Cairns Post article: Green Affordable Homes

[greenbuild]

The Cairns Post 11th April 2012 See article attached
Green, affordable homes: Future housing in tropics on show. The free presentation is from 6pm at the library in Abbott St.
The future of home building in the tropics is on display today with a collective group of Far Northern architects, builders, designers and retailers providing an insight into a potentially strong growth sector of the region's economy. The Tropical Green Building Network will showcase two sustainable house projects at a presentation at the Cairns Library. One is being built at Redlynch and the other is in the planning stages at Atherton. Each building points to different ways to build more sustainably. The Redlynch house stands out on performance criteria. It will be the newest 9.5 star building in the Far North. Rachel Whymark of Kenick Constructions and initiator of the Redlynch project said the home has no power bills. "In fact, Ergon will be paying us," she said. "We demonstrate many different aspects of sustainability on a budget of around $250,000. Our home is packed with a host of innovative and
practical ideas including 'passive' design, material selection, water-saving devices, accessibility features, air quality, alternative energy solutions and much more."Christine Doan, the initiator of the Tableland project and a co-founder of Sustainable Malanda, said the place, the purpose and the people provided the mix that guided in building sustainably. TGBN founder Emma Thirkell said too many modern affordable houses turn out to be unhealthy. "They rely on airconditioning to be comfortable. We can stop building like that now," she said. "Suppliers of eco-friendly building technology are invited to get involved. "We want to showcase your products to the public in attractive tropical designs that are affordable to buy as well as maintain." The organisers say the homes being built are affordable, bucking previous trends of "green" homes being prohibitively expensive and out of reach of the average family.
Member for Cairns Gavin King, who recently met the TGBN at a round table session said he would call for a review of relevant state building codes and legislation to ensure tropical sustainable homes could be made even more affordable. He said excessive red tape and centralised south east Queensland focused legislation governing the building of homes presented significant hurdles and cost barriers to the work of companies involved in the TGBN.