The home needed to be comfortable to live in while also keeping costs low and having beautiful views of the distant hills.
South west of Brisbane, with a border on the mighty Brisbane river, Sherwood has a major shopping centre, university, airport and hospital within close proximity.
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The suburb also features the heritage-listed Sherwood Arboretum, which this home complements perfectly.
The brief from the client to Brisbane's leading lifestyle design architectural firm Dion Seminara Architecture, was for an environmentally sustainable and passive new home with some very specific goals.
These goals included wanting to generate more energy for the house than it consumes, thus reducing the family's carbon footprint.
Secondly, to have an easy-to-use garage with an undercover entrance to the house.
Finally, the home needed to be comfortable to live in, while also keeping costs low and having beautiful views of the distant hills.
As the design firm is committed to creating custom lifestyle designs, that are tailored to suit clients' needs, this meant creating a home from the ground up using sustainable design choices.
These included aspects such as airflow, solar panelling and perfectly laid out rooms for better mobility.
With interior and landscape design also offered under the architectural firm's roof, their combined expertise enabled the project to develop with a consciousness about the home's environmental effect.
Just as importantly it meant the project would be financially sustainable keeping the client's budget in mind.
All of this was to be kept in mind while also making sure the house was aesthetically pleasing to the client, nestled in a tropical landscape screened from neighbours on a 771 square metre lot.
This new single level custom home built in 2020, was to use sustainable design from top to bottom, economically, socially, and environmentally.
Because of this, design choices were made with environmental impact of the land in mind.
What are the sustainability features?
High R-value walls and ceiling insulation products were installed to achieve exceptional energy-efficient performance.
Local climate and budget are two factors which help determine what insulation products are best for a home.
To further reduce heat conduction the appropriate solar paneling was used as well as additional double-height ceiling voids and high-level windows.
This facilitated cross ventilation and the venturi effect alongside specific U-value glazed doors and windows to reduce excessive heat gain.
The venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section (or choke) of a pipe, and is named after its discoverer Giovanni Battista Venturi.
Additionally, Colourbond Coolmax roofing was used to maintain high solar reflection and reduce the heat load of the home, hence reducing the air-conditioning cooling requirements.
This resulted in the project reaching an astounding 8.7 Energy Star Rating which was given by National Homes.
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- Photographs by Deon Seminara Architecture
- Published with BowerBirdhttps://www.bowerbird.io/