I was lucky enough to be invited to talk at the Philippine Green Building Conference held at the SMX Conference Centre in Pasay City 25 September.

The Philippines are at the early stages of developing their Green Rating Tool, named BERDE (Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence) and presented 2 outstanding examples of their work including the first Green Certified Government Building to pave the way for future developments in the country. The NET Lima Commercial Office Building, in Fort Bonifacio Gobal City by the NET Group, is one of the first buildings in the Philippines to achieve BERDE Certification. A sign of things to come and shows the courage of developers in the Philippines to promote Sustainable Developments. We are also looking forward to Crone’s design for the Arya Residences, developed by ArthaLand which will be the first residential building in the Philippines to achieve dual certification, both BERDE and LEED certifications in the near future.

On behalf of Crone Partners I gave a talk on “An Architecture Practice in Sydney”. It detailed Crone Partners’ extensive apartment construction experience (approximately 20,000 apartments world-wide in the last 10 years); our special knowledge of The Philippines; Our collaborative office culture, with staff from 20 different countries and a much higher percentage of women than the average firm; our collaborative art work; how this informs a fresh approach to new workplace design.

It then told the story of the design process for 180 Brisbane, a 6 Star Green Star (Green Building Council of Australia rating tool) Certified Project in Brisbane: Designing for a hot, humid climate; winning a competition with 4 other big Australian firms through the strength of our analysis; finding clever solutions for sunlight, geotechnical, layout, regulatory, structural, urban, facade, wind issues in a way that consistently fed into our design vision for open, collaborative workspaces with a sense of address and identity.

Many thanks to Eva Yazon from Austrade and Edgar V. Sabidong from the Philippine Green Building Council for looking after me while I was in the Philippines.

See below links to the Philippine Green Building Council Website and Conference Video;

Philippine Green Building Council Conference Video

Philippine Green Building Council Website