New home designs – Hill End Ecohouse

This eco-friendly home makes the most of the elements.

The original client brief was to build a new home on the site of an existing timber house, with the plan to make the home gorgeous before selling in the near future.

The Hill End Ecohouse is virtually ‘seamless’ both inside and out in terms of its appearance integrating with its riverside location. The house also fits into the existing streetscape and is open and inviting, while also having a unique twist.

Brisbane design firm Riddel Architecture were guided by their clients desire to create a home with adaptable living spaces and several living and sleeping zones that could operate separately or as one to accommodate several generations of family whilst maintaining privacy, or easily be adapted to a business/home set up, or fit a nuclear family.

Eco-friendly

The new building incorporates environmentally sustainable design principles: alternative energy; rainwater collection and use; grey water recycling; sustainable and durable materials selection; and use of natural light and ventilation.

The Ecohouse was designed to include 80% of the original home’s materials, and also features 100% recycled hardwood for the framing and 95% recycled sheet lining.

Other recycled content materials include tiles, concrete mix, reinforcing steel, insulation, Masonite bracing and rainwater tanks.

Despite it’s prime inner city waterfront location on the banks of the Brisbane river, you could isolate yourself in the Ecohouse for weeks – the home is almost entirely self-sufficient, with energy, water, greywater treatment and some food production.

All of the planting selection was as carefully considered as the building elements, and every plant in the Ecohouse was chosen for a purpose in addition to being aesthetically pleasing, with most providing for the residents and wildlife as well as supplying shade, cooling breezes and privacy.

Creative, sustainable and stylish, the Hill End Ecohouse is a great example of how environmentally sustainable design principles can be incorporated into any home, anywhere.