What does the world's most sustainable retail centre look like?
That is the question being asked to designers globally as part of the Brickworks Living Building Challenge competition.
The Living Future Institute of Australia, in partnership with Frasers Property Australia, is hosting the global design competition.
It will see Fraser Property Australia's Brickworks retail project as the focus of the world’s most rigorous green building performance standard – the Living Building Challenge.
Living Future Institute of Australia vice chair Stephen Choi welcomed the retail project to pursue the Living Building Challenge.
"Retail is a sector regrettably grounded in excess and waste.
"Shopping centre signs buzz at night, instore mannequins are individually lit long after the customers have gone home, and we have somehow got to a point where we call natural daylight and fresh air ‘best practice’.
"In terms of how we design and build, it’s a sector in need of a fundamental shift and that is what the Living Building Challenge aims to deliver.
"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 said.
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 closing date will be May 6 and there will be technical and procedural help on hand throughout the submission period.
The winner will be announced in June 2016 and will share in prize money totaling more than $30,000.