Design
Sustainable Architects Brisbane
Sustainable Architects Brisbane – Minimise the environmental impact of your home through sustainable design, available for new homes and renovations.
Specialising in Sustainable House Design
When finding sustainable architects, it’s important to remember that not all architects have the ability to design sustainable homes. Architects and designers have ignored the need for energy efficiency and water conservation until relatively recently. If you want to improve the energy efficiency of your home, you are may need to spend a bit of money on energy or water-saving home improvements. Just make sure the Architect you choose specialises in sustainable house design.
Of course, if you are renovating or building a new home then you have the opportunity to enjoy ‘built-in sustainability’, but only if your home is designed by sustainable architects with a track record of building highly sustainable homes. At dion seminara architecture, our Brisbane Architects specialise in creating sustainable house designs for homes in Brisbane and around Australia that use fewer resources saving you money in the long run. We are so dedicated to the value of sustainable design that we have a solar analytics display where you can view our own office’s solar production and kilograms of CO2 saved each day here.
Finding sustainable architects is just half of the struggle, the other half is choosing the right sustainable architect for your project. To help you with this we have created the How To Engage An Architect guide which you can download using the link below.
Sustainable Design was Used in the Early Days
It is quite ironic that many early homes in hot-weather countries in the southern hemisphere (including Australia) always incorporated wide shady verandas. Take the traditional Queensland home in Brisbane as an example. Over time in order to enlarge the interior and provide more rooms within their Queenslander homes, Australians enclosed the verandas and also changed the interior design. As a result, flow-through breezes were blocked and the heat protection of the covered verandas was lost.
Fortunately, many homeowners in Brisbane are now seeking to return their Queenslanders to their traditional glory and in order to provide the additional space they need, rather than enclosing verandas many are seeking a rear extension.
Architectural Sustainable Design
As sustainable architects, dion seminara architecture we take the following into account when designing a sustainable home so as to minimise negative environmental impacts:-
- Low-impact building materials
- Energy efficiency design including home orientation, prevailing breezes, shading and insulation
- Design durability
- Water harvesting and recycling
A sustainable home designed by dion seminara architecture will be a more liveable and healthier place designed to increase the resource-use efficiency (energy, water and materials) while reducing its overall impact on human health and the natural environment. Our sustainable designed homes integrate themselves with the surrounding landscape and preserve the local habitat.
Improve Your Home's Sustainable Design
If you have an older home that does not have insulation, then now would be a good time to get some quotes. Beyond this, do whatever you can to keep your home insulated. If this wasn’t an issue when the house was first designed, investigate the possibility of installing exterior blinds or shutters to improve insulation, and/or fit weather-seals to your doors and windows.
Dripping taps and leaking showers and toilet cisterns can result in a huge waste of water, so be sure to fix any leaks as soon as possible after you notice them. Change shower heads to the water-efficient, slow-flow type and use water sparingly. There are quite a few showerhead exchange programmes in Australia where you can swap old shower heads without parting with a single cent.
Think about the possibility of saving grey water, for example from baths and basins, and use this in your garden. At the very least choose garden plants that are resistant to drought and don’t suck up excessive moisture from the soil.
Upgrade your hot water service and install a solar-boosted service. Install solar panels and replace your old electric water heater with an energy efficient solar water heater or with a heat pump that works on solar power. These are efficient and economical, and one of Australia’s greatest inventions.
Whenever you buy new appliances, including washing machines and dishwashers, make sure these are high star rated. Install a water tank to catch fresh rainwater and have a reliable diversion system fitted to enable you to utilise the grey water from your baths and basins.
Little things like switching off lights when you leave a room, or resetting thermostats on all heating and cooling equipment, so they do not constantly draw power from the grid can all make a significant saving on resources. Don’t forget about swimming pool pumps and heaters, these also use a lot of energy. You can also cut down on energy usage by installing low-energy globes for all your lighting.