Belinda Allwood & Dr Shaneen Fantin are joint finalists in the Women in Sustainability category of the Sustainability Awards. Siniat is once again sponsoring this category. The winner will be announced during a digital event on 11 November 2021.
Belinda and Shaneen formed the architecture business partnership People Oriented Design (POD) in 2014. Read their bio here.
We asked them 5 Questions in 5 Minutes.
Where and how did your sustainability journey start?
Sustainability has always been a priority for the directors of People Oriented Design (Belinda and Shaneen). We both grew up on farms in regional towns, loving the Australian landscape and environment. We have also worked closely with First Nations people for many many years and understand the critical importance of cultural and social sustainability of projects in remote areas. These formative experiences mean that respect for Country, environment and landscape are embedded in the work we do.
Can you tell us about a sustainability project that you have worked on that is very close to your heart?
The Gurriny Yealamucka Health and Wellbeing Centre (Photo: Scott Burrows)
We are very pleased with our recently completed project: Gurriny Yealamucka Health & Wellbeing Centre, at Yarrabah in Far North Queensland. We undertook the project in collaboration with Coburn Architecture, another firm of fabulous women architects.
This project really brings together the four pillars of sustainability: cultural, social, environmental and economic. We worked closely with our client, Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service Aboriginal Corporation (GYHSAC), the Yarrabah Arts Centre, Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council, the Gunggandji Rangers and Indigenous building contractor – HC Building and Construction, to achieve excellent social and environmental sustainability outcomes. For example, there were two local Indigenous apprenticeships and more than 2600 Indigenous labour hours in construction on the project. This is unusual for a small commercial project in the Cairns area.
The project includes excellent passive climatic design, sustainable materials and finishes, a 20KW solar system, rain water tanks for garden maintenance, and an endemic landscape design with comfortable social spaces. The design also responds to a local water story and includes narratives from Yarrabah artists about its place and relationship with the health service.
We achieved these holistic sustainability outcomes, kept it within budget and built it on time with a First Nations builder. The community and client are very pleased with the new centre. From our perspective, this project demonstrates best practice in reconciliation and cultural and social sustainability. The Chair of GYHSAC recently said “It’s Aboriginal mob friendly. They can relax outside or inside while they are waiting, and I have observed people; they look very comfortable when they are at the new building.”
What are the biggest challenges facing architects and other professionals working in the sustainability space today?
We find at POD that the biggest challenges working in regional areas are time, material availability, transport costs and risks, and lack of understanding about sustainability and its benefits. It is hard to create truly sustainable projects when materials and fixtures have to be transported hundreds of kilometres by truck or barge to get to their final destination. The option for using local materials in most remote communities is limited because of a lack of infrastructure, skills and training – even if a small town is surrounded by timber, if there is no local mill or mobile mill then timber products have to be brought in. As a result, embodied energy costs can be huge when working in remote and regional areas.
The other challenge is having enough time to implement the methods and changes in practice and procurement to achieve really solid sustainability outcomes. Many government funded projects are on very tight programs and support Design and Construct contracts which measure value in a way that seldom prioritises sustainability or other qualitative design outcomes.
What will winning this award mean for your career?
Belinda and I have been practicing for more than 45 years between us. Winning this award would be an acknowledgement of the continuous work of two persistent and passionate women who have been advocating for good passive design, community inclusion, and use of sustainable technologies and materials for the last twenty-five years.
It would encourage us to keep educating the emerging generations of architects and landscape architects, and the general public about what makes sustainable design. Winning the award would also provide more leverage to reach a wider audience, which we would embrace and build on.
What is needed to move the mainstream toward sustainable buildings?
It needs a tiered approach across government, developers, builders, design professionals and the public to make rapid and long lasting change. We need building contractors (large and small) to endorse and apply sustainable materials and building practices, and for government and developers to put sustainability first as a project outcome, ahead of cost and time.
And most importantly, we need to educate the public to demand sustainable outcomes in the built environment projects. They are the buyers and have a lot of influence as a large group. Sustainable options need to be a given on projects (not an extra), and the additional cost and long term benefits explained simply and clearly.