A new luxury apartment building in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs is aiming to be the first ever multi-res development to receive both a 6 Star Green Star rating and PassivHaus certification.
To be designed by Fender Katsalidis Mirams, Modulus Bellevue Hill will strive to offer a mixture of homes that not only meet the Green Building Council of Australia’s 6 Star Green Star - Multi Unit Residential Design v1 Certified Rating, achieved by only one project to date, but also the notoriously difficult-to-meet German PassivHaus standards.
The eight-apartment complex by Sydney sustainable developer Modulus Luxury will do so by using a range of sustainable design techniques and products, expected to cut energy use by 80 per cent and water use by 65 per cent per year, as well through a material procurement strategy focussed heavily on recycled building materials.
If it does achieve Passivhaus, it will be the first apartment project in Australia to have done so. The standard is a rigorous and voluntary target for energy efficiency which focusses on both superior energy efficiency and thermal comfort, resulting in low energy buildings with a reduced ecological footprint. Houses which meet the PassivHaus certification have reduced the space heating demand of the home to lower than 15kWh/sqm per year and an overall primary operational energy consumption of less than 120kWh/sqm per year.
Building materials and methods of construction that are used to achieve PassivHaus are typically uncommon in Australia and known to be more costly, but achieving certification ensures a building uses 75-90 per cent less energy than typical buildings.
Modulus Bellevue Hill intends to show that building sustainability can come at no extra cost on what a building would initially cost.
The developer says their approach to luxury living and the highest standard of sustainability will be the first of its kind in Australia, however luxury apartments, 88 Angel Street by Steele Associates Architects would appear to also fit that model.
