The Sime Darby Idea House is a sustainable home design for the ‘green consumer’. The green consumer’s environmental, social and economic consciousness is manifest in the green buildings that they buy or rent. In adopting a more sustainable approach to design, developers are not only satisfying their own corporate social responsibilities in the preservation of the planet, but attracting the green consumer and corporation and increasingly reaping the economic benefits. Designed by Broadway Malyan, a leading international practice of architects, urbanists and designers working across fourteen offices throughout the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, for Sime Darby Property, Malaysia’s largest property developer, in August 2008, the Idea House was envisioned there would be many, awoken to the global sustainability consciousness.

The Sime Darby Idea House was to be a socially, economically, and environmentally responsive prototype dwelling that would provide an insight into future tropical living, producing the first carbon zero residence in South East Asia. In order to create a viable model of sustainability it was necessary for architects, engineers, contractors and suppliers to work in close collaboration. The response approached the problem by looking at all elements of the design, from topography to form, to climatic response to waste and water management, in order to create a hybrid of sustainable design home solutions.

A modular solution was reached which would reduce the need for specialist labour and wet trades, speed up the construction process and allow easy expansion or reduction of living modules to accommodate family growth and change. Extra modules can be added to void areas where new residents are introduced, or taken away when they leave. In following the topography by raising and lowering the building to the pattern of the land it is possible to avoid deeply disturbing the land and save on construction time. Lifting the building on stilts also has the benefit of increasing natural ventilation allowing air flow around and under the house to cool the interior spaces.

Water management is incorporated to a great extent within the design using a filtration device to capture around 50% of all grey water (from showers and wash basins) and reusing it within the toilets. A green roof system will also minimise storm water run-off to prevent flooding of drains and reusing the water for irrigation in the landscape. Energy is produced through photovoltaic panels on the roof. While the individual elements of the design are not necessarily ground-breaking, it is the comprehensive approach from design through to completion that enables The Idea House to act as a test bed for sustainable design.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 8:46 pm and is filed under Home Design Ideas, Sustainable Home Design. Tags: Building engineering, Environmentalism, filtration device, green building, Malaysia house design, Sime Darby, sustainable building, sustainable design, sustainable design home, sustainable design home solutions, Sustainable Home Design, United Kingdom, water management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.