Climate, Carbon, Architecture
Join us at Climate, Carbon, Architecture — What Was the Question? What if Buildings Needed Less to Offer More Comfort? - the second event of the Inside | Practice, guest lecture Series by the Department of Architecture, Monash University.
People care about comfort, not energy or carbon. Yet buildings are still too often designed around energy supply rather than energy demand. By rethinking comfort, autonomy, and sufficiency, buildings can cut energy use by more than 50% while delivering high thermal comfort, good air quality, and spatial quality.
This shift is crucial for climate action: reducing demand is the most reliable path to lowering operational emissions and achieving Net Zero, especially in dense urban contexts where on-site renewables are limited. It also reduces the scale of technical systems required, which helps to lower embodied carbon. Architects play a decisive role by rethinking existing structures, preserving the carbon already built, and by advancing low-carbon construction methods in new projects.
The presentation will explore how innovative design can deliver high comfort with low embodied and operational carbon, moving toward Net Zero energy in tropical climates, illustrated by recent Transsolar projects in Singapore, the region, and the Atlassian high-rise in Sydney.
Event Schedule
- Doors open: 6:00 pm
- Talk starts: 6:30 pm sharp
- Q&A: 6:55 pm
- Open floor for questions: 7:15 pm
- Talk concludes / Drinks & networking: 7:30 pm
- Event ends: 8:00 pm
Speaker
Wolfgang Kessling
Transsolar KlimaEngineering: Partner
Wolfgang Kessling holds a doctorate in physics and is a partner at Transsolar Energietechnik in Germany. He is an expert in climate-responsive building design and adaptive comfort concepts, with a focus on developing innovative comfort strategies for indoor, mid-door, and outdoor spaces. He lectures regularly at universities and international conferences on sustainable design, thermal comfort, and net zero energy projects. For the academic years 2024–2026, he is joining the Department of Architecture at NUS, teaching tropical Climate Engineering.
In Asia, Wolfgang contributed to the first zero-energy office building in Malaysia, the BRAC University campus in Dhaka, and the climate and energy concept for the cooled conservatories at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. His environmental concepts for the School of Design Buildings 4 and 1&3 at NUS have become widely recognized as leading examples of tropical, high-comfort, net-positive energy design. For the Singapore Pavilion at World Expo 2021 in Dubai, his team created the net zero water and energy concept. In 2021, the low-carbon strategy for the Atlassian high-rise in Sydney, developed under his leadership, received the Holcim Award Bronze for the Asia Pacific region.
Inside | Practice is the guest lecture series of the Department of Architecture at Monash University. The series brings together emerging and established practitioners, alternative studios, and allied professionals to share diverse approaches to architectural practice today. Hosted inside Melbourne’s leading design studios, each session cultivates open discussions about how architecture is evolving—across scales, disciplines, and modes of making—to shape more equitable, sustainable, and imaginative futures.
Event Details
- Date:
- 25 November 2025 at 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
- Venue:
- Jackson Clements Burrows Architects (JCB) 345 Swan St
- Open to:
- Registration required
- Categories:
- Architecture; Industry / Alumni
Description
Join us at Climate, Carbon, Architecture — What Was the Question? What if Buildings Needed Less to Offer More Comfort? - the second event of the Inside | Practice, guest lecture Series by the Department of Architecture, Monash University.
People care about comfort, not energy or carbon. Yet buildings are still too often designed around energy supply rather than energy demand. By rethinking comfort, autonomy, and sufficiency, buildings can cut energy use by more than 50% while delivering high thermal comfort, good air quality, and spatial quality.
This shift is crucial for climate action: reducing demand is the most reliable path to lowering operational emissions and achieving Net Zero, especially in dense urban contexts where on-site renewables are limited. It also reduces the scale of technical systems required, which helps to lower embodied carbon. Architects play a decisive role by rethinking existing structures, preserving the carbon already built, and by advancing low-carbon construction methods in new projects.
The presentation will explore how innovative design can deliver high comfort with low embodied and operational carbon, moving toward Net Zero energy in tropical climates, illustrated by recent Transsolar projects in Singapore, the region, and the Atlassian high-rise in Sydney.
Event Schedule
- Doors open: 6:00 pm
- Talk starts: 6:30 pm sharp
- Q&A: 6:55 pm
- Open floor for questions: 7:15 pm
- Talk concludes / Drinks & networking: 7:30 pm
- Event ends: 8:00 pm
Speaker
Wolfgang Kessling
Transsolar KlimaEngineering: Partner
Wolfgang Kessling holds a doctorate in physics and is a partner at Transsolar Energietechnik in Germany. He is an expert in climate-responsive building design and adaptive comfort concepts, with a focus on developing innovative comfort strategies for indoor, mid-door, and outdoor spaces. He lectures regularly at universities and international conferences on sustainable design, thermal comfort, and net zero energy projects. For the academic years 2024–2026, he is joining the Department of Architecture at NUS, teaching tropical Climate Engineering.
In Asia, Wolfgang contributed to the first zero-energy office building in Malaysia, the BRAC University campus in Dhaka, and the climate and energy concept for the cooled conservatories at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. His environmental concepts for the School of Design Buildings 4 and 1&3 at NUS have become widely recognized as leading examples of tropical, high-comfort, net-positive energy design. For the Singapore Pavilion at World Expo 2021 in Dubai, his team created the net zero water and energy concept. In 2021, the low-carbon strategy for the Atlassian high-rise in Sydney, developed under his leadership, received the Holcim Award Bronze for the Asia Pacific region.
Inside | Practice is the guest lecture series of the Department of Architecture at Monash University. The series brings together emerging and established practitioners, alternative studios, and allied professionals to share diverse approaches to architectural practice today. Hosted inside Melbourne’s leading design studios, each session cultivates open discussions about how architecture is evolving—across scales, disciplines, and modes of making—to shape more equitable, sustainable, and imaginative futures.