Sustainable House Day, Currumbin 1, QLD

'Yagoi 100'

‘Yagoi 100’ is a house designed to incorporate the best of the currently available environmentally friendly design principles and products. It contains over 100 features that make it a showcase and living working model of sustainable construction. It attempts to achieve more Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) than any of its predecessors.

New Build:   Purpose built & designed by Design Forum Architects. Completed June 09.

Unique Sustainable Elements featured in this home

Ventilation
The house contains a living and bedroom pavilion separated by a unique and special covered breezeway that ensure the house will remain cool in the hot Queensland summer.

Water Harvesting Systems
The house captures over 45,000 litres of water in rain water tanks and this meets all potable water requirements. A centralised wastewater treatment system treats all grey and black water in the estate and returns it for use as irrigation on plants and for use in all toilets.

Special Garden Features
The garden contains only native species and food producing species, with a vegetable garden to provide local organic produce.

Materials
A range of recycled materials were used throughout the construction, including old barn floorboards, bridge posts and even old tram tracks used instead of new steel i-beams. Furthermore, it contains virtually none of the most environmentally undesirable materials, such as PVC or Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), as extreme care was taken with all the sealants and finishes.
Further solutions to sustainability challenges include the extensive use of low wattage fluorescent and LED lights, along with carefully selected energy efficient appliances. For hot water, the house uses an evacuated tube solar hot water system, coupled with an instantaneous gas hot water heater. Although one internal gas heater has been installed it is almost never needed, thanks to the superior energy performance of the building itself, enhanced by the generous insulation of floors, roofs and walls.

Walls
A mixture of recycled besser blocks with cladding, axon boards, fibre cement sheeting and sheet sheeting. HYNE T2 MGP12 environmentally friendly termite resistant plantation pine was used for the frames and trusses.

Roof
Light coloured Colour Bond, R 3.5+ insulation, sisulation. Sunights in bathrooms.

Floor
Pole home with a suspended concrete slab in an ochre colour (polished and no sealant required). Recycled barn timber floor. Salvaged and bamboo decking.

Windows
High transmission, Low emissivity (low-e) glazing.

Power Generation
1kW Kyocera System

Heating & Cooling
No Air-conditioners required. Rinnai 6 Star LPG Gas heater used on rare occasions.

Water Heating
Evacuated Tube Solar – with instantaneous gas back up

Energy Efficiency Rating
7.2 Stars (Accurate)

Statistics
Area:  303 m2 (including decks)
Block size:  1,147m2    
GFA: 303m2  (3br + Study.  3 bathrooms)       
Total time to Build: 9 months

More information
Visit the website on the house:  www.yagoi.org