Clever passive-design principles make homes more pleasant to live in and more economical to run year round.
Packed with passive-design features, My Ideal House is primed to deliver comfort all year round.
She’s designed a home for all seasons but Sydney architect Madeleine Blanchfield had summer’s heat top of mind when she drew up her winning entry to H&G’s
My Ideal House design competition.
Incorporated into this family home, soon be built at Crest by Mirvac in Sydney’s south-west, is a raft of passivedesign features that work together to ensure that the house always feels comfortable without too much reliance on mechanical cooling.
“When you consider that about 40 per cent of all household energy goes towards heating and cooling the home you quickly grasp the value of passive design,” says Michael Roberts, director of planning and environment for the Housing Industry Association. “Good design lightens your energy consumption and lifts your home’s liveability in the process.”
Fundamental to Madeleine’s design are its two highly adaptable ‘modules’,
a private two-storey block at the front and a single-level glass pavilion that hosts the living zones and extends out into the garden. It’s through this flexible layout that the foundations for a cool home have been laid.
“North-facing orientation is the key to a home that’s cool in summer and warm in winter,” says Andrew La, national housing design director for Mirvac. “Madeleine’s design can be adjusted to face north on any block.”
With the orientation correct, other aspects of passive cooling fall into place. The large expanses of glass, for example, are protected by shading and eaves precisely calculated to block the high summer sun. The glass itself has been carefully selected for its capacity to curb heat transfer. “The highperformance glass specified in Madeleine’s concept will very effectively control the amount of conducted heat and radiant heat entering the home,” says Lachlan Austin, general manager of market strategy and growth at Viridian. “The thermal performance of these windows is akin to a wall.”
The multiple windows also enable another aspect of passive cooling: cross ventilation. “Air needs to be drawn through a house, so it’s important that windows are placed on corresponding sides of the building,” says Roberts.
Travelling over lawn, plants and ponds cools the air by a few degrees, so it’s preferable to have it do so before it reaches the house. “Positioning trees thoughtfully and choosing plants over paved surfaces will make a big difference,” says Madeleine.
The thermal mass of the building products also plays a major role in passive cooling, as does insulation and the zoning of the living and sleeping areas of the house, says La. “A good design like Madeleine’s takes all these elements into account and the result is a home that’s good for the environment and the hip pocket.”