Ten Star House Design Winners discuss their award winning design
During lunch on the Sustainable House Tour award winning designers Lifehouse will discuss their award winning 10 Star house design.
Local designers Lifehouse Design, along with architects Crosby Architects, and energy rater Lewin Consulting, have won an inaugural design competition – the Building Designers Association of Victoria’s (BDAV) ‘10 Star Challenge’.
At the BDAV’s 2011 Building Design Awards their entry was selected from 23 entries in the BDAV Inaugural 10 Star Challenge, in which entrants were asked to design a three-bedroom 10 Star energy-rated house on a hypothetical urban site in Melbourne.
The collaboration between Lifehouse Design, Crosby Architects and Lewin Consulting developed from a shared vision to explore less energy-intensive building methods and products, and more socially conscious, pleasing built environments.Their concept, called the ‘Flip_Flop House’, is designed to be flexible so it can adapt to the changing needs of occupants as their living patterns change – the east and west ‘wings’ can ‘flip-flop’ in use over time to sustain the building well into the future. The design includes a modular portal frame structure, reverse brick walls, maximum insulation, triple glazing and optimization of passive-solar design principles.Achieving 10 Stars indicates that it will require no energy to heat or cool throughout the year. With the installation of a solar power system this would flip the energy bill upside down.
“This is a great initiative by the BDAV to promote members’ expertise in sustainable design responses, raise awareness that good design reduces greenhouse emissions and household bills, and place BDAV members at the forefront of environmentally sustainable design. The number and quality of the entrants was very high, so we feel very honoured to have won.”
Paul Hassall from Lifehouse Design
