Design
Updated 5 December 2012 KM:
Sustainable House Design
SUSTAINABLE is committed to creating living and work spaces that are at one with the environment.
We design houses and gardens that have sustainable principles as the fundamental design principle, with the objective of each project to preserve the environment for future generations. Our perfect design formula provides design solutions that tailor our services to suit your requirements.
Your perfect Design Formula
1. Certainty of Your Lifestyle: We customise the design of your home to suit your lifestyle, requirements and needs specific to your site through our proven Sustainable Objectives. These include Water Management, Passive Design, Energy Efficiency and Integrated Landscaping Design. Furthermore Life Cycle Assessment of building, product and material choices to manage your Ongoing Resource Management & Costs after your home is constructed.
2. Assurance of Design Build Ability - Our design team are heavily involved in both the design and construction process to ensure build ability of the project. We will deliver a compact, cost-effective and refined architectural design service that quickly moves into construction and minimises the holding process and costs (i.e. renting whilst building).
3. Sustainable Design Objectives:
- Water Management - rainwater harvesting, reuse of grey water for irrigation and toilets and reducing actual usage of water by installing water saving devices. Overall reducing your water usage and bills.
- Energy Efficiency - orientation of the home, construction materials and passive ventilation to minimise mechanical cooling or heating. Also locating your building and openings on the site to take advantage of prevailing breezes and views, whilst minimising undesirable aspects such as the Western Sun in QLD. Furthermore the use of solar hot water systems, solar panels, thermal walls, low energy lighting, insulation etc. This benefits your energy bills.
What we design for you
-Recipe Houses (for those with a smaller budget)
- Individual Designed Houses (for those with a larger budget)
-Retrofits (sustainable renovations)
- Pools
- Landscaping and masterplanning
Where we design for you
We design and construct homes throughout Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Southern Downs QLD, North Coast NSW, Bribie Island, Stradbroke Island and Moreton Island. We are experts in delivery on challenging remote locations and sloping sites and have been highly recognised for our sustainable designs and constructions via our numerous National HIA Greensmart awards.
Your Design Stages
There are various design stages for each project. We discuss these Design
Stages with you to make sure we tailor a package that suits your
requirements.
Dependent upon your project type, this will determine which of the
following stages you require. For instance a smaller project like a
retrofit/renovation, this may only require Design Stages 1 & 3. For a
larger project such as a new house design and construct package, this would
require all the following Design Stages:
Design Stage 1 - Needs & Site Analysis
Design Stage 2 - Masterplan Sketch Design and Concept Stage
Design Stage 3 - Documentation Stage & Working Drawings
How long does it take?
Option 1 - A Recipe house (one of our designs customised
for your site) will involve:
Design Stage - 8 weeks (approximately)
Construction Stage - 12-18 weeks (approximately)
Approval Stage - 3 weeks (unless required to submit a Development
Application approval which takes a minimum of 3 months)
As an example a small Recipe House (Tivoli House) took 10 weeks and one of our large Recipe Houses (Boonah House) took 4 months with 2 months for landscaping.
Option 3 - A Retrofit will vary in accordance with your site, design and lifestyle requirements.
How much do the sustainable house designs and construction cost?
| Retrofits | Recipe Houses | Individual Designed Houses |
| $100k - $300k | $185k - $285k | $350k - $500k |
| $300k - $500k | $250k - $350k | $500k - $650k |
| $500k - above | $330k - $430k | $650k - $900k (+ above) |
What else do you need to budget for?
Your budget will need to take into account not just the construction and design costs, but the costs for the following services/other consultants:
- Design costs
- Construction costs for the home
- Certification and Approvals
- Infrastructure fees including pool or if required a waste water treatment plant, etc.
If you are interested in discussing any of the above sustainable home designs, please fill out a detailed enquiry on our Contact us page or give us a call to speak to our friendly staff who can assist you further on (07) 3201 1177.
Your proof from Australia's renowned home building industry
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) which is Australia's largest residential building organisation and the voice of Australia's home building industry - has awarded Sustainable with over 60 Australian housing awards. In particular the majority of these are the Australian Greensmart Energy Efficiency awards, including numerous Greensmart Home of the year awards.
Not only have our custom homes been highly awarded within Australia, so to have our retrofits (sustainable renovations) with awards for Queensland Renovation/ Addition Project of the Year. Our designs are also highly regarded within the QLD area, in particular, our awards for Best Design for the Queensland Climate.
Our Sustainable Design and Construction Team who are experts in sustainable housing, have also been highly recognised with the Australain Greensmart Professional of the Year awards.