Young Street Stage 3 · A Veridian Process
Integrative
Design
Process
A step-by-step framework for the core team. How the interrelated systems of this project — building, site, community, watershed — are optimised together, producing outcomes no single discipline acting alone could achieve.
BeginOrientation
Why IDP for
Young Street Stage 3?
The Integrative Design Process is not a sustainability checklist. It is a structured methodology for discovering how the interrelated systems of a project — building, site, community, watershed — can be optimised together, producing outcomes that no discipline acting alone could achieve.
Sun Villages is not building a conventional apartment block. It is creating a zero-debt, develop-and-hold community asset intended to operate for decades. The long hold horizon changes the calculus of design decisions entirely: cascading savings that look marginal in a build-and-sell model become compelling investments when measured across 20–30 years.
The DA is approved. The building envelope and structural grid are fixed. The IDP therefore focuses its energy on three live domains: building systems — HVAC, hot water, solar PV, stormwater; ecological and food landscape — permaculture-designed site, native food production for the Commons cafe; community activation — The Queanbeyan Commons programming and governance.
Conventional Approach
IDP Approach for Young Street
EnergyEngineer sizes M&E to NCC minimum; BASIX compliance only.
EnergyCascading load analysis: envelope → passive → active; PV sized to Corp SA and LTR demand profiles.
WaterSingle Icon Water connection; minimum BASIX compliance.
WaterWater balance assessment; rainwater harvesting sized against food landscape demand; stormwater as productive system.
Ecology + FoodMinimum council landscaping; standard planting schedule.
Ecology + FoodPermaculture design using Limestone Plains natives as foundation for food production and Commons cafe supply.
CommunityTenants arrive; space is available; activation hoped for.
CommunityCommons programming designed through IDP; activation strategy developed before occupation.
Post-OccupancyNo feedback loop; performance unknown.
Post-OccupancySmart metering; community wellbeing indicators; annual review against project goals.
Part A · Discovery
The most
critical phase.
Shared understanding of the living systems of place, measurable performance goals, and full team alignment — before any design work is committed. Nothing should be specified, selected, or chosen until this phase is complete. Its purpose is not to find solutions. It is to find the right questions.
A.0
Pre-Workshop Foundation Work — Veridian Story of Place
- Veridian leads the Story of Place inquiry for Queanbeyan and the Limestone Plains — this work runs concurrently with all other preparation activities
- Ecological baseline: Limestone Plains native vegetation communities, soil types, Queanbeyan River corridor condition, urban heat island mapping of the Young Street precinct
- Hydrological history: pre-European drainage patterns of the site, current stormwater connection to Queanbeyan River, existing impermeability vs surroundings
- Ngunnawal Country protocols: engage with Ngunnawal representatives regarding cultural significance of the site and appropriate design and planting responses
- Permaculture landscape inquiry: identify which Limestone Plains native species have food-producing potential for the Commons cafe — fruiting natives, edible greens, herbs, bush tucker — mapping these against soil zones, sun aspects, and water flow patterns on the 10,348 m² site
- Community systems scan: what services and organisations currently exist in Queanbeyan that the Commons could complement — not duplicate or displace
- Building system documentation review: confirm what the DA drawings specify for HVAC, hot water, solar, electrical; identify what remains unspecified
- Climate analysis: Queanbeyan heating/cooling degree days, solar irradiance, prevailing winds, diurnal temperature range
Key Outputs
Story of Place initiated (Veridian)
Ecological baseline documented
Native food species mapping
Ngunnawal engagement initiated
The Story of Place is the single highest-leverage action for the long-term ecological character of the site and the vitality of the Commons. It runs concurrently with all other preparation work.
