Evolving for Sustainability – C6 by Fraser & Partners and Grange Development

Set close to the water in South Perth, overlooking the city, C6 by Fraser & Partners, in collaboration with Grange Development, is the next evolution of sustainable design. At 183 metres, it is the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower and Western Australia’s first carbon negative building.

Steel and concrete have been revolutionary for design and architecture, but they are some of the most energy-demanding materials to produce. In a quest to improve the carbon footprint of its buildings, Grange Development entreated Fraser & Partners, Elenberg Fraser’s research studio, to pioneer a design that shifts the paradigm of renewable building materials. The result is C6, cleverly titled for the address, 6 Charles Street, as well as the symbol and atomic number for carbon, symbolising the roughly 10.5 million kilograms of CO2 sequestered in the building’s structure and its carbon negative energy credentials.

In a quest to improve the carbon footprint of its buildings, Grange Development entreated Fraser & Partners, Elenberg Fraser’s research studio, to pioneer a design that shifts the paradigm of renewable building materials.

The design challenges building regulation and structural engineering norms, with Grange Development conducting extensive research and best practice benchmarking to demonstrate the viability of hybrid timber on a commercial scale. Utilising cross-laminated timber (CLT), glue laminated timber (glulam) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL), the structure is entirely renewable, with all the necessary timber required to build the apartment floors, columns and beams able to be regrown from just 580 seeds. The result is 245 apartments across 48 levels, as well as a 500 square metre rooftop with edible gardens, dining and entertainment spaces.

The elegant façade showcases the mass timber structure, geometric criss-crossing across the monolithic form draws the eye down to the impressive four-storey, split-level, open-air public piazza at ground level. Fraser & Partners Director Reade Dixon describes the concept for the design. “The external façade celebrates formally the mass timber structure with its reductive modernist gridded language and expressive diagrid. An architecture rich in material expression and pre-settlement native landscaping, proving that new builds can, in fact, rejuvenate.” The project rejuvenates at an environmental level, but also a social one, with public spaces abounding across multiple levels, representing over 85 per cent of the site gifted back to the council and the community. Demonstrating that this shouldn’t be a one-off, but the start of something new, Grange Development has made all of the project’s research, design and construction documentation open source.

The project rejuvenates at an environmental level, but also a social one, with public spaces abounding across multiple levels, representing over 85 per cent of the site gifted back to the council and the community.

James Dibble, Founder and Director of Grange Development, heralds the ground-breaking nature of this design. “C6 represents the future of what is possible, except we will deliver it now.” What Eiffel did for steel and Le Corbusier did for concrete, Grange Development and Fraser & Partners have done for hybrid timber, representing the arrival of a new guard of sustainable building materials.