Reuse

With their enormous practical benefits, roof tiles are a sustainable roofing solution, creating minimal environmental damage through manufacture and offering the prospect of recycling and reuse at the end of their product life.

The ability to re-use a product lengthens its lifecycle and ensures the energy used during manufacture is spread over a longer time period, achieving greater efficiency. Roof tiles can be re-used simply by removing them from one building and transferring them to another, eliminating the energy consumption and cost associated with manufacturing a new product. Re-use of building materials like roof tiles commonly saves about 95 per cent of embodied energy that would otherwise be wasted.

Austral Precast is helping the new Australian Institute of Management Western Australia (AIMWA) Learning and Development Centre in Perth gain a six star green building rating.

AIMWA’s new Learning Centre is a world-class, environmentally sustainable design and the technical experts at Austral Precast worked closely with the architects to boost the building’s green credentials with a super durable product that has the big plus of reusing recycled materials.

Architect John Lee of Cox Howlett and Bailey Woodland, believes the panels give the building a sense of weight and substance. “Austral Precast was chosen because the product is very versatile, and is a robust, durable material which works well in contrast to the transparency of the glazed glass used.”

The Centre is the first commercial building in Western Australia to be built using the versatile Austral Precast concrete panels. But with its strength, durability in Australia’s harsh environment, it’s unlikely to be the last, as Austral Precast Sales and Marketing Manager Yuen Leow says.

“The use of recycled materials in the precast product, such as fly ash, slag or silica fume, notonly means these materials are not going into landfill, they actually improve the product’s strength and durability.

The historic Southridge Homestead is located on lands once owned by a number of early settlers in Eastern Creek, Sydney, the first (and most notable) being William Hayes, one of the area’s largest landholders.

Since the original owner, the land has led a varied life. In 1859, a Frenchman Moise Roussel purchased land in the Eastern Creek area and built four properties, one of which was called ‘Herguilliers’ – a 24-acre home paddock with a brick, shingle roofed cottage. In 1919 Frederick Bigg purchased the lands and homestead, renaming it ‘Southridge’ – farming cattle, pigs and dairy cows. Then in 1950 Penfolds Winery bought it and established vineyards on the property.

In 1964 Austral Bricks purchased more than 500 acres of the property including the homestead, to mine its particularly high quality clay.

In Northcote, Australia, an extension on a heritage house is an illustration of a unique way for a family to live sustainably; minimising its ecological footprint through passive solar efficiency and the promotion of a sustainable lifestyle. The entire construction is designed to provide a comfortable, modern place to live without wasting energy or materials.

The new addition to this family home sits behind the existing house. The connection is simple and direct, established in the ground floor, avoiding extra costs in demolition and reduced construction waste. For the façades, recycled brick offers an organic transition from old to new, as well as the excellent thermal mass it adds to the house.

Sydney Olympic Park is one of the world’s highest profile stadia, but what is little known about this site is that it is, in fact, a rehabilitated Brickworks quarry. It was the city’s successful bid for the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which provided the impetus for what became one of the largest remediation projects ever undertaken in Australia.

At the end of their productive lives, Brickworks rehabilitates its mining sites for use by future generations. Once refilled, the sites can be capped with topsoil and planted with flora native to the area. Frequently today, these quarries are clean filled in highly compacted layers (to eliminate settlement) and can be reused as residential and industrial estates and beautiful public spaces.

Few people would believe that many tranquil, verdant inner city parklands are the sites of long-forgotten quarries.

With good reason, the Austinmer Beach House was named the Supreme Winner of the Think Brick Australia Reuse category in 2012.

The charming renovated property is located in the ‘Northern Coastal Villages’ of the Northern Illawarra, as part of the Wollongong. It houses two self contained two bedroom apartments and a one bedroom garden room – cosy homes away from home for visitors to the area.

Recycled bricks are a key feature in the structure with the Think Brick judges praising the bricks for unifying the house with its environment, making it feel like one continuous landscape.

Bricks were also a natural choice for saving on electricity, due to their high thermal mass – keeping the summer sun at bay and providing a barrier to chilly winter sea breezes.