A.1
Research & Analysis — Preparation for Workshop 1
- Simple-box energy model: approximate load distribution for Block G (42 units) and Block S (12 units + Commons)
- Corp SA demand profile: model peak and base-load demand for 20 Corporate Serviced Apartments (24/7 occupancy, hospitality-intensity appliances, higher hot water load)
- Permaculture site zone mapping: zone 1 (immediate Commons surrounds — most-used, most-tended) through to zone 4 (perimeter — low-maintenance perennial systems)
- Water balance: calculate site annual precipitation vs projected demand for 54 units, Commons, and food landscape irrigation
- Stormwater as productive system: map how water flows across the site can be slowed, spread, and sunk to support the food landscape before leaving the site via any engineered drainage
- Icon Water connection strategy: confirm treatment of single-title multi-unit building (likely one commercial connection); cost and capacity implications
- Solar resource: rooftop area on Block G and Block S; shade analysis; PV feasibility relative to demand profiles
- Integrative cost-bundling template: framework for tracking cascading cost trade-offs — the tool for replacing value engineering with Continuous Value Optimisation (CoVO)
Key Outputs
Simple-box energy model
Permaculture zone map drafted
Water budget calculated
Cost-bundling template
Workshop 1 road map
Fees are committed only for this preparation and Workshop 1 — keeping scope controlled and ensuring everyone arrives ready to co-learn rather than defend pre-formed positions.
A.2
Workshop 1 — Goal-Setting: Values, Purpose & Performance Targets
- Touchstones Exercise: All team members vote on the project’s key issues (energy performance, ecological restoration, food production, water management, community activation, place-based identity). Voting reveals operative values — not just stated ones
- Four Es Framework: Examine (what do we actually know about this site?) → Evaluate (what are the system interdependencies?) → Explore (what range of responses is genuinely possible?) → Execute (what is the right question we are now designing towards?)
- Veridian presents Story of Place findings to the full team; the team conducts a site walk together — reading the place collectively before designing for it
- Set measurable performance goals across four subsystems: Site/Ecology + Food Landscape, Water, Energy, Materials
- Food landscape goals: what species, what cafe menu items could this site realistically support? What does the relationship between landscape and cafe look like in Year 1, Year 3, Year 5?
- Queanbeyan Commons activation goals: what does success look like in Year 1, Year 3, Year 5? Who uses it? For what purpose?
- Walk the team through cascading cost logic — agree to use CoVO rather than conventional value engineering throughout
Key Outputs
Performance goals agreed
Food landscape vision
Commons activation goals
CoVO framework adopted
All key stakeholders attend: board members, interim chairperson, design consultants, landscape architect, M&E engineers, community representative. Half-day minimum; full day preferred.
📐 The Learning Wheel — How Every Workshop Runs
- Explore / Imagine: Open-ended possibilities, divergent thinking. When the group is in this mode, no solution is wrong.
- Discover / Understand: Research and modelling inform exploration.
- Decide / Filter: Convergent thinking, optimal solutions identified. The freedom of Explore mode closes here.
- Act / Implement: Who does what by when.
- Being explicit about which phase the group is in prevents the premature convergence that kills integrative work. The facilitator must hold this distinction clearly.
A.3
Research & Analysis — Evaluating Strategies Across Four Subsystems
- Energy: Zone-by-zone load breakdown; passive solar gain analysis; natural ventilation potential — Queanbeyan’s 12–16°C diurnal swing makes night purge ventilation a genuine passive cooling candidate; solar PV scenarios; battery storage trade-off
- Water + Food Landscape: Detailed water budget incorporating food landscape irrigation; rainwater cistern sizing to serve both building use and productive planting zones; greywater reuse for subsurface irrigation of food gardens; stormwater flows designed to move through food landscape zones before any engineered outlet
- Permaculture Landscape: Full planting design using Limestone Plains native species as the ecological foundation — prioritising species that serve dual purposes: habitat value and food/resource production for the Commons cafe. Examples: native raspberry, lilly pilly, muntries, river mint, warrigal greens, native thyme, wattleseed. Integrate annual food production in intensive zone-1 beds adjacent to Commons. Design for soil-building guild planting (nitrogen fixers, deep-rooted mineral accumulators, ground covers)
- Commons Cafe: Develop the food production brief in dialogue with the cafe concept — which ingredients, herbs, and produce could realistically come from the site? What does the supply relationship look like seasonally? How does the cafe menu reflect the Limestone Plains ecological identity?
