No more energy bills – how would you like that?
This contemporary family home is designed to be energy positive, i.e. over the course of a year it generates more energy than it would use. Building an energy positive house means you can start billing your energy supplier, rather than the other way around! Isn’t that fantastic?

So how does that work?
Mostly good design based on passive solar principles, and some clever tricks added into the mix. The foundations are simple :
(1) Create a comfortable living environment, that uses little or no energy to heat or cool, and
(2) Create energy to offset the little bit that you are using, or for positive gearing.
In this house, living spaces and bedrooms are facing north, thereby using free and everlasting solar heat to make it nice and cosy. A services and amenities ‘block’ along the south side acts as thermal buffer. Almost following modernist traditions, these two distinct functions (living and services) create the architectural form.

The house is now available as a package home - please contact us for further information. You can also visit our website www.MelbourneDesignStudios.com.au

With this house, we set out to exceed the requirements of the NatHERS 10 Star. The aim was to create an energy-positive friendly family home, guided by European PassivHaus standards. As Certified Passivhaus Designers and accredited Thermal Performance Assessors, it seemed logic to try and get the best out of both these worlds.

Our approach to this project is simple : build smaller – build better. Compact, space efficient design and ideal orientation mean that we can build to a higher specification for the same dollar amount. Less is more, and clever layout warrants that you are not missing out on space. A high performance building envelope, efficient conditioning systems and renewable energy technologies combine to create the energy neutral home, ergo : No utility bills for the occupants of the house.

Balancing social, economic and environmental sustainability has been the driver for the modern design. Combined with the contemporary form and simple material palette, this results in a beautiful and truly sustainable home.

Large north-facing windows, capturing light and shadows, and warming us on a cold winter’s day. Living spaces and bedrooms harness heat from the sun in winter and exclude it in summer. Thermal mass and insulation, together with adjustable sunshading and cross-ventilation, help maintain a comfortable interior. A raingarden on the roof filters stormwater runoff. Active ESD systems like Solar Hot Water, GeoThermal and Photovoltaics take the house from energy neutral to energy positive.

Winner Melbourne Design Awards 2012 + Winner of the BDAV’s “10 Star Challenge” competition !

Published in ‘Winning Design’ (2012), ’Sanctuary’ (08/2012),’Beyond Zero Emissions on 3CR’ (radio show, 09/2012), ‘Melbourne’s Best Architecture Named’ on designbuildsource.com.au, ‘green’ magazine online, Sanctuary Newsletter (08/2012), ‘Australian Design Review’ (online, 10/2012), bdav website, Melbourne Design Awards website, BPN online