Pixel | Studio 505

At first glance, Pixel does not look like most ‘green’ buildings, mainly due to the integration of green strategies and the architecture, to produce a very conscious and coherent building.

Pixel is a Development and Sales Office on a former brewery site that has achieved a perfect 105 score for 6 Star Green Star rating. It is striving to achieve the highest scores in US LEED, UK BREEAM, and Australian Green Star, ever achieved without taking away from the building’s coherence.

photography by © Ben Hosking

The first thing that caught my eye was the building’s vibrant façade, a very pop art and playful front. The façade features Living Edge perimeter planters, fixed shading louvers, double glazed window walls, and solar panel shading. As far as building systems go, Pixel employs some ambitious environmental strategies: vacuum toilet system, anaerobic digestion system, reduced car parking, and self-sustained water supply, to create Australia’s first carbon neutral office building.

photography by © John Gollings

Pixel is meant to be an example for the buildings to come, initiating a change that is on its way in Melbourne. It is a herald to the buildings yet to come to the site as well as a precedent to buildings of the near future globally.

photography by © Ben Hosking

By Aiysha Alsane

Courtesy of Studio 505