Josh Byrne & Associates (JBA) recently opened its office to a group of graduate students studying Decarbonising Cities and Regions with Dr Vanessa Rauland of Curtin University.

Students were lead around the office by JBA’s Built Form Manager Mark Taylor as he answered questions on how JBA operates within the pre-war built Fremantle Chamber of Commerce Offices as well as giving advice on the design intent of the part of the building created back in 1873.

As part of their course, the students are investigating the physical and behavioural aspects that affect the carbon output of buildings, including energy consumption, water use and waste disposal. In their analysis the students will then propose ideas on what could be done within the space to improve the environmental footprint.

If you want to address a buildings environmental footprint you need a baseline to work from, so this initial tour of the office will help the students set targets and identify the low hanging fruit for improvement” says Mark, “It’s great for students to get a real world sense of what can be done and why some seemingly good ideas don’t work.”

JBA frequently works with university students as interns and PhD candidates, and with several staff acting as guest lecturers in our specialist fields, this time the students will be advising us!