VISION Issue 3 | Page 20

Vision Magazine 20 The jury loved your work – what appealed to them above all else? They loved the idea of the retro-fit. It was the first such entry and we demonstrated that it could become much more than the original and a really energy efficient, net zero energy home. When did the idea for the house first come about? Prof. Paul Cooper, Director of the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at UOW recommended we investigate retrofitting. That vision really took hold. The center’s primary research goal is its retrofitting work. The competition finals involved 20 university teams that were mostly partnership linked between major universities from around the world. In our case we don’t have an architecture school and so we sought industry advice for certain areas on the design, including from our sponsors such as Viridian. Drafting students lent a hand so there was some improvisation, but it paid off. What was it about retrofitting that gave you the necessary belief? Sustainability has an edge when you utilize existing materials and building platforms so it’s really a story of recycling. We felt it was an under-recognized area. If you can make existing houses energy efficient then there’s a huge opening for major environmental improvement. How daunting a prospect was it to ramp up and commit to such a venture? It’s the most ambitious student-led project the University and TAFE Illawarra have ever entered into but it’s also been the most cross-disciplinary and the reason is that it requires a very broad range of skills. The Decathlon’s ten equally weighted concepts include architecture, engineering and design. Then there are areas such as communications and that meant we had to make promotional videos, a group website and a brand for the house to leverage off. Another contest is entertainment and we had to demonstrate that the house has real livability and can comfortably accommodate a certain number of guests for example. ‘ T Viridian was one of the key material sponsors behind Australia’s winning entry in the Solar Decathlon, open to universities from around the world. The awards in Datong, China, saw victory for a re-energised version of Australia’s low-rent ’50s vernacular – the suburban fibro box. Thanks to clever design and astute material selection, the result delivers a knockout environmental performance. he Illawarra Flame House’ might well have caused consternation when translated for the host nation’s judges. The Flame House is much less the self-combustible abode than inspired botanical signature dedicated to a classic timecapsule of Aussie suburbia. The team’s audacious effort to re-boot such a once popular, yet progressively discredited, perennial was rewarded with a top score of 957.6 out of a possible 1,000 points. Australia’s entry from the University of Wollongong (UOW) and TAFE Illawarra claimed first prize for their re-modeling of a notoriously inefficient design to deliver net zero energy consumption. Open to tertiary institutions from around the world, the US Solar Decathlon competition was established in 2002 to recognize innovative Green residential design. The Datong, China event attracted half a million visitors while its website generated an impressive 900 million hits. The solar-powered home build/design competition required entrants to submit their work as fully designed, documented and constructed projects. UOW’s winning entry includes pr e-fabricated energy efficient pods for heating, ventilation and air conditioning as well as water recycling and photovoltaic electrical systems. “The ‘fibro’ delivered inherent environmental and financial economies by working from the available platform and shell,” according to Jack Breen, spokesman for the team’s entry. He tells Vision’s Peter Hyatt how the humble fibro went from obscurity to star thanks to Green turbo-charging. Supreme Green