83 Pirie St, Adelaide

State of the Art Commercial & Retail Mixed-Use Building

Specified with Kingspan Kooltherm products to enhance the building's thermal performance.

Sector: Commercial & Offices
Location: Adelaide, SA
Architect: Woods Bagot
Products: Kooltherm K10 G2W Soffit Board, Kooltherm K17 Insulated Plasterboard

Cbus Property's recently completed $265 million project at 83 Pirie Street, Adelaide, has earned a string of firsts and global status for sustainability. 

The building is registered to obtain a 6 Star Green Star Design and As Built Certified rating. Additionally, it is designed to achieve a 5.5 Star NABERS Energy rating, and a WELL Platinum rating. These ratings place the building among the world's most sustainable.

Designed by architecture studio Woods Bagot, the state-of-the-art building was developed by Cbus Property and constructed by Multiplex. Located in the heart of Adelaide's business district, 83 Pirie Street has more than 30,000 square metres of commercial space across 22 levels with street-level retail and hospitality.

As Adelaide's most sustainable office tower, 83 Pirie Street is the city's first all-electric carbon-neutral ready building and the first commercial and retail mixed-use building without natural gas. In addition, the Property Council of Australia has rated 83 Pirie Street as South Australia's first A-grade building.

Cbus Property engaged dsquared Consulting to provide environmentally sustainable design for 83 Pirie Street. 

The agency's remit included optimising the project's façade and systems performance, energy modelling and Greenstar, NABERS Energy and WELL certification.

Developed in Australia, Green Star is an internationally recognised sustainability rating system for the built environment offering a framework of best practice benchmarks for sustainability. The WELL rating system uses performance-based criteria to measure, monitor and certify elements of the built environment that impact human well-being. It aims to enhance the performance of building occupants through improved nutrition, mood, fitness and sleep. NABERS measures the energy efficiency, water usage, waste management and indoor environment quality of a building or tenancy and its environmental impact.

According to dsquared Consulting director, Paul Davy, Cbus Property required the project to achieve the highest sustainable ratings.

“So, we aimed for world leadership in sustainable design – six-star Green Star and WELL platinum ratings".

Davy says final certification will be granted based on the building's performance over set periods following completion.

The project’s sustainability features include a high-performance façade with a serrated profile to reduce direct solar gain, extensive end-of-trip amenities to encourage active commuting, high-performance VAV air-conditioning, high-efficiency water systems with rainwater storage and re-use, all-electric building, carbon-neutral ready and extensive space allocation for occupant health and wellbeing with access to the outside air.

The design and construction teams specified Kingspan Insulation's Kooltherm products to enhance the building's thermal performance.

Approximately 4000 square metres of Kooltherm products were installed in the building’s ceiling and soffit areas.

The Kingspan Kooltherm range is an extensive range of high-performance, rigid thermoset phenolic insulation for roofs, walls and floors. Kingspan Kooltherm offers among the most thermally efficient conductivity and thermal performance values available, which means designers and builders can minimise insulation thickness compared to other conventional insulations to achieve the same performance.

The range also has exceptional, independently verified fire performance characteristics. As it is a thermoset material, it hardens and chars in fires, giving off very little smoke, unlike thermoplastics, such as polystyrene, which melt, soften, and give off thick black smoke. Not only sought-after in the commercial building sector, Kooltherm rigid insulation boards are quickly gaining popularity in the residential category and modular construction.

Kooltherm offers the thinnest product with the highest R-value in the market. Its design prevents water vapour, eliminates thermal bridging, and complies with AS/NZS 4859.1:2018. 

In 83 Pirie Street, several thicknesses of Kooltherm K10 G2W White Soffit Board were installed - 45mm and 80mm and Kooltherm K17 Insulated Plasterboard - 35 mm.

Kooltherm insulation boards are also incredibly lightweight, making them easy to transport and handle and fast to install. Moreover, the thin profile of Kooltherm products allows the building industry to maximise lettable space and lifetime property value. 

Featured Products

Kooltherm K10 G2 Soffit Board
Soffit board with a silver finish, suitable for ceiling insulation

Kooltherm K17 Insulated Plasterboard
High performance insulated plasterboard with a thin profile
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