Melbourne to host international design contest for retail based on Frasers project

What does the world’s most sustainable retail centre look like?

One might get a glimpse of it at the Living Building Challenge, an international sustainable design competition that will be held in Australia for the first time.

Presented by the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA) and its main partner Frasers Property Australia, the competition will focus on a retail building design for the first time, with Frasers' The Brickworks masterplanned community in Melbourne’s Burwood being the site upon which all designs must be based, in terms of the location of designed centres and their suitability.

Registrations opened February 18 with a formal launch in Melbourne on March 3. 

The Brickworks Living Building Challenge design competition aims to attract designers, professionals, environmental experts, students and anyone interested in a cleaner, regenerative future to submit their ideas and help re-imagine the possibilities when it comes to the design of retail centres. 

“Retail is a sector regrettably grounded in excess and waste. Shopping centre signs buzz at night, in-store mannequins are individually lit long after the customers have gone home, and we have somehow got to a point where we call natural daylight and fresh air ‘best practice’,” said Stephen Choi, vice-chair of the Living Future Institute of Australia. 

“This challenge is a first in a number of respects: the Living Building Challenge has never before had a retail centre as its centrepiece, nor has an Australian project been subject to such a design competition.”

The International Living Future Institute, the parent organisation to LFIA, is an environmental non-government organisation headquartered in Seattle, USA  that says it is working toward the transformation toward communities that are socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. The Living Building Challenge is one of its key visionary programs. 

The closing date for entries is May 6 and there will be technical and procedural help on hand throughout the submission period. 

The winner will be announced in June 2016 and will share in prize money totaling more than $30,000. 

Local primary schools will also have the opportunity to participate – and make their school more sustainable in the process.