COMPLETED

Background:

Sukarame is a rural village located in West Java Province, Indonesia. It is bounded by Mount Halimun Salak National Park to the North and Pelabuhan Ratu Bay to the South. The location proximity from Jakarta (145km) and its unique natural ecosystem has created a huge potential for research, therapeutic activity, as well as tourist attraction.

Onsen Sukarame Resort Corporation Ltd (PT OSR) is developing a master plan for an Onsen Sukarame Resort (OSR) over a total area of 30ha in Sukarame, stretching 4km of river and including 6 hot springs. PT OSR would like to engage RMIT staff and students in various research projects to incorporate sustainable development principles in their development plan and make OSR a self-sufficient and sustainable destination in Indonesia.

PT OSR aims for 100 percent renewable energy (RE) supply at the resort. At this moment they are using one Pelton Turbine (water-wheel turbine) to generate electricity for the development/construction work at the site. However, this turbine will be inadequate to meet the sites’ energy needs once the resort is operational. It is important to explore all possible RE options at the site so that PT OSR can maximise the opportunities and achieve their target.

Project aim:

This project aims to evaluate what the renewable energy sources are available at this site and quantify their possible electricity generation capabilities.

Project Activities:

– Exploring the electrical grid arrangements in Sukarame, such as export restrictions, supply limitations, energy costs for import/export, possibilities for net metering, green energy purchasing etc.,

– Exploring the technical and economic merits of various renewable energy options, such as solar PV, geothermal, micro hydro, wind and biomass.

– Calculate the potential for hydro power generation.

– Simulating the potential for solar energy generation on site. This may include a large commercial solar system installed on the current helicopter landing area (government land) or distributed solar which is installed on selected rooftops across the site.

Methodology

This project will require the student to generate a realistic load profile from the site. i.e. extrapolate designed building loads, mechanical plant, ancillary loads (E. V’s etc.) to establish the temporal/seasonal requirement for energy.

This project will explore energy storage as well as import/export via grid coupling to achieve the lowest cost energy security. Required generation capacity will also be minimised via careful design of loads, e.g. keep peak loads to a minimum using demand management, hydro for baseload and solar for daily peaks, etc.

Considerable attention will be paid to understanding the need for cooling at the site, as given the humidity of the location and the presence of mosquitos, resort customers are likely will heavily on refrigerated air conditioning.

Deliverables

Work Method

– This project will be supervised by Dr. Mahdi Jalili and Dr. Cameron Stanley from School of Engineering, RMIT University.

– Final year students will implement this project as Capstone Engineering project.

– The supervisors help students identify learning objectives at the start of the project, provide them with technical advice during the project implementation, and evaluate their work at the end of the project.

– Students conduct the research in Melbourne, Australia.

– PT OSR will appoint a person-in-charge to help students access data.

What is a design studio?

The design studio is an intensive project based course worth 24 credit points (twice the usual allocation per course).  Students work in small groups (max 14 students) with 1 or more studio leaders who are industry practitioners or have some kind of design practice.  Each studio is focused around a core set of ideas or problems.  These range from explorations in digital or computation design, cultural or poetic concerns, issues of urbanity, density or cities, small scale fabrication explorations, issues of the civic and urban narratives etc.  In the master program at RMIT we run between 18-20 studios per semester.  Each studio has a mixture of final year bachelor students + first year and second year masters students.  Our studios are vertically integrated so that younger/less experience students learn from the older/more experienced ones (as well as the studio leader).  At the start of semester students have the opportunity to ballot for the studio they’d like to take and all studios are open for balloting.

The studio runs for 14 weeks.  Balloting is in week 0.  We have a mid semester review around week 7 or 8.  The last class is in week 12 and the final presentations/assessment is in week 14.  Students submit a folio of their work in week 15 and in week 16 we pin-up and open an exhibition of all studios’ work along with the graduating thesis projects.

Each class students present ongoing work, either formally in pin-up crits or informally through workshops, desk crits and 1 on 1 sessions with their tutor.

Research Proposal: Future Surf Life Saving Facilities

The aim of this project is to develop design proposals speculating on the future of surf life saving in Victoria, and around Australia, and re-imagining what a surf life-saving facility might look like, how it might integrate into the urban and rural urban contexts in which they operate, how they might better operate within sensitive natural environments and what the impact of long term environmental, cultural, political and economic change might be on the institution and built form of surf life saving clubs might be.

In the initial phases of the semester students will engage in a process of research exploring:

– What is a surf life saving club and its purpose?  How has this differed over time.  What are the architectural and cultural origins of the contemporary surf life saving club, and  how are they different in different parts of Australia.  What are the equivalent architectural types in other countries? How is the culture of surf life saving linked to the questions of Australian identity.

– What are the cultural, technological, social, policy, economic and other trajectories of change that might influence the future of the surf life saving club as an architectural model.

– How does the surf life saving club future integrate issues of sustainability, and what will the impact of imminent environmental collapse on surf life saving.

Students will be allocated a rural and urban site around Victoria, and an example of SLSC in another part of Australia.  They will be asked to document and analyse these precedents and prepare a dossier of information and ideas on the model. These observations will form the basis of  a brief based that will serve as the basis for design testing through the semester.

Wonthaggi Surf Life Saving Club

After an initial period of briefing, the students will begin to consider these challenges at a specific site – the Wonthaggi Surf Life Saving club.  Students will visit and document the site and be briefed on the specific challenges of the site by members of the club and Emergency Services Infrastructure Authority (ESIA) personnel.  Students will use this location as a site for testing of design possibilities for Surf Life Saving Clubs for the remainder of the semester.