- Materials: Preliminary embodied carbon estimate for key structural and envelope elements; regional sourcing scan; construction waste plan
- Cascading Analysis: Identify how decisions in one system create savings in another — the “tunnelling through cost” logic applied to Young Street’s specific context
Key Outputs
Four-subsystem analysis reports
Permaculture planting design draft
Food species list
Cascade diagram drafted
Commons cafe food brief
A.4
Workshop 2 — Systems Integration: Discovering the Cascading Opportunities
- Present A.3 findings across all four subsystems; make the interdependencies visible
- Cascading analysis session: map explicitly how each strategy decision affects other systems — build the Young Street cascade diagram
- Food landscape integration: confirm the relationship between permaculture zones, stormwater flows, and rainwater harvesting — the site water system should be designed around the food landscape, not the other way around
- Energy system decision: confirm solar PV strategy, natural ventilation role, HVAC approach, hot water system
- Water system decision: confirm rainwater harvesting scope; how stormwater is routed through productive landscape before any engineered outlet
- Landscape design direction confirmed: Limestone Plains native species as ecological foundation; permaculture zoning; food production brief for Commons cafe agreed
- Commons activation: agree on core programming concept and governance model; confirm community partnerships and cafe concept pre-opening
- Budget alignment: update cost-bundling framework with actual strategy data; confirm packages are within the fixed-price ~$24M construction budget
Key Outputs
Integrated strategy package agreed
Cascade diagram finalised
Food landscape + water integration confirmed
Budget alignment confirmed
A.5
Research & Analysis — Testing and Verifying the Strategy Package
- Iterative energy modelling: full model with actual building geometry, confirmed envelope specification, HVAC and solar PV strategy; verify NatHERS star rating and BASIX compliance
- Daylighting model: assess performance in LTR units, Corp SA units, and the Queanbeyan Commons
- Water system detailed design: confirm cistern sizing, roof catchment area, pump and filtration specifications; verify that harvesting capacity meets both building demand and food landscape irrigation requirements
- Stormwater and food landscape sizing: confirm bioswale, rain garden, and swale sizing against storm events; verify QPRC compliance; confirm productive planting zones are positioned to receive and benefit from stormwater flows
- Food production feasibility: confirm species list, planting volumes, and harvest calendar against cafe requirements; identify what can be grown on-site vs what must be sourced locally
- Full cost-estimate update using integrative bundling framework; confirm cascade savings are realised in final system specifications
Key Outputs
NatHERS/BASIX confirmed
Water + food landscape verified
Stormwater compliance confirmed
Food production calendar
Part B consultant brief
This stage produces the evidential foundation for entering Part B with confidence — confirming the integrated system is achievable within the fixed-price budget.
Part B · Design & Construction
From strategy
to built reality.
The danger in Part B is that the creative integration of the Discovery Phase dissolves under the pressure of documentation deadlines, contractor pricing, and programme. The IDP addresses this through Continuous Value Optimisation (CoVO) — which replaces conventional value engineering — and sustained inter-disciplinary workshops at key decision points.
⚠ CoVO vs Value Engineering — The Critical Distinction
- Value engineering (VE): identify discrete cost line items and cut them. In an integrated system, this is destructive — removing one element without understanding its cascade function can increase overall costs.
- CoVO: asks “What is the full cascade effect of this decision across all systems?” A reduction in roof insulation that increases HVAC sizing and reduces solar PV offset is not a saving — it is a cost shift with a net negative.
- Every proposed cost reduction at Young Street must be assessed through the cascade lens before acceptance.
- The food landscape and stormwater system are integrated infrastructure, not landscaping extras — they must be assessed through the same cascade lens as any building system.
