Eco Challenge
"The Eco-Challenge is all about promoting the sustainable
building industry whilst challenging home owners to build the
most sustainable home they can afford.
The development is situated in Strickland Street, Rose Bay
New South Wales."
The challenge was to create a truly sustainable home that
appropriately addresses the site and brief, and delivers lessons to
assist the wide community of home designers and builders in
delivering sustainable outcomes. This was one of four houses that
were developed together with this aim in mind.
The modest site with north to the street required careful design
to enable solar access to the living areas of the home, while
ensuring connections with the back garden.
The key idea was to locate the front areas of the house and
those to the rear on either side of a beautiful, private courtyard.
This ensures as many parts of the house as possible can benefit
from good solar access, and can easily be connected to the exterior
areas of the site. Adjustable shading over and a green wall to the
west of the courtyard ensures the environment, privacy and sun is
easily managed throughout the year.
These living and bedroom areas are extremely well insulated, and
able to access appropriate levels of natural light and ventilation
through high qualitywindows and doors.
The service areas and hallway form a spine to the west,
conveniently located together and in a separate "unconditioned"
space.
Katherine Madden
Caroline Pidcock
Kitty Nghiem
Alanna King
Developer:
Cameron Rosen
Structural Engineer: Alba Associate Engineers
Hydraulic Engineer: Northern Beaches Pty Ltd
Landscape Architect: Locus Landscape Design
Thermal modeling: Graham Hunt
Simple and intuitive methods for operating the house
Collaborative team approach
Considerate building approaches
Provision of home office facilities
Location of house near local facilities
Food composting facilities
Convenient location of storage space for recycling
Building designed to be adaptable and accessible
Convenient storage for bicycles to encourage use
Car parking area able to be easily converted for other uses
Permaculture garden designed to optimise garden layout for food
production
Good thermal performance of house
Good natural light and ventilation
Good views to the outside
Tiled floors through all living rooms
Attention to planning and detailing to manage acoustics
Low VOC paints
Low VOC boards for joinery
Good thermal performance to result in minimal heating and
cooling - 8 Star NatHERS
Appropriate levels of insulation and thermal mass
Ability to zone areas of the house
Ceiling fans to bedrooms
Well designed natural ventilation throughout house
Good natural light throughout house
Low energy lighting using fluorescents and LEDS
Energy efficient appliances used throughout
Solar hot water heating
Swimming pool systems designed for minimal energy use
Energy efficient systems selected for cooking
3 kW photo voltaics for energy generation
Convenient, dedicated, sunny area for drying clothes
House wired for smart switching so unused appliances and lights
can be easily turned off
High performance water saving fixtures and appliances
Low water garden
3 x 2,200 litre water tanks located behind the screen in the
central courtyard, connected to toilets, washing machine and
landscape
Grey water system connected to orchard in front garden
Materials selected with thought given to reducing their impacts
over their life
House designed with modular and standard sizes in mind to reduce
waste
House designed to easily adapt to changing family lifestyles
Recycled timber for courtyard structure
Size of project purposefully kept to the smallest possible
Built-on area kept to a minimum
Land used for building improved by project
Garden design to enhance local ecosystems and encourage local
flora and fauna
Garden design inherent to house design
Inclusion of food plants to help provide for family
Connection of living areas to garden to assist in better
care
External lighting designed to be appropriate for the site without
extending beyond