21 May 2009

Ground Up Greening

German Green architect, Christoph Ingenhoven visits Sydney.

Last week Australia played host to visiting German Architect and sustainable building advocate Christoph Ingenhoven.

Ingenhoven is working on projects in Sydney including the sustainable mixed-use development, 1 Bligh St with Australian firm Architectus, and developing a tender for the Barangaroo re-development.

Establishing his Düsseldorf practice in 1985, Ingenhoven has long been a proponent of sustainable building and architecture – in 1997 the firm designed the RWE Tower in Essen, said to be one of first ‘green’ buildings in the world.

“Sustainable architecture is not only about healthy materials or some PV [Photovoltaic] cells, but rather about an integral, technical approach that deals with all the aspects of ‘healthy building’ with a long life cycle,” Ingenhoven says.

His firm, Ingenhoven Architects, has worked on a number of landmark sustainable developments including Up Town Munich – a fully glazed high rise with a single façade with opening windows – the European Investment Bank in Luxemburg, the Lufthansa aviation centre, the Breezé Tower in Osaka to name a few.

The firm is also currently working on the impressive zero energy Main Station in the heart of Stuttgart.

Ingenhoven believes Australia is moving in a healthy direction in the area of green building design: “I think that Australia is doing a great job. Even if green thinking is probably not yet fully implemented in everybody’s mind the systems in place and the concepts brought forward in the last years do show a true and high interest in green building,” he says.

Working with an international team on a tender for the Barangaroo project, Ingenhoven has high hopes for the site. “A truly sustainable and responsible solution for Barangaroo can be a successful extension to the CBD. Barangaroo is Sydney’s great chance to be one of the sustainable 21st Century cities.”

Read the full transcript from our interview with Christoph Ingenhoven here.

ingenhovenarchitects.com

architectus.com.au