An apartment complex in Sydney’s inner-west has become the first public housing estate in Australia to achieve a five-star energy efficiency rating.
The 88 apartments have been designed with natural ventilation, recycled water and solar hot water and power.
The estate at Lilyfield also has a large communal courtyard where residents are encouraged to grow their own vegetables.
Builders are putting the finishing touches on the complex before residents begin moving in this month.
Project manager Peter Le May says the design is groundbreaking.
“I’d have to say this is a fairly new model, a fairly adventurous model,” he said.
“I think the department, three or four years ago, looked at how they could innovate and create a new standard for public housing.
“As you can see we’re creating a place for living, a place that gives people a sense of identity and dignity.”
Energy efficiency experts say one of the cheapest ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions is to design better buildings.
The project cost almost $30 million and includes the apartments that come with either one, two or three bedrooms. Nine have been built to accommodate people with disabilities.
Inside, the apartments are small, but light and airy.
“All of the units have a fairly open aspect in the kitchen, so as you can see both your dining and your living area to give that sense of space,” Mr Le May said.
“You can see that there’s a fairly full glass wall on one end and a full glass wall on the other, all of that’s openable with screens. We’ve got a fan for air circulation, so there’s good cross ventilation.”
He says there is no air-conditioning, but the apartments are designed to a high thermal standard.
“The thermal performance by comparison - in terms of insulation values, retaining warm air in winter and cool air in summer - is a good 60 per cent above a standard residence,” he said.
Loo from a view
Mr Le May says the toilets use water that has been collected from the roof.
“All of the roof water gets reused for the toilets and for washing and for irrigation, and we’re collecting that in massive tanks underneath the building,” he said.
“There’s 120,000 litres of water storage under the building and that gets recirculated through a dual-metre system and an interconnected pipe system. If it runs out of water it switches over to the public water supply.”
It is the first time architect Gustavo Thiermann had designed public housing.
He says he tried to create a comfortable space for the residents.
“How far you can push a building by not doing anything overly expensive?” he said.
“It’s different to the project home environment where you’ve got single houses sitting in the middle of a block.
“By sharing walls you save, not only in the material, but also from a thermal loss and thermal gain in winter and summer. So there’s a lot of advantages.
“Then we’ve got glazing, literally to two sides, normally north and south and on the other blocks we’ve got east and west.
“You’ve got to deal also with the solar conditions and that’s the reason we designed roof overhangs, we designed shutters, we designed balconies. All of those things are trying to do more than just one thing at the same time.”
Back to the future
A block of 1950s brown brick units was pulled down to build the new development.
NSW Department of Housing director-general Mike Allen says the department is moving away from the high-density, high-rise blocks of the recent past.
“Home, for all of us, is the platform from which we lead the rest of our lives,” he said.
“Being able to provide stable, affordable accommodation with a high level of amenity and reduced cost, as a result of some of the environmental measures we’re putting in place, is really important to all of us.”
Social housing advocates welcome the new design but say many more developments like this are needed to meet the current shortfall.
The National Housing Supply Council says there is a shortfall of 500,000 dwellings available for low-income households across Australia.