B.1
Workshop 3 — Construction Documentation Integration Brief
- Review and formally adopt the integrated strategy package from Part A
- Produce the Integration Brief: a single document summarising agreed performance goals, system interactions, and design principles — provided to all consultants before they begin drawing
- Food landscape and water system brief: confirm stormwater routing through productive zones, planting layout, and irrigation infrastructure in sufficient detail for the landscape architect to begin detailed design
- Consultant coordination protocol: agree how inter-disciplinary coordination will be managed during CD production (fortnightly coordination sessions, shared model, review checkpoints)
- Contractor procurement strategy: agree tender approach, prequalification criteria, and the IDP brief to be provided to tenderers; confirm AS 4000:2025 contract mechanism accommodates systems integration
- Commons activation: confirm community partnerships and programming concept well enough to inform the fit-out specification for the 269 m² Commons floor
Key Outputs
Integration Brief issued
Food landscape brief confirmed
Contractor strategy agreed
B.2
Construction Documentation — Coordinated CD Production
- All M&E systems CDs produced in alignment with the Integration Brief; system sizing reflects cascade savings from Part A decisions
- Structural and envelope CDs coordinated with passive thermal strategy (slab thermal mass, insulation specification, glazing system)
- Landscape and stormwater CDs: permaculture zone layout, planting schedule, swales, rain gardens, and cistern infrastructure coordinated between landscape architect, civil engineer, and Veridian; plant schedule reflects the agreed native food species palette
- Solar PV CDs: sized to agreed demand coverage; roof structure confirmed adequate for panel loading
- Commons fit-out specification: detailed brief for 269 m² incorporating agreed activation programming, kitchen/cafe infrastructure, and connection to the productive landscape
- CoVO process: any scope reduction proposals assessed against the full cascade before acceptance
Key Outputs
Fully coordinated CD set
Permaculture landscape CDs
Commons fit-out spec
BASIX + NatHERS compliance docs
Regular (minimum fortnightly) multi-discipline coordination meetings are mandatory throughout CD production — not just bilateral conversations between individual consultants.
B.3
Workshop 4 — Contractor Onboarding & Integration Handover
- IDP briefing for contractor and key subcontractors: present the integration logic, performance goals, and cascade dependencies
- Walk through the Integration Brief: highlight system interactions that must be protected — no unilateral substitutions without integrated assessment
- Food landscape brief to landscape subcontractor: explain the permaculture logic, stormwater routing rationale, and species selection — substitutions require approval from landscape architect and Veridian
- Establish site communication protocol: how will integration questions and proposed substitutions be escalated and resolved during construction?
- Review construction programme against system sequencing requirements (rainwater cistern installation, stormwater swale construction before landscape planting, PV roof preparation)
- Confirm commissioning and testing plan for all integrated systems — not individual system commissioning in isolation
Key Outputs
Contractor + subs IDP-briefed
Food landscape sequence confirmed
Site communication protocol agreed
This is not a conventional site handover. It is a co-learning session in which the builder understands why the systems are designed as they are — and what they must not disturb.
B.4
Construction Phase — Maintaining Integration to Practical Completion
- Integration Champion: the team member responsible for assessing all RFIs and variation requests against the cascade logic
- Regular (minimum monthly) site integration review: consultant representatives visit to verify that integrated systems are being installed as designed
- Food landscape and stormwater works: ensure contractor understands the permaculture planting rationale; no species substitutions without landscape architect and Veridian approval; stormwater swales and rain gardens constructed to design grade before planting begins
- Commissioning oversight: engage M&E engineers in active commissioning — not sign-off on manufacturer certificates alone
- Commons fit-out coordination: maintain community activation and cafe partner planning concurrent with construction; confirm kitchen infrastructure aligns with confirmed programming partners
- Document all cascade savings realised vs projected during construction; update feasibility model with actual system costs at practical completion
Key Outputs
All RFIs reviewed through cascade lens
Monthly site integration reviews
Food landscape installed to design
Cascade savings documented
Part C · Occupancy & Regeneration
Closing the
feedback loop.
The most neglected phase in conventional practice. For Sun Villages, it is not optional — it is the phase where the zero-debt, develop-and-hold model either demonstrates its thesis or reveals its gaps. The develop-and-hold structure means this feedback loop runs for the life of the building: there is no sale event that ends the organisation’s relationship with the place it has created.
C.1
Pre-Occupation — Tenant Activation & Commons Launch Preparation
- Corp SA onboarding: tenants arrive in a place with a story and a living landscape — communicate the IDP narrative, the ecological character, and the food landscape connection to the Commons cafe
- LTR tenant selection: early tenants should understand and value the community model; the Commons, the productive landscape, the ecological character, and community governance
- Food landscape activation: ensure planting is established and visible before first occupation; the site’s ecological and food identity should be legible from Day 1, not an abstract promise
- Commons cafe launch: confirm programming partners, cafe operators, and opening-week activation; the Commons must be alive from Day 1 — empty community spaces do not self-activate
- Introduce all tenants to the Limestone Plains story and the ecological and food rationale for the landscape — making the site’s identity legible to its inhabitants
- Establish first Community Governance meeting: how do residents participate in decisions about the Commons and the shared landscape?
