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LEEDer of the pack A Sydney stadium impresses. COVER FEATURE FEATURE

LEEDer of the pack

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As well as boasting a design that places sports fans closer to the action, Bankwest Stadium in Parramatta is the first sports stadium in the world to announce LEED v4 Gold sustainability certification from the US Green Building Council.

Sean McGowan reports. Images courtesy of A.G. Coombs/The Moment it Clicks

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Bankwest Stadium is the first stadium in the world to achieve LEED v4 Gold certification and the first building in Australia to do so.

In seeking to improve the sporting It also features the steepest grandstands EARLY infrastructure across the state, the in the country – designed to bring New South Wales government prioritised sports fans closer to the on-field action ENGAGEMENT the construction of a new rectangular while amplifying the noise of the A key member of the Lendlease Western Sydney Stadium in Parramatta. crowd. The venue’s acoustics are further bid team, Aurecon provided multi- enhanced by the roof design. The new $360 million stadium – disciplinary engineering services to the now known under a naming rights In April 2019, the stadium hosted its project. The offering included structural partnership as Bankwest Stadium – first major sporting event: a sold-out and civil engineering, building services, replaces the former Parramatta Stadium. Easter Monday clash between NRL rivals wind and fire engineering, security, Spectator capacity has increased to the Parramatta Eels and Wests Tigers. and sustainable design. 30,000 seats in the new venue. Led by design and construct (D&C) head constructor Lendlease, project team members include architects Populous, and engineers and sustainability consultants Aurecon. Bankwest Stadium offers modern corporate hospitality facilities including Australia’s first, continuous suite deck and a new conference and banquet centre.

It also features the steepest grandstands in

the country – designed to Two energy efficient 505kW gas-fired bring sports fans closer condensing hot water generators provide heating hot water to AHUs and FCUs.

36 SPRING 2020 • ECOLIBRIUM COVER FEATURE

According to Aurecon built environment “A.G. Coombs and Aurecon reviewed underpinned many of the building and associate Olivier Loyez, the bid phase and the brief and options leading to the final mechanical services design decisions. associated design work spanned several design,” says Loyez. “We were able to get Consequently, A.G. Coombs performed months before a final proposal was some cost certainty using A.G. Coombs’ a number of life-cycle cost scenarios presented to iNSW (Infrastructure NSW). experience as D&C contractors.” based on the solutions available. During this time, Aurecon brought in the Although Loyez says there were “Life-cycle analysis and the sporadic use group’s in-house experience from similar diverging views at times, these resulted of the air conditioned corporate facilities projects, including Perth Stadium. in a balanced design. The clear objectives within the stadium led to the adoption from the NSW government combined “The knowledge acquired on the of two 1,150kW air-cooled chillers with the expertise of the project team Perth Stadium project allowed us to configured in a primary pumping enabled the stadium to be delivered question the brief, identify opportunities arrangement,” says A.G. Coombs on time and on budget. and focus on the key issues at hand at senior project engineer Paul Archer. an early stage,” says Loyez. WORLD-LEADING “In conjunction with the selection of “A number of design alternatives were two 505kW gas-fired condensing hot proposed to get the design across the line, DESIGN water generators, they provide chilled and a lot of those would have not been Ambitions of achieving a Leadership water and heating hot water respectively identified without prior experience in Energy and Environmental to the air handling units (AHUs) and on similar projects.” Design (LEED) v4 Gold certification fan coil units (FCUs) serving the five The early engagement of A.G. Coombs as a full D&C mechanical services specialist contractor in mid-2016 afforded the bid team the opportunity APPLYING DATA CENTRE EXPERIENCE to explore a range of solutions, The A.G. Coombs Group’s experience in data centre CFD (computational fluid as well as influence final architectural dynamics) modelling was called on to determine the most effective and efficient and structural design decisions. mode of providing ventilation to the stadium’s electrical substation. By exploring alternative mechanical This led to the performance of the stadium’s electrical substation under natural services design paths, the aesthetic ventilation being adopted as an alternative to the rigorous mechanical ventilation of the stadium’s architectural design requirements set out by the energy provider, Endeavour Energy. was able to be maintained. It also provided the opportunity to ensure The outcomes of the modelling resulted in a design that was able to remove the need the final services was brief-compliant for mechanical ventilation systems within this high-risk environment. and delivered efficiently.

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floors of indoor conditioned spaces “On non-event days when the total within the western stand.” demand for chilled water is low, The new stadium features Australia’s first continuous the thermal inertia of the system Selected with 20 per cent spare hospitality suite deck is utilised to provide sufficient capacity on the calculated design day and the steepest cooling to condition occupied spaces load, the chiller plant was deemed to grandstands in such as administration offices and provide optimum performance over the country. preparation kitchens before the the stadium’s 50-year life cycle. chiller plant is activated if required,” High-efficiency variable-speed says Archer. pumps with N+1 redundancy were By adopting the use of thermal inertia also selected for both cooling and to provide this low-load cooling, any heating pumping systems. requirement for the addition of a The HVAC systems designed to low‑load chiller was avoided. serve the air conditioned spaces of Distributed FCUs serve a variety the western stand consist largely of of other spaces within the western variable-flow AHUs serving a mixture stand, many of which experience of constant-volume and variable- very different usage profiles, air-volume (VAV) terminal units. including satellite kitchens, stadium These provide local temperature office spaces and the stand’s atrium. control and thermal zoning. Where a number of smaller, The use of larger AHUs provided benefits self‑contained spaces are located such as economy cycle and CO2 control. throughout the eastern, northern Corporate function suites are served by a and southern stands, these are VAV system, which can be disabled when conditioned by a mix of packaged units, these spaces are not occupied. split systems and ventilation fans. HVAC Hygiene ad - October 2019.pdf 1 19/9/19 2:44 pm

