Waverley Council’s award-winning Bondi Pavilion restoration has received a five-star review from the prestigious Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC), whose representatives toured the heritage building this month.
HKGBC has been proactively engaging with counterparts from around the globe to create learning and exchange opportunities for its members to accelerate the practice of green building development in Hong Kong, one of the world’s most densely populated areas.
Mayor, Paula Masselos said Council was delighted to host the member exclusive HKGBC delegation, whose tour of Australia was supported by the Green Building Council of Australia.
Bondi Pavilion, established in 1928 as the ‘Playground of the Pacific’, is targeting a 5-star green star rating as part of the project.
“The 35-member strong overseas delegation was impressed at how the design of our heritage listed Pavilion restoration had so successfully combined sustainability and innovation in the most elegant of ways,” Mayor Masselos said.
“The Bondi Pavilion restoration is a beautiful example of how a Council as small as Waverley can make green building projects not only a reality, but excel at it, through commitment to innovative design and prudent fiscal management.”
Sustainability features of the restoration project include:
- An 100% electric building with 217 solar panels that provide 71% of the building’s power needs during the day;
- 80% of existing structure retained to embody energy and materials;
- About 90% of the construction waste recycled;
- Connected to a centralised stormwater harvesting system located at south Bondi Park which provides 100% of irrigation needs and for our public bathrooms;
- improved thermal comfort in our open spaces and enclosed habitable rooms by minimising VOCs, using green star tagged products, and through using natural ventilation whenever and wherever possible;
- A Building Energy Monitoring System that measures consumption of energy output and input. The system also controls ventilation and temperature and can be remotely controlled to reduce energy consumption;
- Nearby electric vehicle charging stations, public transport and bike racks on our doorstep;
- Land use and ecology was also a major focus, with new mass planted mounds, timber seating and new native tree planting.
The Bondi Pavilion Restoration Project has won several industry awards including:
- 2023 Heritage Awards Judges Choice award;
- Australian Institute of Landscape Architects’ State Landscape Architecture Award for Civic Landscape;
- A Public Architecture award at the 2023 NSW Architecture Awards;
- Robin Dods Roof Tile Excellence Award in the 2023 Think Brick Awards.
“Bondi Pavilion has seen many activities and reincarnations over the years and is now the cultural hub of Bondi with a theatre, gallery, music studios, art and pottery studios, and spaces for hire for regular classes, workshops, functions, festivals and parties,” Mayor Masselos said.
“Its history has been preserved and enhanced, with many layers discovered in our painstaking restoration and re-build.”
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer were architects on the project and BuildCorp was head contractor.
