The Australian
Building a sustainable house on a small suburban block has its challenges, but as this year's HIA GreenSmart Design Concept winner has proven, it's not impossible.
Victoria's Third Ecology Architects have just started construction of two townhouses on a 560sq m Barwon Heads block, which will boast a six-plus star rating.
According to managing director, Mark Sanders, thoughtful design has enabled the firm to pack a host of sustainable features into the limited space.
"There are more challenges on a smaller block as you have to take into account more council regulations, privacy and noise issues, but it's not rocket science,'' he says.
For example, they overcame the problem of where to place recycled water tanks by installing them underground, beneath the driveway.
While roof space isn't great, a simple north-facing roof design has maximised the area available for solar panels.
Overshadowing from neighbouring buildings has limited the amount of direct natural sunlight available, so the architects placed the outdoor living areas along the northern border of the site, ensuring enough space will be left for the sunlight to filter through.
"Passive solar design is a fundamental aspect, making use of winter sun, and shading to exclude summer sun,'' says Mr Sanders.
"We've designed the internal environment to retain that heat. For example, we've got a concrete floor slab which incorporates recycled content that stores and re-radiates the heat into the evening.
"It's really well insulated, with high performance double glazing, and it provides good cross-flow ventilation in summer.''
Using decking on the upstairs landing instead of solid flooring is another clever design feature, as it enables light to pass through to the room beneath.
"It's also quite an effective feature when the dappled sunlight finds its way through the decking,'' Mr Sanders says.
In an industry littered with McMansions, Third Ecology have also proven that bigger isn't always better: "These small dwellings present an important sustainability message.'' says Mr Sanders. "We need to start questioning how big our houses need to be, and be realistic about what we need a house to do-these houses don't have theatre rooms.
"For most homes in the Barwon Heads area, the average occupancy is 2.5 people, and the nature of the demographic is an aging population, so smaller houses should be higher on the agenda.
"Smaller houses use less materials, and also require less heating. They make better use of infrastructure, so we're not continually having to to perpetuate the sprawl and buy up farmland.''
Smart planning has made the most of the available space in the Barwon Heads project, with none wasted on unnecessary areas such as hallways.
The entry hall, for example, incorporates a discrete laundry cupboard. In the compact kitchen, more drawers have been used to ensure all storage space is easily accessible.
One of the three bedrooms in each of the houses has been placed on the ground floor, enabling it to double as a home office, a more environmentally-friendly alternative than having to drive back and forth between home and office.
What's more, a majority of materials which will be used in the project will be recycled. Where the use of recycled timber is not appropriate, sustainable, non-chemically treated timber will be sourced.
The environmentally-friendly features continue outside, with native plants used in the place of grass, eliminating the fuel which would otherwise be poured into lawn mowers.
"If every house could be like these projects, you could build 10, 15 or 20 using the same amount of electricity, water and gas that would be used in the average house,'' Mr Sanders says.
Since opening five years ago, Third Ecology has seen a growing level of public interest in its sustainable designs.
"Even five years ago, it was still a bit of a niche area,'' Mr Sanders says. "Now, climate change and what we can do about it is dinner table talk.''