The building and construction industry is one of the largest industry sectors worldwide and in Australia, it equates to eight percent of our national GDP. However, the building industry has a significant impact on the environment. It is globally one of the largest consumers of natural resources and energy, one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and one of the major producers of waste.

The construction industry contributes around 40% of global carbon emissions. Building services alone account for approximately 33% of the total embodied carbon of a typical office building¹. Steel ductwork alone contributes 60% of the embodied carbon of mechanical services. 

Nearly every office building on the planet uses steel ducts, and requires lagging for thermal insulation. These are both carbon-intensive.

BVN believes that through digitisation, new materials, and advanced manufacturing, radical transformation of how we service our existing buildings is possible.

In 1928, air conditioning systems revolutionised the way we occupy buildings. The century since has seen the development and evolution of many building technologies, but little attention has been paid to how we deliver air onto commercial floorplates.

Despite the inherent inefficiencies of both the system and the product, steel ductwork technology has remained essentially unchanged for 92 years.

Systems Reef (patent pending) is a radical approach to how we deliver air in buildings – a new air distribution system designed to replace traditional steel tertiary air distribution systems in applications without suspended ceilings. It is designed to connect to standard VAV terminals or similar and combines the functionality of ductwork and diffuser into one cohesive product.

Consisting of 3D printed components and standardised connections, seals, and fixings, Systems Reef allows for a simple click and connect approach 

By employing standardised connections, seals, and fixings, it is projected that SR2 reduces on-site labour by greater than 50%.

Systems Reef is 3D printed using recycled PET-G plastic, a lightweight circular material sourced from waste products. The circular nature of PET-G allows components to be easily disassembled, crushed, re-extruded, and fed back into the material supply chain to create new products.

These advancements coupled with the use of waste plastic reduces embodied carbon of the system by 90%² when compared to conventional steel ductwork.

Adaptable and flexible, Systems Reef utilises automated layout and sizing algorithms to optimise the system, creating aerodynamic parts which reduces the average cross-sectional area by 75%, length by 33%, and operational energy by a projected minimum 10%. This approach minimises time spent in design and re-design.

Drawing from over 20 years of experience in Workplace design, BVN has noted the challenges of working with existing services when creating new designs for spaces in existing buildings.

In 2016 BVN, embarked on a multi-project robotics research investigation into how the servicing of Workplace in existing buildings might evolve in response to the evolving social, technological and environmental needs of the 21st century.

Having tackled the provision of data and lighting of Systems Reef in 2019, BVN assembled a team in collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney to investigate the provision of air in contemporary workplace. The team worked with industry partners Arup and The Footprint Company and consulted with a wide range of industry stakeholders to identify opportunities for a product driven change in the market.

Systems Reef is the result of this research and was launched in June 2021 as part of The Fifth Estate’s Printed City event – proudly hosted by BVN.

Systems Reef is currently under development with the intent of commercialisation, and the team is actively seeking partnerships to enable this product to realise it’s potential to contribute to the transformation of our built environment.

The SR2 team is actively looking to form partnerships with the intent of commercialising our product.

We are looking for:

• Early access clients who are interested in using SR2 in their space
• Industry partnerships to assist in the development and commercialisation of SR2
• Interested individuals interested in investment opportunities in SR2

For more information, and to get in touch, please feel free to connect via our website.

Visit SR2 Website