Award-winning green home in Bicton to open to public

AN award-winning Bicton home will open its doors to the public on Sunday to give visitors an inside look into its ‘green’ features.

The Lomma Homes design is one of almost 30 homes taking part in Sustainable House Day so homeowners can learn more about environmentally friendly building practices, design principles and products.

The residence is fresh from two wins at the Building Designers Association of WA Design Excellence Awards, where it was named best new residential design over $3 million and best residential interior design.

Located on Blackwall Reach Parade, the house is arguably the most feature-packed on the Sustainable House Day viewing list, from a weather station that adjusts the home’s blinds and climate-control devices to “earth pipes” that allow fresh filtered air to enter the home.

It also has 12,500L of underground rainwater storage, LED lighting throughout, hydronic heating, solar-powered pool and pond pumps, a solar-power system connected to a Tesla battery, a roof garden, water-wise plants and subsurface drip irrigation.

“It was designed as a forever home and to allow the occupants to accommodate family no matter the stage of their life,” Lomma Homes managing director Paul Lomma said.

“There are zones that mean it can be broken down and split into three distinct and separate homes, and it was built in such a way that rooms can be removed if required to suit changing needs.

“The easiest example of this is the sauna in the master ensuite, which is a completely separate room that can be removed to make way for a disabled bathroom.”

While Mr Lomma acknowledges the home’s 1352sq m of living area would lead to large build and running costs, a lot of thought went into ways to minimise them.

“The cost of the sustainable elements in the home is minimal; for example, the imported European double-glazed windows for this home were cheaper than the local single-glazed option,” he said.

“Some of the ideas implemented cost nothing at all and most of the sustainable ideas in the home have a payback period of less than five years, with the longest payback period in the order of 10 years.

“Given the home has an expected lifespan of 50 years, the sustainable features are the cheapest part of the home.”

The home’s construction also involved several environmentally sound initiatives, such as making sure all waste polystyrene and cardboard – almost 60 cubic metres – was recycled, and making bookshelves out of door panel off-cuts.

“We felt it was important to do this in part to be conscious of the waste produced in building and in part to be cost-effective – if you don’t waste it, you don’t have to buy it,” Mr Lomma said.

Mr Lomma said the most important lesson he wanted people to take home from visiting the residence was to look past the sustainable “features” and get the design right first.

“Too little attention is paid to good design in terms of sustainability; if it is designed right, a home will need less in the way of features,” he said.

“Do your homework on the designer you choose – there are plenty of designers who do fantastic work in this regard.”

The residence will be open to the public from 10am to noon and all visitors must register to attend at www.sustainablehouseday.com to obtain the address.

For the list of all WA homes open for viewing on the day, visit https://tinyurl.com/yc5tbzoc. n