Sustainability Declaration

The supply of eco-friendly developments is blooming, writes Jane Burton Taylor from Domain.

The demand for green apartments is growing and looks set to rocket. Government initiatives are fueling the trend but so too are people who have already experienced living in sustainable houses.

“All the things that are green make a better building,” says architect Tone Wheeler. “Passive thermal design is sold as saving energy; it should be sold because it is nice to have sun in the home.”

Developers are starting to design for comfort and sustainability and are encouraged by buyers who are either directly seeking it or are willing to pay more for it.

“The landscape is changing,” says the chief executive of the Green Building Council of Australia, Romilly Madew.

“The building code is strengthening its energy-efficiency requirements and the federal government has just introduced a mandatory disclosure for office buildings’ energy and we suspect it is only a short time before such measurements apply to apartments.”

This will require developers to present an energy-efficient certificate to prove their buildings are environmentally friendly when sold or leased.

Madew says commercial buildings were the first to go green, followed by retail and residential – a hallmark of the latter was the Green Building Council’s introduction of a green star rating for residential buildings in 2007.

This is a purely voluntary system for developers and gives buyers a guarantee of a building’s environmental credentials.

The market for green apartments was also confirmed in a PRDnationwide survey in May that found 59 per cent of buyers would pay more for an environmentally friendly home.

Evergreen living

When mother and daughter Ruth Dossor and Kristen Lock decided to develop a small land holding near their house in Lane Cove, they were determined to make it sustainable.

“We wanted to leave the site better than it was. It was good manners, really,” Lock says.

They created Evergreen Living and hired James Cooper of Sanctum Design. Cooper then designed a development of six strata-titled townhouses called Jarrah. It is surrounded by gardens and established trees and is both high quality and green.

“I had a green passion,” Lock says. “Mum had the quality passion.”

The townhouses, which all have large north-facing back living spaces, are a combination of masonry and lightweight construction.

They have a heavy thermal mass foundation (60 per cent recycled concrete that soaks up the sun during the day and emits warmth at night) and party walls and double-glazed glass, ensuring they stay warm in winter and cool in summer.

In addition, Jarrah’s green points include stack and cross-ventilation; solar hot water and photovoltaic cells; rainwater tanks piped to laundry, toilet and garden; recycled timber; non-toxic glues and finishes; compost bins for each house; a community herb garden; and recycled bricks in driveways.

Antias

Lend Lease, whose headquarters in Millers Point in 2003 was the state’s first commercial building to achieve a five-star green rating, is now constructing an apartment block with the same rating in Sydney. At Antias in Pyrmont, Lend Lease has used a broad definition of sustainable.

“When we approach our buildings now, we look at the whole campus,” says the executive director of Vivas Lend Lease, Hugh Martin. “We are trying to improve the situation, not just the product itself; we look at what we can do in our development to create a precinct.”

Antias has a range of one- to three- bedroom apartments and is walking distance from shops and transport.

Designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, the building has naturally ventilated lobbies; non-toxic finishes and materials to improve internal air quality; solar panels providing common area electricity; rainwater tanks linked to toilets; and bicycle storage with access to the waterfront cycle ways.

“We have organized the building to maximize its connection with the outside world,” architect Tim Greer says.

For example, stairwells in the building are open to natural light and air and instead of balconies, each apartment has a deep loggia that extends usable space and screens the sun.

As another green initiative, the building has a layered facade. The building is masonry clad in lightweight rusted steel. When the sun hits, heat is dissipated in the gap between the two layers. In winter, the skin helps retain warmth.

“Good design is the most profound way to conserve energy,” Greer says. “If you can get solar access, economy of structure and cross-ventilation, it is good design and it is green as well.”

Coda

Architect Frank Stanisic has championed sustainable apartments for a decade and Coda in Rosebery brings all this green expertise into play. Each of the 44 apartments is two storeys and runs from one side of the building to the other.

This idea of “two-storey crossover apartments” began with Le Corbusier in his Unite d’habitation in Marseille in the early 1950s.

At Coda, it gives the units user-friendly spaces, through-ventilation and double-height, north-facing winter gardens, with an adjustable outer skin of shutters.

The units range from one to three bedrooms and vary in configuration, adapting to the curve of the building. Corridors leading to the apartments are open to the elements and, on the top floor, units have a breezeway running right through them.

Stanisic says residents have taken the green aspects of the building to heart. They even import a special low-fat, high-growth food for the goldfish that live in the pond formed by water recycled from the building.

“This is what a green building is,” Stanisic says. “It is a building which uses the principles of science to reduce energy consumption … It is a building which breathes.”

Aria

The principal architect at Environa Studio, Wheeler is passionate about sustainable design and built his practice around it. His latest project is Aria in Mona Vale.

“Two houses are taken out and replaced by six apartments each; three up and three down,” Wheeler says.

They increase density in a sustainable way, Wheeler says, because they are close to shops and don’t introduce new infrastructure. “We are increasing density three to six times with minimal impact on existing infrastructure,” he says.

Half the apartments have gardens, the other half loggias. All have good solar access, with overhangs and shutters tempering summer sun; high thermal mass in floors and party walls; heavy insulation; cross-ventilation; and solar water heating.

Wheeler says he likes to put “the green in the designing rather than in fancy materials”.

For example, he uses conventional glass for large north-east and north-west facing windows but small windows in other walls.

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