Sustainable Mandurah Display Home: Promoting Water Management

Synopsis

The City of Mandurah, a Water Campaign™ participant since 2002, is the fastest growing regional city in Australia with significant demands for new housing. The City of Mandurah is committed to ensuring that this growth occurs in a sustainable manner.

In response to this the City, in partnership with Mirvac Fini, Ultimate Homes, Solar Dwellings and Sustainable Consulting has constructed the Sustainable Mandurah Home. The home is the first to be specifically designed as a replicable project and display home that you can buy off the plan.

The City initiated and financed the project and will be responsible for delivering the ongoing education initiatives surrounding the home.

The home is now part of Ultimate Homes standard designs and will be marketed and displayed in the normal manner by Ultimate Homes. The home will also perform an additional educational function to emphasise that it is possible to move sustainable design, construction and living from the margins to the mainstream.

The home demonstrates a range of water efficient appliances, water efficient landscaping, a greywater collection system and other practices that any homeowner can adopt throughout the interior and exterior of house.

The Sustainable Mandurah Home was opened in May 2005 and will remain open for display purposes for up to 18 months and then be sold.

Approach undertaken to promote sustainable water management through the display home

Together, the project partners have developed three guiding sustainability principles for this project. To satisfy these criteria, the home needed to be:

Liveable and replicable

Householders should understand that to live in a home designed according to sustainability principles, they need not forgo the opportunity to live in attractive homes with contemporary design, and mainstream functionality and features. The home will also feature low allergen finishes and universal access design principles, thus enhancing the home’s liveability.

Affordable

The finished home should be cost effective and economically viable within the market range for this style of housing, therefore demonstrating that sustainable building and design can be competitively priced and affordable.

Environmentally responsible

The home should demonstrate a range of best practice environmental features, including solar passive design and energy efficiency, greywater and stormwater reuse systems and a waterwise garden.

Specifically the home incorporates the following water management features.

Landscaping - waterwise plants and trees to minimise water usage, plus placement of trees and plants to protect home from summer heat and cold winter winds.

Grey water reuse and storm water collection system - grey water from sinks, baths and showers is reused for irrigating the garden. Storm water is also collected and is used for the toilets and laundry.

Water efficient appliances
The home has been fitted with water-efficient appliances and AAA-rated taps and showerheads.

Benefits

Preliminary calculations based on a family of three suggest that the house could use up to 70% less water than the average home. The rainwater tanks will provide up to 44KL of water annually to be used in the laundry and toilets. In addition the house has the potential to reuse 100KL of greywater annually for irrigating the garden.

The house also delivers reduced energy use through its energy efficiency features.

ICLEI-A/NZ would like to acknowledge the assistance of Mr Craig Perry and the City of Mandurah in the production of this case study.

To receive further information or become involved in the ICLEI-A/NZ Water Campaign™ in Australia, please contact:

ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
4/267 Collins Street
Melbourne Vic 3000
Ph: 03 9639 8688
Fax: 03 96398677
Email: anz@iclei.org
Web: www.iclei.org/anz/water/water.htm

For further information about this project see the sustainable display home website; http://www.sustainablemandurah.com.au

Or contact;
City of Mandurah
3 Peel Street
(PO Box 210)
MANDURAH WA 6210
Ph: (08) 9550 3777
Email: council@mandurah.wa.gov.au