PODCAST: Melbourne based developer Liam Wallis of Hip V Hype is one of a new breed of young architects and developers who seem determined to break new ground in sustainability and impact.
When he studied architecture in Denmark, the concept of sustainability didn’t really enter the conversation. Which might be the point. Good design is sustainable, he says. “It just is. They don’t seem to justify sustainability in the context of commercial value. It just is part of a good and proper approach to practice.”
In his practice he works both on his own projects and as a consultant for other developers and government agencies around the country.
Passive House probably stands as the pinnacle of sustainability for him for its baseline delivery of the key concepts he aims for: good design, thermal comfort, noise attenuation and clean filtered air – with high sustainability ratings.
But for most people it’s hard to conceive of what that means and what it feels like. So at his company’s apartment project in South Melbourne, Wallis kept a two bedroom apartment to use as a kind of mini-hotel where people could book a night’s stay and experience for themselves what it feels like.
“Carbon neutral doesn’t really mean anything to anyone, so you come and stay in this apartment, and in the middle of winter, it’s warm and the heating hasn’t been on for two days,” he says.
“It’s in a busy location, next to the market, next to two major roads down here in Melbourne, you close the front door, the apartment is quiet.”
That’s all great for a private dwelling but Wallis is even more interested in institutional PH buildings, such as schools, aged care, hospitals and hotels. “Any building with a significant operational component and also a component where you know occupancy comfort is of importance commercially.”
Wallis seems just as interested in spreading knowledge and influence on sustainability as he is on his own developments.
He has a Passive House certifier on staff who’s working on 12 projects and his company has already worked on about 100. There’s an inhouse team focused on strategy and policy work with local and state governments. And there’s also a kind of knowledge exchange to share insights with a sustainable builders’ network that he’s part of.
He’s particularly keen to focus on the intersection as he puts it “between what you’re trying to achieve with sustainability, which, at the end of the day, is sort of very heavily skewed towards efficiency – and that being aligned with the commercial agenda of anybody owning and operating an asset.”
It’s that intersection between sustainability values and commercial outcomes that he thinks is the combination that will win out. Perhaps not in one year but, maybe in 10, we might all be surprised what can be achieved.
Want to hear more? Listen to Wallis on the Transitions podcast