Emerald House is a luxury home with a conscience.  One of only a few carbon neutral homes in Victoria, this  urban villa is designed with state of the art German Passive House technology featuring a super thermal skin, air-tightness, heat recovery fresh air ventilation, solar and thermal panels.  The home incorporates passive solar design with social parts of the house oriented north and uses thermal mass to mediate the internal temperatures with stunning burnished concrete floors and honed concrete block walls .  An underground 20,000 litre water tank ensures the home is as self-sufficient as possible.  Rooftop evacuated tube technology provides hot water with any excess used for the swimming pool spa. 

 

The home has an S-shaped form stretched over the length of the site to bring garden and light into the centre of the house.  The S form divides front for living and back for sleeping, but equally creates a wonderful variety of spatial experiences.  Key elements such as the customised diamond zinc façade make reference to St Thomas Aquinas Church while mid-century modern block wall fences echo Melbourne Grammar's music building close by. With this approach to many elements, the house converses with other buildings in the street. 

 

Without compromise to the original design, Fred Architecture consulted with GHD’s top energy engineers to produce a super high performance carbon neutral house.  As its name suggests, Emerald House is ‘ja’ UBER GREEN!

 

Photography:  Richard Glover