MELBOURNE: Greenest House, by Massimo Loche of Ausplan Design Group, has won the Building Design Award for Environmentally Sustainable Design, sponsored by Weathertex, at the 2021 Design Matters National Building Design Awards, which this year saw entries come in from Victoria, NSW, ACT, SA, Tasmania and Queensland.
MC Catriona Rowntree announced the worthy winner in a live-streamed virtual awards event broadcast to DMN Members, their guests, VIPs and major sponsors, on Thursday 28 October.
Design Matters National CEO Peta Anderson said Greenest House, located at 6 Lanning Street, Baranduda, in north-eastern Victoria, was a deserving recipient of this important accolade.
“The judges loved the clean, fresh detailing of the Greenest House and commended the 8-star home’s design for being compact, not looking out of place from the streetscape, and setting the bar high,” Ms Anderson said.
Jason O'Hagan, Managing Director of Weathertex, the sponsor of the Environmentally Sustainable Design Award, said Greenest House was a worthy winner of the Award because of similar core values to Weathertex. Weathertex is an Australian family owned cladding manufacturer committed in playing a role in improving the sustainability of Australian building materials and practices. All Weathertex weatherboard and architectural panels are made 100%natural with no toxic chemicals – no glues, binders, formaldehydes or silica.
"Our Natural range was the first manufactured product in the world to receive Global GreenTag Platinum Certification. Through an independent evaluation of our lifecycle assessment, environmental and health impact over the life of our products as well as eco toxicity, Weathertex was able to meet the requirements set by the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star program and achieve maximum rating points for wall cladding and panels," Mr O'Hagan said.
DMN Member Massimo Loche was elated to have Greenest House honoured with the Building Design Award for Environmentally Sustainable Design (Vic.).
“Sustainable home construction is thought by many to be costly and difficult to build. We wanted to challenge that mindset by creating a home that not only is captivating to look at, but also cost-effective to build, has low running costs, is intelligent and future-proof, and prioritises liveability over impractical aesthetics. We wanted to give the client a home that was more of a haven, a place where their family could thrive; not just a trophy home,” Mr Loche said.
“The client had experienced a poorly-designed luxury home and wanted to avoid making the same mistake twice, sowe established a goal of a zero carbon, biophilic home challenging the current standard of sustainability. The design had to be sustainable and high-performance; cost effective; Beyond Net Zero; totally powered by renewable energy; EV- & VPP-ready; with healthy, connected and adaptable spaces that prioritised liveability over aesthetics,” he said.
“We delivered this by having a strategic plan which met the client’s needs before the drafting phase began, followed by collaboration between building designer, TPA and a quality builder - Gilchrist Homes. The design, which set the foundation for the client’s goals, started with careful block selection; passive solar design based on the proposed site; a minimum 7.5 star thermal comfort rating; and a roof designed to provide maximum efficiency for a photovoltaic system,” Mr Loche said.