EA Chosen For Whitmore Square Eco Housing Project
This affordable housing project was the subject of a national design competition held in late 2004. The competition was initiated by the Adelaide City Council with the support of the State Government and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects as part of the Year of the Built Environment.
The jury was chaired by Mr Gregory Burgess, winner of the 2004 RAIA Gold Medal, who stated that:
“The competition represented a significant design challenge; the most fundamental being that of achieving housing affordability and a high level of environmental performance at the same time”.
Ecologically Sustainable Design principles of the project include:
- Providing northern orientation to a maximum number of apartments
- Providing opportunities for cross ventilation
- Use of Greywater to irrigate the adjacent public square
- Provision of solar cells for electricity generation
- Solar hot water heating using rainwater, supplemented by mains water
- Provision of natural gas for heating and cooking
- Use of rainwater tanks to irrigate common landscaped areas
- Provision of some secure bicycle storage areas
The development is now complete and Energy Analytics (Energy Applications Australian arm), together with their partners Azzo Automation were chosen to provide the Energy Management System for the entire project. Now all of the apartments and public areas benefit from continuos energy management. Residents have real time information on their electricity, gas, hot and cold water and air condition usage as well as inside air temperature and humidity information. This is accessed via wall mounted touch-screen displays which are installed in every apartment. Residents can control their energy usage and have a real time read out of their energy spend.
