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Sustainable Building Design of Ilma Grove by Andrew Maynard Posted: 02 Sep 2011 10:38 PM PDT Ilma Grove is an extension for a small existing house owned by a family in Northcote, Australia. It was designed by Andrew Maynard, and it was designed with sustainable design. It becomes the greenest design for the architect, completed with a lot of sustainable features and powered by renewable energy to reduce the environmental footprint. Ilma Grove was built as a two-story addition for an existing heritage house. From the beginning, the owner wanted to built additional building that can provide a sustainable lifestyle for the inhabitants, improving their family’s life and reducing the environmental footprint. By these ideas, this house was designed and built by adopting the passive  design. The additional building is sitting next to the existing one,  rather than invading the rear part of  it. This reduced the cost for demolishing and the construction waste. This eco construction was built by using re-used bricks, that was used for the old living spaces. The building was then optimized to the passive design, utilizing the northern solar exposure. North facing windows will capture the sun heat in winter, then store heat in the locally sourced, dark bluestone flooring. The windows are completed with low E  glasses to protect the house from overheating in summer. The sustainability is also supported by the existing of several green features. One of them is the existing of green lawn as the roof part. This roof also provides additional outdoor space for the inhabitants. The using of alternative energy, such as solar photovoltaic system, reduces the using of coal, thus reducing the footprint. There is also rainwater catching system to provide water, it is located on the roof. This sustainable design also involved environmentally friendly building materials. As said above, the building was built using the reuse bricks. Local bluestones were also used for the internal flooring, reducing the CO2 emitted by transportation of materials. This bluestones also act as thermal mass storage. All of materials used here are low VOC, and provide good durability, good insulation performance,  and low maintenance. The architect blurred the line between the old and the new construction, inside out, by integrating the backyard into the interior of the house, carving the garden inside, which currently is being used to grow tomatoes. The client also did not choose to have an en-suite upstairs to reduce the energy needs. By building this eco friendly construction the temptation to have a a large home on large block was resisted. Maximizing the outdoor space was favorable. It is great to have a small house with high sustainability. ref 1 2

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