Sustainable design has been a longstanding focus of Marcus O'Reilly Architects. As such, the company continues to research, test and apply a range of initiatives, and to actively promote sustainable design through multiple forums.

We are avid implementers of the excellent research offered to subscribers of the RAIA's Environment Design Guide. Given that the embodied energy content of a house can equal 30 years of the energy required to run that house, we are particularly aware of the need for careful selection and processing of materials.

We have established good working arrangements with our preferred environmental consultants, SBE, who regularly work with us to analyse improvements to our design initiatives. With them we have completed designs for 6-star houses, along with 4.5 - 5 star Australian Green Buildings Council potential for our commercial projects.

Our passive solar design techniques are effective and, we believe, visually refined. New passive cooling techniques, such as venting towers, enable new design typologies to be introduced into the vernacular of suburban homes, replacing previous elements such as chimneys (refer photo Beaumaris house.)

In addition, we have embraced active solar principles, installing photo-voltaic power generating systems, solar-hot water etc, to our projects (including my own house).

Following concerns about the inefficiencies of much detached housing we were asked to co-author the Sustainability Guidelines for the Community Alliance Of Port Phillip, which was adopted as policy by the City of Port Phillip Councillors, in 2001.

This, in turn, led to discussions and a treatment for a documentary on the issue of high energy use in typical urban sprawl housing, and the potential for denser, more sustainable housing.

Recently we have been commissioned to design a sustainable house in Newcastle. The process of design, material selection, construction techniques and liveability is being documented in preparation for a book, to be published by Global Exchange publishing.

Incorporation into design

We find that when considered as an integral part of the brief, sustainable design principles can generate more interesting and habitable design in addition to other benefits.

The selection of sustainable design elements on any given project takes into account current research plus the effectiveness and overall life cycle costs of these initiatives. In general, we look to incorporate a mix of the following elements:

6-star energy rating

We try to exceed the now-mandatory 5-star energy rating for new houses by a further star. We do this by paying careful attention to siting, to north- and west-facing glass, shading of walls, cross-ventilation, vertical ventilation thru cooling towers, such as in the photo, draft-control and a host of other variables. This has the added advantage of more comfortable buildings that are cheaper to run.

Passive solar design

We aim to substantially reduce the number of days that heating and cooling systems are activated. The starting points for this approach are siting substantial thermal mass to the south, taking sun in from the north, regulating shading and appropriate selection of materials.

Low embodied energy

Some common building materials, such as aluminium, use comparatively large amounts of energy to produce and deliver (i.e. embodied energy). Careful selection of building materials can reduce the amount of embodied energy by up to 20 years of the equivalent energy required to run the building. This has enormous potential for saving energy. Some common materials, such as concrete, can also be specified to ensure that they produce less greenhouse gases than in their standard form. Rammed Stabilised Earth as photod is another option, that also looks beautiful .

Solar power

In commercial developments, it is now accepted that providing active energy systems, such as solar power, can increase rental yields. For both commercial and domestic applications, we consider incorporating power generating photo-voltaic systems that offer an opportunity to sell excess power back to the grid.

Renewable reusable materials

Biasing towards sustainable timber use, or the use of recycled materials, is easy and effective when done from the sketch-design stage onwards.

Water management

Efficient water use includes careful selection of equipment and fixtures, minimising the amount of water running off to storm-water systems, use of grey water systems and installation of tanks.