Meet The AOC Project Team
Paul Stoller, Director, Atelier Ten
Atelier Ten Director, Paul Stoller, brings impressive Australian and international environmental design experience to enable the Australian Opal Centre (AOC) project to achieve sustainability outcomes developed in the architectural concepts created by Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin.
“In my role as Director of environmental design consultancy Atelier Ten, I work with building and landscape owners and design teams to develop project sustainability strategies. This includes helping architects figure out how big the windows should be to let in enough daylight without too much sunlight, figuring out whether clever cooling ideas like ground-coupled cooling will work, specifying finish materials that keep indoor air quality high, and sizing solar Photovoltaics (PV) and battery systems.
“I studied both architecture and architectural history at university, then joined an innovative London-based building services engineering consultancy — Atelier Ten — because I was excited to help shape buildings using the first principles of building science. In other words, I wanted to help make architecture deliver healthier, better day-lit, and more comfortable places while using less energy and water.
“One of the projects I worked on immediately after joining Atelier Ten was Melbourne’s Federation Square, where I developed the diagrams and graphic material to explain how the proposed thermal Labyrinth would store nighttime cooling for daytime conditioning of the atrium. So, in a way, my professional experience began with work in Australia, even if I was in London at the time.
“After a few years, this work took me to New York where we developed a full environmental design consultancy, in addition to our core building services work. Projects I'm particularly proud of there include Kroon Hall, a university building that managed to be carbon neutral in its operations (no greenhouse gas emissions are emitted to power the building) while also looking both modern and perfectly collegiate gothic at the same time. While in New York I also helped create the distinctive facade of the South Australia Health and Medical Institute (SAHMRI) building in Adelaide.
“Eventually, life and work brought me and Atelier Ten to Australia, where I've lived and worked for the past seven years. I still do what I started out doing in London: helping building teams figure out what sustainability outcomes they would like to achieve, and then helping shape buildings, landscapes and equipment to do this.
“Besides the AOC, local projects that I'm especially proud of include the new Sydney Modern Project at the Art Gallery of NSW, new Gallery for the Arthur Boyd painting collection at the Riversdale property at Bundanon in the Shoalhaven, and the Kambri Precinct at The Australian National University.
“My role in the AOC project team has been first to verify that the sustainability ideas embedded in the original architectural concepts will all work (they will!) and then tune these up through technical analysis. The AOC is a rare project that has committed to the highest levels of sustainability and embodied that commitment in every aspect of the design.
“When you visit the new AOC, things I helped to design that you will see include skylights that were widened to allow enough light for the plants in the garden, malqaf cooling towers that will ventilate and cool the cafe and gardens, and the rooftop and landscape PV arrays that power the building.
“Things I helped to design that you might not see include thousands of meters of underground piping that bring cooling into the building from the earth, electric battery banks that store energy generated during the day for nighttime use, and spray misters in the malqafs that provide additional cooling on hot days.
“The extraordinary black opals and opalised fossils of Lightning Ridge are internationally significant, and the AOC's new home will give them the prominence they deserve. Figuring out how to house precious artefact collections, which need very carefully controlled environments, is always a technical challenge. Doing so in the hot climate of Lightning Ridge is especially challenging. And delivering this all using only the power generated by the AOC's own PV array has taken this to the next level of difficulty - which has made the project all the more thrilling!
“I'm excited that the Centre will celebrate the culture and heritage of opal mining that have shaped Lightning Ridge and other opal mining communities across Australia. Learning about how opals are formed, and why they are located within a particular stratum in the earth, has opened my eyes to the rich geologic history of NSW and Australia.
“When the building opens, I’m most looking forward to feeling cool breezes wafting out of the malqafs and over me, while I sit in sun-dappled daylight in the beautiful gardens. Lightning Ridge is incredibly fortunate to have community members with the vision, passion, and persistence needed to create and grow the AOC into what will be an internationally recognised research institution and visitor destination.”