This week, the rising cost of energy bills in NSW have reportedly ‘sparked a war of words’ between Federal and State Government with debate about who is responsible. Earlier, the ANU’s Andrew Macintosh and The Australia Institute’s Richard Denniss had published an article at Crikey detailing why prices were rising.

One this is for sure, designing and building net zero emission homes makes great economic sense for home owners, be they in Victoria, NSW, or elsewhere. We would rather debate how big our solar panels and how small our bills will be, rather than why bills are increasing and who is responsible. If you need any more convincing, have a look at data coming off Peter Reefman’s zero emission home and remember, as the price of energy goes up, your investment in a well-designed, efficient, zero emission home will look better and better.

Designing of ten affordable, sustainable, functional and beautiful homes for the Ecovillage has now officially commenced, with the first weekend design workshop held at Cape Paterson and RACV Inverloch.

On Saturday, the whole design team spent the morning on site before meeting the local community and potential residents at the town hall.  The rest of the weekend was spent listening to our experts on energy efficiency and local building techniques, and finalising the social and environmentally sustainable design elements that will form the basis of all the houses.

We were all tuned in closely to building energy consultants Floyd Energy

While local builder and resident Tony O’Connell from TS constructions shared some advice with Mike O’Mullane, co-owner of the Ecovillage project.

It was a truly inspiring weekend.

It is very unusual to have so many leaders in sustainability and energy efficiency in the one room, all committed to the one purpose.  It can only mean great things for the Cape Paterson Ecovillage

For designers, it was a chance to hear directly from prospective buyers about what they hope to see in Ecovillage homes, and how they hope to live.

We are lucky to have so much design talent local to Cape Paterson, with Beaumont Concepts based just down the road in Wonthaggi. If you don’t recognise him, that’s Ashley Beaumont above.

And even our Melbourne based designers are flush with local experience. Mark Schipano from Design Habitat has done work in Wonthaggi and Yarragon while his Euroa House pushed the boundaries of whats possible in sustainable design.

Another of our design team, Workshop Architecture, were busy proving their reputation for working harder than just about anyone else to understand what their clients need. That’s Tony and James below.

The site walk was an opportunity to revisit the project’s vision to become a global benchmark for sustainable community and coastal development in Victoria, as well as a chance to get some exercise on a glorious autumn day!

Everyone has told us what safe hands we are in with Adam Dettrick as our project architect and the weekend together reaffirmed this for us all.

You are invited to come and meet the Cape Paterson Ecovillage architects and design team on Saturday 31st March at 11.30 AM to 1 PM at the Cape Paterson town hall.

This is your chance to have an informal chat, a cup of tea and a sandwich, to meet the team and to talk to the architects about what is important for you in a house design, and to learn more about the project.

Click the link below for more details, including a map detailing where the venue can be found.

Meet the Architects – Cape Paterson Ecovillage

We are also running a survey to help us understand what you are looking for in a house at the Cape Paterson Ecovillage. We have had a fantastic response to the survey, over 60 completed in two days and counting, so thank you.

If you are an interesed buyer, and keen to let us know what you are looking for in a house at Cape Paterson Ecovillage, click the link below to complete the survey.

Click here to have your say

Best regards

Brendan Condon and Mike O’Mullane

Cape Paterson Ecovillage

You can find a link to the summary here

The summary captures the essence of the detailed study’s findings and aims to explain the key concepts simply. We hope you find this a useful resource and welcome direct feedback on the summary or detailed study.

There is a clear, vast gulf between the economic performance of sustainable houses proposed for the Ecovillage, compared to energy intensive conventional housing. This gulf is driven by the fact that Ecovillage homes have been specified with a holistic approach, while a conventional 6-star house is not required to have solar power or efficient appliances, and there is a choice between 2,000l rain water tanks and solar hot water. In this way, residents of conventional houses miss out on cost effective sustainability solutions.

The article, written by sustainability commentator Michael Green, highlighted the fact that new home buyers across Victoria now have a clear choice – to build conventionally and lock in rising costs, or to build sustainably to protect their wallet and the environment. Those that choose to protect their wallet and the environment, will also benefit from more comfortable living environs in all types of weather.

We believe that homes designs for the Ecovillage will be a compelling choice, and will help change the housing market across Victoria and Australia for the better.

One of the aims of the developers behind the Ecovillage is that every resident should have access to a beautiful, sustainable, architecturally designed house at an affordable rate.

After months of finding and screening some of Victoria’s best sustainable design talent, we are proud to announce a design team for the Cape Paterson Ecovillage has been decided. The team we have selected is as follows:

• Adam Dettrick Architects – Project Architect
• Workshop Architecture
• Design Habitat
• DKO Architecture
• Beaumont Concepts

The team balances a mix of smaller and larger practices with a huge depth of project experience and outstanding sustainability credentials across social, environmental and financial dimensions of design. You will have a chance to learn more about the team, and meet them in person, over the coming months.

The design team will collaborate to develop a range of 10-15 concept designs from which prospective buyers can choose from.

We have also chosen a broader reference panel that buyers will be able to engage directly, should they wish to design their own home. The reference panel includes:

• Breathe Architecture
• Henry Architects
• Zen Architects
• Third Ecology

The reference panel gives buyers a wide range of distinctive styles and price points to choose from, with all panel members having established credentials for sustainable design.

Cape Paterson Ecovillage is proud and grateful to call of its early supporters one of Melbourne most influential, inspirational, provocative and creative people.

Peter Reefman of energised homes has been a valuable contributor to the ecovillage concept, drawing on his considerable expertise and experience as a home designer, builder, sustainability enthusiast and practioner.

We always enjoy getting updates on the performance of Peter’s 8 star home in Portland, Victoria. Peter used about 10.5kWh in all of 2011 on heating and cooling – thats a lot less than the average daily energy use for a Victorian home. Best of all, it didn’t cost him a thing thanks to exporting more solar power than he uses!

Congratulations from the Ecovillage team Peter.

Germany installed an incredible 3GW of solar power in December 2011 alone, more proof that solar technology means serious business.

In that one month alone Germany installed more than Australia’s entire solar pv capacity, or another way to see it, 1.2 million 2.5kW systems – with 2.5kW being enough to power a well-designed, efficient home.

We’re excited about delivering Australia’s first zero carbon housing development that uses free photons from the sun, helping to put Australia on the solar map and the Australian housing industry on notice.