Australia's greenest building or just a colourful box?

The recently completed Pixel building has achieved the title of 'greenest building in Australia. It is the first office building in Australia to be completely carbon neutral, receiving a 6 star energy rating and the highest Green Star score ever awarded by the Green Building Council of Australia. Incorporated into this colourful 'green' box are large photovoltaic panels and wind turbines on the roof used to generate power, a green roof, a reed bed water treatment system to filter grey water and use this as the building's main water supply, 100% fresh air system, fixed shading panels to target northern sunlight while blocking it from the west, as well as extensive recycling and many other sustainable features. In short, the building is packed with so many green features and sustainable technologies, it ticks all the boxes.

studio505 and Grocon are the ones who have put this little green 'package' together. Situated on the old Carlton United Brewery site, the building's facade is vibrant and eye-catching. One could argue, however, that apart from this colourful facade, all there is behind it is a 'green' glass box. Joe Rollo, author and newspaper writer, wrote in his review of the Pixel building that [referring to the facade] "This coat of many colours, like Joseph's, serves mainly to screen what you could argue is a piece of non-architecture...this skirt is in essence a piece of applied decoration, a bit of film-flam, disposable even, created to draw attention to what is a modest and expensive, at $6 million, little building."

The argument that there is no real innovative formal architectural language presented in this building is an interesting one. But does this even matter? Do the numerous sustainable features overshadow the fact that the building is just a box clad with colourful aluminium panels? 

Images courtesy of www.indesignlive.com

Yes, it might be Australia's greenest building, but besides that, some might argue that it's not much else. What do you think of the Pixel building? Is it just a colourful glass box, or it more than that? Share your thoughts.