Sustainable infrastructure design

Workshop overview

Workshop details

A focus on sustainability is driving the construction industry to prioritise greener, more eco-conscious designs. This workshop explores the various sustainable elements shaping modern infrastructure projects, from environmental, social and economic considerations to innovative engineering practices.

In teams, students assume the roles of engineers, planners, architects, and scientists in a simulated early-stage, multi-disciplinary consultancy. Their task is to design and construct sustainable bridge using the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge for inspiration, focusing on the design process, stakeholder needs, and sustainable features.

Curriculum links

Year 9 & Year 10

Science

• Investigate how advances in technologies enable advances in science, and how science has contributed to developments in technologies and engineering (AC9S9H02)(AC9S10H02)
• Analyse the key factors that contribute to science knowledge and practices being adopted more broadly by society (AC9S9H03)(AC9S10H03)
• Examine how the values and needs of society influence the focus of scientific research (AC9S9H04)(AC9S10H04)
• Develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships and develop explanatory models (AC9S9I01)(AC9S10I01)
• Plan and conduct valid, reproducible investigations to answer questions and test hypotheses (AC9S9I02)(AC9S10I02)
• Write and create texts to communicate ideas, findings and arguments effectively for identified purposes and audiences (AC9S9I08)(AC9S10I08)

Design and Technologies

• Analyse how people in design and technologies occupations consider ethical, security and sustainability factors to innovate and improve products, services and environments (AC9TDE10K01)
• Analyse the impact of innovation, enterprise and emerging technologies on designed solutions for global preferred futures (AC9TDE10K02)
• Apply innovation and enterprise skills to generate, test, iterate and communicate design ideas, processes and solutions (AC9TDE10P02)
• Develop project plans for intended purposes and audiences to individually and collaboratively manage projects (AC9TDE10P05)

Year 11 & 12

Design

• Unit 1: Stakeholder-centred design
  • Recognise that designers are required to balance competing features, including aesthetic, e.g. the impact on the senses; visual, feel and sound; and technical, e.g. use, function, sustainability, physical dimensions, ergonomics
  • Recognise that stakeholders have specific needs and wants that must be considered; stakeholders include users, clients, audiences, other designers, other professionals and technicians.
  • Recognise that design criteria need to be identified to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of ideas and design concepts in a design process
  • Describe design criteria that integrate the principles of good design: innovative, useful, aesthetic, accessible and sustainable.
  • Recognise divergent thinking is used to create a wide range of choices in the develop phase
  • Propose design concepts that best satisfy the design criteria
  • Use illustrations with annotations or spoken notes to visually communicate design proposals to audiences
• Unit 2: Commercial design influences
  • Recognise that professional designers work in teams because of the advantage of multiple perspectives on a design problem
  • Organise design teams and team roles
  • Propose design concepts by synthesising multiple ideas and economic, social and cultural influences
  • Represent design concepts using the appropriate illustrations and low-fidelity prototyping to best represent the attributes of the design
  • Demonstrate how design teams use a spoken pitch to present design proposals to clients
  • Work as a team to present visual and spoken (live or virtual) pitches of design proposals for identified clients

• Unit 3: Human-centred design
  • Define problems and describe the relevant economic, social, cultural, aesthetic and technical features and constraints related to stakeholder requirements
  • Describe design criteria by integrating the specific stakeholder requirements and principles of good design that can be used to judge the quality of ideas
  • Represent design concepts using the appropriate illustrations and low-fidelity prototyping to best represent the attributes of the design
  • Create communication including spoken live or virtual pitches and visual representations to communicate the suitability of design concepts for stakeholders

• Unit 4: Sustainable design influences
  • Analyse existing designs to understand how new ideas may come from extrapolation of existing designs or invention
  • Recognise that sustainable design is influenced by decisions at a local, national and global level and is an approach to designing that seeks to support human wellbeing indefinitely while balancing the impact of economic, social and ecological sustainability
  • Analyse products, services and environments to identify design opportunities

Earth & Environmental Science

• Unit 2: Earth processes – energy transfers and transformations
  • Understand that scientific knowledge of solar energy can be used to develop and evaluate economic, social and environmental actions for sustainability, e.g. solar panels and carbon - neutral-built environments.
  • Explore how advances in science knowledge in solar energy and Earth’s systems can influence other areas of science, technology and engineering, such as in the development of more efficient and sustainable building design.
• Unit 3: Living on Earth - extracting, using and managing Earth resources
  • Understand that scientific knowledge about environmental monitoring and management is linked to a social, economic or cultural context in which it is considered
  • Understand that scientific knowledge about renewable resources can be used to develop and evaluate projected economic, social and environmental effects and to design action for sustainability
• Unit 4: The changing Earth - the cause and impact of Earth hazards
  • Appreciate that acceptance of scientific knowledge related to the causes of global climate change can be influenced by the social, economic and cultural context in which it is considered

Engineering

• Unit 1: Engineering fundamentals
  • Recognise engineering career pathways in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering
  • Recognise the role played by engineering in supporting communities and improving peoples’ lives
• Unit 2: Emerging technologies
  • Comprehend the concept of built-in or planned obsolescence and identify the issues for sustainability, reliability and the environment
  • Compare alternative energy sources, including solar, geothermal, hydro, wind, tidal and biomass

• Unit 3: Civil structures
  • Identify the ethical issues for sustainability, reliability and the environment applied to structures

Cross-curriculum Priorities

• Sustainability: explores the knowledge, skills, values and world views necessary for people to act in ways that contribute to a sustainable future
  • Sustainably designed products, environments and services aim to minimise the impact on or restore the quality and diversity of environmental, social and economic systems
  • Creative and innovative design is integral to the identification of new ways of sustainable living.
  • World views that recognise the interdependence of Earth’s systems, and value diversity, equity and social justice, are essential for achieving sustainability.