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Lee Residence - "Wakool"

SunConscious Design took a site bordering a nature reserve in Tuggeranong (far south suburban Canberra) and created a curvaceous response to its Brindabella Ranges vista and the Macarthur Ridge Reserve landscape while building a home needing virtually no heating or cooling. Designer: Trevor Lee.

Various passive solar design techniques were successfully used in combination:

• generous fenestration on the north to let in the solar heat in winter;
• earth sheltered on the south and around the cellar;
• clerestory windows and reflectors to direct solar heat and light to the southern rooms;
• reverse brick veneer construction to keep the heat/cool-storing thermal mass inside the insulated cladding;
• Trombe walls (solar-charged heat banks) in the northern rooms;
• double glazing for the Trombe walls and other key windows;
• cross-flow and stack-effect ventilation designed in for summer cooling;
• summer shade by carport to the east, veranda to the west and movable shading to the north.

Download the article 'Canberra passive solar home' as a reprint from 'Green House Plans' published 2002, Earth Garden Books <www.earthgarden.com.au> (PDF - 5.2M)

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