Research through Design

Students will design and test their brief on the Wonthaggi site through a mixture of precedent based explorations, design process and digital techniques, model making and other explorative processes.

Work will be presented in class weekly, and updates and adjustments to the brief made in conjunction with ongoing design and exploration.

At the mid semester review (Week 7 approx.) students will present their research, their brief and an initial conceptual design for hypothetical future Surf Life Saving club on the Wonthaggi site.

For the remainder of the semester students, students will develop and test their design further.  From this initial conceptual proposal students will be asked to take into consideration the following:

• The relationship between the surf life saving club and the surrounding town. How does the SLSC enable other activities (community, commercial, governmental). What amenity does it offer to the city/town.
• The civic aspect of the design – what face does this design present to the public. How does this effect public engagement and tourism opportunities.
• Opportunities for innovative programming and multi-use engagement.
• New technologies and fabrication techniques that address issues of cost and deployment in challenging contexts.
• The impact of climate collapse on coastal environments and changes in the way people use the coast.

At the final presentation (Week 14) students will present printed panels (posters) showing drawings, computer renderings, diagrams, text and other graphic explanations.  This may be supplemented by digital presentations, animations, physical models, VR or Augmented Reality presentations.  It will be accompanied by verbal presentation.

The usual format for the final review is a 15-20 minute presentation to a panel including the studio leader and invited external guests from industry.

I’ve prepared a rough break down below of how a semester might play out.  I see opportunities for ESIA and local stakeholders from Wonthaggi to be involved at 4 stages – the third week, through 2 interim presentations where government and community experts can provide feedback on the design, and a final presentation in week 13 where students will show the ESIA / Wonthaggi SLSC their designs.

We prefer to separate this final presentation from the examination of the work, as this is an expert academic assessment process and is better not to involve client groups.

The expectation is that the outcomes that are produced are not simply problem solving or simply responding to a brief. We expect our students to be ambitious, future focused and prepared to take risks in order to contribute value through design to a project. At RMIT Architecture, we are training students to be speculative thinkers.  This means using design to go beyond the brief and imagine future scenarios that might not yet be known.  When we engage with real projects the projects will usually be more conservative, but we are keen to make sure students remain ambitious on provocative.

Proposed Budget

To deliver this project we are requesting a small budget in order to translate the outcomes of the studio into a format that is appropriate for broader dissemination, and in which the critical learnings are presented as transferrable and relevant to the research brief provided by ESIA.

As information on the full scope of the project has not been negotiated and established with ESIA, we suggest the following cost base and breakdown.

This budget is preliminary and subject to approval of RMIT Research & Innovation and finance departments.

Project title: Toxicity of Influents

Project aim:

Western Water established a project with RMIT to develop a method to model the risk of potential toxins (with a focus on tree root foam) into Western Water’s Recycled Water Plants (RWPs). These toxins could add stress to the biomass of the activated sludge, which would decrease the effectiveness of the treatment process. ATP is used as a stress indicator of the biomass.

The main objectives of the project are to:
– Assess the feasibility of ATP as a test method to determine the toxicity of influent. If successful, implement testing across Western Water’s RWPs to minimise the loss of biomass, and protect the plant operations, quality of recycled water and biosolids.
– Verify a threshold value for root foaming chemicals in the influent to assist the field operation team in the planning of root foaming activities in the sewer.

Industry partner: Western Water

Western Water provides water, sewerage and recycled water services to 61,000 properties with a population of 162,000 across a region of 3,000 square kilometres to the north-west of Melbourne. Since the authority’s establishment 20 years ago, Western Water has seen its service population more than double. This strong growth rate is projected to continue as suburbs around Melton and Sunbury develop over the coming decade. Nearly all towns in the service area now have a secure water supply through provision of alternate supplies to local water. These include interconnection to adjoining supply systems as well as access to Melbourne water.

Project title: Waste Transport Model

Industry partner: Sustainability Victoria (SV)

Sustainability Victoria supports Victorians to be more sustainable in their everyday life; in homes and in jobs, schools and communities and in the systems and infrastructure that support a thriving Victorian economy and lifestyle. SV aims to improve the way Victoria manages its resources and help communities to take action on climate change. SV provide expert advice and guidance in energy, materials and waste. SV conducts research and demonstrate what is possible and inspires people to make sustainable change above and beyond legal requirements.

Background:

SV is running the Zero Net Carbon Homes Pilot Program to develop sustainably-designed residential homes in Victoria and provide technical and marketing expertise to builders to facilitate the development, marketing and sales of such homes.

In order to build a zero net carbon home, home builders will need to complete zero net carbon home design modelling and an as-built verification assessment.

An as-built verification (ABV) assessment is a quality assurance test:

• evaluates the energy efficiency of a home after it is built
• ensures the home meets a zero net carbon standard.

The test involves an independent evaluator visiting a home and rating the home’s air tightness and insulation integrity.

Evaluators perform blower door tests, using fans to simulate wind blowing against the building’s exterior to identify air leakages in the building’s envelope.

Thermal imaging is used in conjunction with blower door testing to locate missing or poorly installed insulation that may result in the movement of heat/cool into and out of the building.

Project aim/expected outcomes:

The project aims to review current methods for ABV assessment in Victoria (including blower door test and thermography), assess their risks and recommend mitigation plans.
The review may extend to other methods being used overseas focusing on best practices.

DELIVERABLES:

Work method:

• • Students are required to attend the kick-off meeting with SV to fully understand the requirements from SV. A returned project brief together with a project plan is required after this meeting.
  • Students then work on their own and/or under the supervision/instructions of the supervisor to meet the agreed timeline.
  • SV will appoint a contact person who helps students with data access or any question/queries regarding the requirements of the project.