The award-winning property, Awa Moana, built in 2008, was designed to the highest possible level of sustainability, using as many off-the-shelf and recycled products and materials as possible, within a strict budget.
In fact, twin three-bedroom townhouses were built on the single block — it's the back one that's on the market — to promote the idea of sustainable living through higher-density living.
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"I wanted something as green as it could be without going over the top," says owner Jan Macpherson, a lawyer and past vice-president of Greening Australia (Victoria).The project's architect, Mark Sanders from Geelong-based Third Ecology architects, incorporated the north-oriented tilt into his design primarily to keep out the blistering summer sun, while letting in the most winter sun, which sits lower in the sky.
This permitted him to use large spans of glass for the open-plan living-dining area, which allowed a lot of natural light in and the indoors to open to a deck.
Ms Macpherson explains that she was keen to avoid the use of any airconditioning or heating (although there is a gas heater, largely for ambience, in the living room) to cool or warm the dwelling.
Instead, she wanted a passive solar design integrating sustainability measures and practices to do the job.
And there is a swag of them.
Windows have been used sparingly and strategically throughout, mainly to throw light where it is most needed and cross-ventilate to cool the interior.
The glass is double-glazed with a low emissivity coating and argon gas-filled to reduce heat loss. A flexible folding-arm awning system, with wind and sun sensors, provides extra sun control.
The recycled polished concrete floor works as a thermal mass, storing heat from the incoming winter sun and re-radiating it. A deck-like walkway on the first floor allows warm air from downstairs to freely circulate, helped by a ceiling fan.
In addition, walls and ceilings have been insulated to above-normal levels (R3.2 and R5.2) and superior draft sealing employed to hermetically seal the house.
"In winter, the house never drops below about 18 degrees or grows hotter than about 23 degrees in summer," Ms Macpherson says. "On Black Saturday, the day of the [2009] bushfires, it was 43 degrees outside and 25 inside. That's a big tick for its green design."
With an energy rating well above six stars, Awa Moana (Maori for river and sea respectively) won the 2008 HIA GreenSmart Design Concept Award and best sustainable design in this year's Abode House of the Year awards.
High-efficiency appliances also feature: from natural gas for hot water to three and four-star fittings and taps. Apart from the recycled concrete floor, renewable and recycled timbers are used for the stairs, flooring upstairs and deck. An ecoMeter monitors in real time how much electricity, gas and water is being consumed.
Rainwater is stored in six underground tanks holding 13,500 litres and is twice filtered and sterilised before drinking. If the level drops below 10 per cent, the system switches to the mains supply.
Outdoors, indigenous plants keep water use to a minimum and attract local fauna. And, while power in the front house is already linked to the grid, the house for sale isn't, although it is wired so it can be.
"The purchaser is likely to be someone with a green conscience," Ms Macpherson says.
Source: The Age
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