Mona Vale House, Australia by Choi Ropiha

November 27th, 2010 - Posted in Home Design, Sustainable Design

Mona Vale House, Australia by Choi Ropiha home design

The homeowner has a longstanding interest in sustainable buildings developed through working at the Sustainable Energy Development Authority, a agency of the Government’s sustainability. To do this, an architects Choi Ropiha asked to design a house that would demonstrate and test a number of active and passive sustainable initiatives whilst accommodating a contemporary coastal lifestyle.

exterior Mona Vale House view to interior front living room area

The Mona Vale House that located in NSW, Australia, on the southern side of Mona Vale Headland and has views over Mona Vale Beach to the south. This south facing aspect and narrow site proportions combine to limit the passive design potential and accordingly establish the key architectural design challenge for the house building.

exterior House design with expansive views over Mona Vale Beach

This sustainable home design oriented toward the view to the south, but opens up the roof at the centre of the house with a large north-facing skylight to admit winter sun to the south facing living areas and to trap and hold the warmth of the winter sun using the thermal mass of the structure.

exterior Mona Vale House sustainable building design in australia

The sustainable building is reverse veneer construction. It uses low embodied energy and timber with low thermal mass of the cladding to the outside and heavier thermal mass of concrete and blockwork to the inside.

exterior Australian House design low thermal mass timber cladding

The green house design is able to be ‘zoned’ to 3 separate areas; the back porch, bedroom and hallway, and the living room to the front. This helps retain heat in winter.

interior Mona Vale House hallways to bedroom and bathroom

Cross ventilation is carefully reviewed through the entire house. The front living room ventilates through a series of louvres in a bank of high level clerestory. The bedrooms also have cross ventilation via fanlight windows above doors. Other measures of sustainable development include a 15,000 L rainwater storage tank combined with grey water recycling to minimise water usage, the use of evacuated tubes for in floor hydronic heating and hot water supply, and photovoltaic solar panels to provide electricity back to the grid.

exterior Mona Vale House entrance with staircase to the door

The beach house design is a ‘test-bed’ for these and other sustainability initiatives and the performance of these will be measured after occupancy. Visit Architects Choi Ropiha website here and the Photographs Brett Boardman website here