Sustainable public places are the way forward

While many of their private counterparts do hold some sort of significance to their community, public buildings are utilised by all. They serve the public across a number of sectors and are designed accordingly. Public buildings are mindful of local context, with Indigenous consultants often sought after to intertwine dreamtime narratives.

Public buildings, much like their private counterparts, are also pivoting towards sustainably designed structures. Solar farms and recycled materials are becoming commonplace among all developments. But it’s more than that. It’s about how a building fits long term into its built environment, and whether it will prove the catalyst for similar developments in future.

The Sustainability Awards’ Public Building category calls upon buildings, facilities and artworks that are utilised by the public to be submitted for consideration. Educational facilities are excluded because, well, they have their own category. But everything else is eligible, providing it's a public building.

The qualities and characteristics of nominations under the Public Building category include a design that demonstrates sustainable functionality and performance while servicing the needs of its inhabitants. It will have a high level of research and originality, and will be innovative and represent a new direction in sustainability for similar structures.

The key considerations of the category include: immediate functionality and ongoing performance, integrated sustainability aspects, long-term thinking, relevance to context, high levels of research, serviceability and public amenity.

Siniat joins forces with the Sustainability Awards to become the category partner for the Public Building award. Sustainability underpins all of Siniat’s operations, with the company’s carbon neutral opt-in program an unprecedented step made in the industry. Siniat looks to consistently reduce environmental harm and to benefit the local ecosystems and communities they work within.

The inaugural winner of the Public Building category will be unveiled in November at our first in-person event since 2019. Entries are now open and it’s time you showed us yours. Submit it here.

Image: The future Sydney Children's Hospital Courtyard Plaza, designed by BLP.