THE LEED IMPACT As well as the energy-efficient, life-cycle- focused mechanical services design, According to Loyez, LEED is – STADIUM Bankwest Stadium features a number at least on the surface – similar to other of other sustainable initiatives. LESSONS sustainability rating frameworks such as Green Star in the sense that it covers These include a 100kW photovoltaic Aurecon built environment similar areas such as energy, water, solar panel array, a rainwater capture associate Olivier Loyez offers transport and the like. system with 260,000L storage tank, some of the key lessons from and connectivity to public transport. the Bankwest Stadium project. But as the project team would discover, becoming the first stadium in the world The construction methods also reduced It is all about the (sports) fans to announce LEED v4 Gold certification the embodied carbon within the stadium and their experience. remained a challenge. through material selection. Meanwhile, the recycling of 700kg of soft plastics Conventional wisdom does not “There were a lot of discussions early from new seat covers contributed to always apply – the return on on to decide which framework to use,” over 90 per cent of building waste investment calculations on a Lopez says. “The brief was relatively being diverted from landfill. stadium project are based on a open on that topic, and each would C

significantly lower number of have significant impacts on the design To best manage the various stages M running hours compared to, say, as well as construction costs.” of LEED certification, the project Y a commercial office building. team submitted a LEED design He says the choice to pursue LEED Therefore, there are fewer hours review at the start of construction. CM certification from the US Green to offset and recover an initial This included energy modelling and Building Council (USGBC) meant MY capital investment, and solutions a few other design‑based credits. that the design had to comply with a CY that are often rejected on other The result was that only a few number of US-based requirements. projects on that basis can be commissioning credits needed to be CMY These added quirks to the design and acceptable on a stadium. submitted after practical completion. presented their own challenges. K There are a number of key design “There is always a bit of a process to “It was a very involved process, challenges that all stadia face in gather all the required information,” with many LEED credits based Loyez says. “So, this typically takes a one form or another. They need to on American standards and little longer than what some may think.” be focused on and tackled early. available products,” adds Loyez. Kitchen exhausts, façade code “There was extensive work done The LEED commissioning credit compliance, fire compartmentation at the beginning of the project to requires a review of building operations and low-load scenarios are the understand what credits would be 10 months after practical completion, main ones that spring to mind. applicable and what were simply resulting in this not being submitted not applicable to Australia.” until late 2019.

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EXHAUST DISCHARGE To cater for crowds of up to 30,000, modern facilities such as Bankwest Stadium typically feature many food and beverage retail outlets.

These retail outlets require a large number of kitchen exhausts. But the placement of exhausts – at the top of the stadium and away from the seating bowl – can become a practical challenge.

Leveraging its experience on the Perth Stadium, Aurecon proposed an alternative solution that not only met the design constraints but also overcame the onerous requirements associated with kitchens needing to be fire-rated to achieve code compliance.

HVAC Hygiene ad - October 2019.pdf 1 19/9/19 2:44 pm

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A WORLD’S FIRST Life cycle analysis In May 2020, Bankwest Stadium and the sporadic use of was the first stadium in the world air conditioned facilities to announce that it had received led to the adoption of two 1,150Kw air‑cooled chillers. LEED v4 Gold certification for sustainability by the USGBC. It was also Australia’s first LEED v4 Gold building, and follows other fansSelect Lendlease projects to achieve LEED Gold certification such as Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, the International Convention Centre Sydney, and The Science Place at James Cook University in Townsville. REVit “By taking an innovative approach with our clients and design partners, Bankwest Stadium embodies what is possible when we collaborate towards achieving out sustainability goals,” says Dale Connor, chief executive officer PROJECT AT A GLANCE – building and engineering at Lendlease. “This achievement – along with our other LEED-certified projects – The personnel is a testament to our commitment to ▲ Architect: Populous creating the best places that balance ▲ Builder: Lendlease our environmental obligations Scan code to download with community and economy.” ❚ ▲ Building services engineer: Aurecon ▲ Client: Infrastructure NSW, NSW government CLASH AND BANG ▲ Electrical contractor: Stowe As the lead contractor for services ▲ ESD consultant: Aurecon coordination, A.G. Coombs took responsibility for services clash ▲ Fire services contractor: Base Fire reporting and model management ▲ Hydraulics contractor: John R Keith – including the application of BIM ▲ Mechanical services D&C (building information modelling). contractor: A.G. Coombs ▲ Structural engineer: Aurecon

The equipment

▲ AHUs: York Still manually loading BIM data ▲ BMS: Johnson Controls ▲ Chillers: PowerPax for every single fan selection? ▲ Condensing hot water heaters: Simons Boilers ▲ Diffusers: Trox, QAE There IS a better way. Pacific Ventilation’s fansSelect selection software with ▲ Fans: Pacific HVAC REVit plugin saves you time AND eliminates costly transposition errors. ▲ FCUs: York ▲ Grilles: QAE HVAC design made simple. What are you waiting for? ▲ Pumps: Wilo ▲ Sensors: Johnson Controls ▲ VAV units: Johnson Controls (Source: Aurecon & A.G. Coombs)

www.pacificventilation.com

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PV00114 FPC Ad - FanSelect - Revit_R5.indd 1 23/9/20 10:44 am