- Commissioning verification: confirm all integrated systems are operating as designed before occupation; establish baseline readings for post-occupancy monitoring
Key Outputs
Tenant onboarding materials
Food landscape established at occupation
Commons + cafe partners confirmed
Community Governance structure
C.2
Post-Occupancy Monitoring — Did the Integration Work?
- Energy: Smart metering by dwelling type; compare actual energy intensity vs NatHERS prediction; track solar PV generation and self-consumption ratio; monitor HVAC performance against design
- Water + Food Landscape: Track building consumption vs rainwater harvesting contribution; monitor irrigation demand of food landscape against harvesting supply; observe which species are thriving and which need adjustment; track stormwater performance through productive zones
- Food Production: Seasonal harvest log from the productive landscape; track which species are contributing to the Commons cafe menu and at what volumes; adjust planting plan based on observed performance — the landscape is a living system, not a fixed installation
- Ecology: Annual ecological assessment of the site; monitor planting establishment and weed invasion; assess habitat corridor value as vegetation matures; observe wildlife response to the Limestone Plains planting palette
- Community: Annual qualitative survey of tenant wellbeing and Commons use; measure Commons and cafe activation against Year 1/3/5 goals; track community governance participation and the food landscape’s role in community life
- Annual project report for shareholders: transparent performance data against commitments made at capital raising
Key Outputs
3-month, 12-month, annual reviews
Seasonal food production log
Annual ecological assessment
Annual shareholder report
The develop-and-hold model makes this investment in feedback permanently worthwhile. The food landscape and the commons improve with each season of learning.
C.3
Long-Term Learning — Capturing the Process
- IDP process journal: after each workshop and at each stage transition, record what was decided, how, and why — what the process revealed that a conventional approach would have missed
- Story of Place documentation: the full Queanbeyan / Limestone Plains inquiry published as a standalone document — a contribution to regional knowledge independently of its design function
- Living Places Institute: produce a Young Street Stage 3 project card and case study for livingplaces.institute documenting the IDP methodology, the permaculture food landscape, and the Commons activation model
- Food landscape documentation: publish the permaculture planting design, the species rationale, the food production outcomes, and the stormwater integration logic as a resource for comparable projects in the ACT/NSW region
- Long-term institutional learning: the board adopts an annual review of the project against the goals set at Workshop 1 — not just performance, but ecological health, community vitality, and food landscape productivity
Key Outputs
IDP process journal
Story of Place published (Veridian)
Food landscape resource published
Annual board review established
Every lesson learned here — what worked, what was harder than expected, what the IDP produced that conventional procurement would have missed — is directly valuable for the long-term stewardship of this place and the communities it serves.
Reference
The Four Subsystems
The IDP organises all technical and ecological work through four interdependent subsystems. No subsystem can be optimised in isolation. Every decision in one creates implications in the others.
Subsystem 01
Site, Habitat
& Food Landscape
& Food Landscape
Limestone Plains native species as the ecological foundation and primary food production system for the Commons cafe. Permaculture zone design across 10,348 m². Stormwater routed through productive planting zones. Ngunnawal Country significance to be confirmed. Food species selected for dual purpose: ecological value plus edible yield.
Integration links: Stormwater feeds food landscape (→ Water). Planting coverage affects urban heat island and passive cooling (→ Energy). Soil health affects ecological performance, food productivity, and water infiltration simultaneously.
Subsystem 02
Water
Icon Water: confirm single commercial connection for single-title multi-unit building. Rainwater harvesting sized to serve both building use and food landscape irrigation — these demands are modelled together, not separately. Stormwater designed to move through productive planting zones before any engineered outlet. Greywater reuse for subsurface irrigation.
Integration links: Cistern size depends on roof area allocation (→ Energy/PV). Water heating links to Energy. Irrigation demand depends directly on planting palette and food zone area (→ Ecology).
Subsystem 03
Energy
NatHERS and BASIX compliance required. Corp SA units have hospitality-intensity demand profiles (24/7 occupancy, higher hot water load) — modelled separately from LTR. Solar PV feasibility across Block G and Block S rooftops. Queanbeyan’s 12–16°C diurnal temperature range makes night purge ventilation a genuine passive cooling strategy.
