The Living Building Challenge will be presented by the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA) and its principal partner Frasers Property Australia, with the company’s Brickworks retail project in Burwood to be the focus of the world’s most aspirational and rigorous green building performance standard.

Opening for registration on February 18 and formally launched in Melbourne on March 3, the Brickworks Living Building Challenge design competition invites designers, professionals, environmental experts, students and anyone interested in a cleaner, regenerative future to submit their ideas and help re–imagine the possibilities when it comes to the design of retail centres. The design competition presents a simple question to built environment professionals and enthusiasts the world over: What does the world’s most sustainable retail centre look like?

Stephen Choi, Vice–Chair of the Living Future Institute of Australia, says the retail sector is “in need of a fundamental shift and that is what the Living Building Challenge aims to deliver,” Mr Choi says. “For the 2016 Brickworks Living Building Challenge competition, we are casting a global net in an attempt to dramatically raise the bar from a paradigm of doing less harm when we build, to one in which we view our role as steward and co–creator of a true living future.”

“This challenge is a first in a number of respects: the Living Building Challenge has never before had a retail centre as its centrepiece, nor has an Australian project been subject to such a design competition. We commend Frasers Property for partnering with us and we look forward to seeing the different design possibilities for the Brickworks site,” he says.

Entries, to be judged by a panel of industry experts, will award innovative designs that embrace true and holistic sustainability through the retail centre’s lifetime. The winner will be announced in June 2016 and will share in prize money totaling more than $30,000.

Key dates:

– team registration and briefing documents available from 18 February 2016
– launch party in Melbourne on evening of 3 March 2016
– competition entries due 6 May 2016
– results announced June 2016

For further information visit Living Future –

Living Future Institute of Australia
living-future.org.au

Photograph: The Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at the University of Wollongong – a global exemplar educational facility, designed and constructed based on the principles of the Living Building Challenge, and currently pursuing certification.