star, 7000-lot residential housing estate in Melbourne's northern suburbs roll out.

Mr de Keijzer said it was "easy" to achieve a six-star rating under current systems in Sydney and Melbourne because there were no standards for well-designed homes.

"Six-star housing is going to become a matter of fact, it will be just a baseline," be said.

"There aren't many planning authorities that understand multi-housing developments. There's probably a lack of skills to judge the quality of built form on the ground. It's quite obvious if you drive through suburbs and see the woeful appearance of what our streets look like."

The City of Sydney is considering an ESD draft plan that aims to guide the assessment of green initiatives of multi-unit residential buildings and complement the state government's BASIX regulations, which set energy and water reduction targets for houses and units.

The draft will set standards in the use of materials, waste, recycling, landscaping, stormwater management and solar access.

It's a move welcomed by Frasers Property, which last month announced the $2 billion development of the former CUB Brewery site would be a six-star precinct, using a tri-generation energy plant and its own waste-water treatment.

Frasers chief operating officer Nicholas Wolff said it was a pilot project that would "well exceed" the BASIX requirements and while it aimed to achieve carbon neutrality it would realistically cut emissions by up to 70 per cent.

The initiatives would add between 6 and 8 per cent to the cost of the project but would not be passed on to the consumer. "We believe it will add to the end cost but we are also seeing technologies coming down in cost all the time," Mr Wolff said.

Illustration: Frasers Property plans a six-star development on ills former GUS brewery site,