Student Modelling Competition

Project info

The Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge encompasses a new art gallery, art collection store, 32-room boutique hotel, and cafe on an 1100-hectare property along the Shoalhaven River in Illaroo, New South Wales, Australia.  It is located within a spectacular natural setting of bushland and river valley, boasting highly valued aspect and amenity.  The opportunities of the site are aligned with the practical constraints of its remoteness, driving the project towards highly independent, off-grid systems to deliver utilities and process material flows.

The Bundanon site is situated within an area of current bushfire and flooding risk, with climate change inevitably increasing these risks over time.  In addition, it is located at the end of a transmission line and faces many power cuts each year.  As a result, resilience was a key design driver as the museum must be able to function successfully off-grid.  The Client’s targets included ambitious sustainability outcomes, including net zero carbon in operations, and net zero upfront embodied carbon.

For the purposes of this competition, you will focus on the Art Gallery and Bridge (hotel) components of the project.  The café and other buildings on the site are excluded.

The Client: Bundanon Trust

Bundanon’s purpose is to celebrate the importance of the arts and the Australian landscape in the lives of Australians. Gifted to the nation by Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in 1993, Bundanon is committed to the stewardship of its unique natural and built heritage and its collection. Access to its properties and their multiple narratives, including Indigenous, colonial, artistic, architectural, environmental, and agricultural,  is encouraged for all. Bundanon is committed to its role as a powerful cultural and educational destination, and to securing a prosperous future for the organisation, for the benefit of all Australians.

Mission

To operate the Bundanon properties as a centre for creative arts and education, to support the development of arts practice across all disciplines and to enable public access to the arts and to the landscape.

Vision

To promote creativity and learning based in a unique cultural and natural landscape.

Values

Creative risk: We encourage creativity, experimentation, and inquiry

Sustainability: We actively care for and share the cultural and natural assets in our stewardship

Inclusion: We advance access and equity

Accountability: We base our governance and management on a commitment to integrity.

The challenges

Your team will undertake three primary modelling challenges (façade, HVAC, off-grid) with one optional bonus challenge (embodied carbon). The intent of your final report will be to communicate specific recommendations and outcomes to the Client (Bundanon Trust).

Please refer to the Inputs and Assumptions section for a list of information we will provide to you and what you will be testing as part of the triathlon. Note that cost is not a factor except in Challenge 3.

Inputs and assumptions

Provided to you:

• Site location and context
• Building floor plans, elevations, sections
• Space types and performance requirements (e.g. museum grade, office, circulation, etc.)
• Occupancy schedules & internal heat gains
• Climate data file to use for simulation
• Minimum performance requirements (ventilation, thermal comfort, etc. as per local Australian building code – National Construction Code 2022 Volume 2 Section J)
• On-site energy generation and storage cost assumptions
• Baseline façade design for Bonus Challenge

 Up to you:

• Envelope design and performance
• HVAC system selection and operation, active and passive systems
• Basis of HVAC system design, i.e. external design conditions
• On-site energy generation and storage types and system design
• Budget – we will not ask for any cost information except for Challenge 3, so be creative and don’t let cost limit you for the other challenges!

External references

• NABERS National Emissions Factors Database v1.0
• ABCB National Construction Code 2022 Volume 2
• Bundanon website