Ecohabit

10/04/2024

The Mount Lawley Residence project has involved converting a 1970’s Italian house into a reinterpreted mid-century modern style family home. Our alterations started with the replacement of the roof, with raised ceiling to the kitchen and dining area with new north facing highlights to increase the...

10/04/2024

https://sustainablehouseday.com/listing/era-destino/

Sustainable House Day is just around the corner. This year sees the return of home opens and we look forward to providing tours of our directors own home in Mt Lawley. Come and hear Adrian's journey of how he and his wife Kylee transformed a little old 1970's cottage into a sustainable masterpiece. Follow the link and book your ticket now!

The Mount Lawley Residence project has involved converting a 1970’s Italian house into a reinterpreted mid-century modern style family home. Our alterations started with the replacement of the roof, with raised ceiling to the kitchen and dining area with new north facing highlights to increase the...

10/04/2024

Nelson Lui from the The West Australian ran this article on Passive House design in Perth over the weekend, featuring comments from our director, Adrian Fratelle. Check it out...

Improving your health, along with the comfort of your home, a passive abode is shaped to enhance liveability and sustainability.

31/10/2023

Well done to Switch Your Thinking for hosting a wonderful event at The City of Gosnells on the weekend.

Our Director Adrian Fratelle provided insights on how modern methods of construction can provide comfortable low energy consumption homes, while Tyler Jackman talked about how Plico can deliver solar and batteries for as little as $34 per week.

Switch Your Thinking partner with many city councils to host live informative events throughout Perth and provides a great platform for public education on the right way to design and build for our changing climate.

23/10/2023

Not only did our design of Era Destino take out Best Bathroom Design at The Design Matters National Awards on Friday night, but our favourite award we received is a Commendation for Sustainable Design. This is of course at the heart of everything we do at Ecohabit and to receive recognition in this category is very rewarding. Era Destino is a renovation of a 1970’s cottage and the goal was to maintain as much of the existing structure as possible significantly lowering the carbon footprint of a building over new builds. A 13kw Plico solar and battery system provides the majority of the homes energy needs ensuring the homes ongoing carbon footprint is minimal

23/10/2023

We're super excited to announce that on Friday night at the Design Matters National awards we took out Best Bathroom Design for Era Destino. The bathroom design was inspired by an existing curved wall around an existing staircase in this fully renovated 1970’s cottage. For more glamorous imagery check out our website.
https://ecohabit.com.au/projects/mount-lawley-residence/

20/10/2023

Ecohabit's director Adrian Fratelle will once again be lecturing at Home Base Expo on Sustainable Design. If you are looking to build a new home, renovate or just update your existing home so it performs better, then this is the course for you. Follow the links below to register for the 15th November 2023.
https://www.homebaseperth.com.au/shop/courses/sustainable-design-and-build/

20/10/2023

With the recent growth of new build costs, more than ever it makes a lot of sense to retain existing structures, renovate and extend.

We'd like to congratulate our clients Jordan and Andrew on their first milestone being slab down on their new extension. Owner building has its many challenges; however, the rewards are great. Having built many of my own homes I can relate very much. Like many challenges in life, if we push through the tough bits we often look back and wonder what the fuss was about!

The lovely contemporary extension consists of an open plan dining, living and kitchen with scullery and alfresco. A small passageway and bathroom connects the new extension lightly to the original Bayswater cottage. The extension adds another 145m² taking the total area to 248m² making the replacement value in excess of $1mil from an investment half that.

31/05/2023

This home that we have just completed at Ecohabit, we believe will be the largest and most stunning Passive House principled home in Perth once construction is completed mid 2024. All too often we see Passive House designed homes looking bland, driven by the detailing required to ensure the home meets minimum air tightness. We’re stepping out of the mould to show that a low carbon Passive House can look like any other contemporary masterpiece.

A semi subterranean garage and workshop has been designed and will be built out of a traditional concrete and masonry structure. Above that, all structure is timber framed enveloped in watertight and airtight membranes before being clad and finished in polished plaster providing a sleek contemporary aesthetic.

At Ecohabit we always apply the basic principles of design to our homes to achieve the best performance and comfort for the building’s occupants. Orientation of a home towards north is the first principle and eliminate east and west glazing where possible. When you have stunning city views, as we do with this site, its hard to argue with a clients request to capture that aspect. It’s important then to address the potential overheating that can occur, and in this case, it’s been achieved with semi transparent external blinds to maintain the view.

A roof deck centrally located to avoid overlooking, further enhances the appeal of the home, encapsulating not only the city views but also ocean and hill views. The internal staircase that rises all the way to the roof deck is glazed to the north but protected by a retractable roof and allows the centre of the home to be bathed in light year round.

Designed by Perth Environmental Plumbing, a centralized mechanical system will provide all the heating and cooling the home needs. A single heat pump is used to provide the energy for hot water, hydronic underfloor heating, and airconditioning. Most importantly the home will have an abundance of solar and battery storage to take care of the majority of the home’s entire energy requirements.

12/05/2023

Sometimes you just need to look beyond!

Our Director, Adrian Fratelle and his wife Kylee, I started their renovation journey back in mid 2019 when they purchased this property in April that year. In two and a half months they had the design documented, approved and by mid November the same year had completed stage one of the project and had moved in.
Covid hit and stage two went on hold, as did the rest of the world, before life suddenly went nuts! Finally in 2022 construction was under way again and late last year the final touches were complete. Ecohabits goal was always to show that the humble project home or cottage can be so much more. Look past the layers and see what could be.
Let’s not demolish, contribute to landfill and add to global CO2 emissions because there may be an alternate solution. And don’t forget the cost savings associated with renovating, particularly in his market. Keep what you can, it’s all money saved! We are proud that this 53 year old home, will likely serve another 50 years in the community.
Check out all the project pictures and learn about all of the sustainability initiatives included at https://lnkd.in/dcHgay2H

05/04/2023

Ecohabit is moving into an exciting new phase in our business as we become a design and construction company. We are looking for an Architect / Graduate of Architecture / Experienced Draftsperson to join our team. Follow the link in the bio for more information.