2022 Gallery
Winner: Sustainability
Melbourne Design Studios (MDS) for The Hütt 01 Passivhaus
Hütt 01 Passivhaus is a piece of inspiring contemporary architecture with timeless, modernist & Nordic touches. It sets a positive example for small-scale urban densification, reconnecting a forgotten piece of land with its environment, providing a super-sustainable oasis for today's lifestyle in the middle of the inner-urban jungle.
Jury Citation
This house sets a new standard for practical and measurable sustainability, delivering an oasis-like family home on a challenging site that aspires to both net-zero energy and carbon neutrality.
With a rail corridor immediately adjacent to the site and a noisy road nearby, the building strategy was to counter the busy locale with high-performance fabric and systems. The finished project represents the opportunities of sustainable development over the sacrificial mindset that often ensues.
The home delivers an aspirational objective of ultra-low environmental impact, including consideration of its inhabitants’ comfort and wellbeing, and offers a resilient environment ready for the trials of a harsh and changing climate. The CLT fabric and extensive natural finishes both reduce embodied energy and enhance biophilic outcomes, and the obvious deliberation is to be commended. The use of simple but high-performance technologies and dematerialization further enhance the credentials.
With a very small internal footprint of just 78 square metres, the home exemplifies the sustainable ideal of doing more with less, and the site selection and response represent gentle urban densification for deliberate small-footprint living. The house generates a significant portion of its own energy on-site, which is especially commendable given the vertical scale. The considered garden complements the house with natural beauty and multifunctional approach, including the accessible green roof.
Hütt 01 Passivhaus is a place where its occupants can thrive, and it exemplifies a new standard with no sacrifice of architectural outcome.
