10 Star Flip_Flop House

BDAV 10 Star Challenge
Competition winning design
195 square metres

This design developed by Lifehouse Design in collaboration with Crosby Architects and Lewin Consulting won the inaugural 2011 Building Designers Association of Victoria (BDAV) ’10 Star Challenge’ competition, in which entrants were asked to design a three-bedroom 10-Star energy-rated house on a hypothetical urban site in Melbourne. The design developed from a shared vision to explore less energy-intensive building methods and products, and more socially conscious, pleasing built environments.

The concept, called the ‘Flip_Flop House’, is designed to be flexible so it can adapt to the changing needs of occupants as their living patterns change – the east and west wings can ‘flip-flop’ in use over time to sustain the building well into the future. The design includes a modular portal frame structure, reverse brick walls, maximum insulation, triple glazing and optimization of passive-solar design principles. Achieving 10 Stars indicates that it will require no energy to heat or cool throughout the year. With the installation of a grid-interactive solar power system this would flip the energy bill upside down.