Integration links: HVAC sizing depends on envelope performance. PV sizing depends on demand profile split between Corp SA and LTR. Natural ventilation depends on openable window configuration — still specifiable within the fixed DA envelope.
Subsystem 04
Materials
Embodied carbon accounting. Regional sourcing potential for concrete, steel, cladding, and landscape materials. Permaculture planting uses locally grown provenance stock of native species where available. Decisions remaining open in DA drawings to be confirmed. Construction waste management plan.
Integration links: Concrete slab thermal mass affects heating and cooling loads (→ Energy). Local sourcing affects supply chain resilience and community economic contribution. Planting provenance is a materials decision with ecological consequences (→ Ecology).
Team Health Check
Signs of Integration
vs Disintegration
The integrative design team is an organism. The same principles that make a building a healthy system — all parts in mutually supportive relationship, feedback loops functioning, no component optimised in isolation — apply to the team that designs it. Return to this table regularly throughout the project.
Signs of Health ✓
Signs of Disintegration ✗
You are regularly asked for input outside your immediate area of expertise
Each discipline works in isolation; cross-disciplinary questions are unwelcome
Others’ work depends on yours; co-solving is the norm
Disciplines deliver in sequence; no one knows how others arrived at their numbers
Working sessions feel generative; creative energy is high
Meetings are procedural; people present completed work rather than exploring together
Proposed cost reductions are assessed for cascade effects before acceptance
Value engineering strips items as isolated line items without cascade assessment
The food landscape, stormwater, and ecology are discussed alongside energy and water
Landscaping is treated as a separate workstream — someone else’s problem
The Commons cafe brief and the planting design are developed in conversation with each other
The cafe is designed without reference to what the landscape can actually produce
The Story of Place informs design discussions; the place is alive in the room
The site is discussed only in terms of area, zoning, and orientation
Immediate Actions
Next Steps
Initiate within the next 30–60 days. Sequenced so that the most foundational work — Story of Place and systems baseline — is underway before the first workshop is convened.
1
Veridian Story of Place — Initiate Now
Veridian begins the Story of Place inquiry for Queanbeyan and the Limestone Plains. This is the single highest-leverage action for the long-term ecological character of the site and the vitality of the Commons. It runs concurrently with all other preparation work.
2
Consultant IDP Brief
Issue a brief to all consultants — architect, structural, M&E, civil, landscape, BASIX/NatHERS — explaining the IDP framework and inviting fee submissions for Stage A.1 preparation work and Workshop 1. Subsequent stage fees negotiated after Workshop 1 alignment.
3
Simple-Box Energy Model
Commission a simple-box energy model for Block G and Block S to establish load distribution by end use. Pay specific attention to the Corp SA demand profile vs LTR — these are fundamentally different occupancy patterns.
4
Icon Water Confirmation
Contact Icon Water directly to confirm the treatment of a single-title multi-unit Class 2 building — specifically whether one commercial connection is available and at what capital and ongoing cost. This is a material input to the water budget and has direct implications for the rainwater harvesting and food landscape irrigation design.
5
Ngunnawal Engagement
Initiate respectful contact with Ngunnawal representatives or the relevant Aboriginal Land Council regarding the cultural significance of the Young Street site and appropriate design, planting, and acknowledgement responses. This is both ethically required and generative for the Story of Place work.
6
Permaculture Native Food Species Scoping
Initiate a preliminary scoping of which Limestone Plains native species have food-producing potential for the Commons cafe. This is the foundation of the A.3 permaculture design work and should begin in parallel with the Story of Place inquiry — they are the same inquiry seen from different angles.
7
Workshop 1 Date
Set a date for Workshop 1 and issue save-the-date notices to all key stakeholders. Allow 6–8 weeks from now to enable Stage A.1 preparation work to be completed. Half-day minimum; full day preferred.
8
IDP Process Journal
Establish the IDP process journal today. Record the current state of the project, decisions made and why, and what the IDP will be asked to contribute. This document is the foundation of long-term institutional learning for this project and for Sun Villages as an organisation.
“The process is not the answer. The process is how we find the answer.”