With electronic touch screens, automated doors and a home entertainment system that would make Steven Spielberg jealous, the sophisticated gadgetry in Victoria University's Smart House at Sunshine Campus is more than just techno-smart.
Built from the ground up by VU students and their teachers from various T&TI schools in the areas of Engineering, Construction and Industrial Skills, the house is also intelligent from an environmental perspective. Victoria's Resicode legislation requires all new homes to have a five-star energy rating. But with its double glazed windows, solar heating, green plumbing and use of recycled water, the Smart House achieves an 11-star rating.
Impressive results
Stan Borysiewicz, program manager of electrotechnology at VU's Faculty of Technical and Trade Innovation says he enjoys taking visitors through the house, built adjacent to the campus' R C Fordham Building where building trade apprentices learn their hands-on skills.
"Usually when people hear a house is built by students, their expectations are pretty low," he says. "Then they walk through these doors." With everything that opens and shuts automatically, the house is proof a building can be environmentally savvy and aesthetically chic.
It's not just about being able to turn on the lights from your mobile phone, have keyless entrance doors and 360 degree video surveillance. Even the garden plants are water efficient, thanks to VU's Indigenous Services who advised on the home's range of native plants.
(above - the Smart House boasts a lavish high-tech home theatre)
Existing technologies, latest methods
The Smart House was built using the latest construction methods and materials so that VU trade students can learn the best trade practices currently available in the building industry.
Peter Averill, senior program manager IT and Electrotechnology at Sunshine Campus says, "There are energy efficient homes that cost $2 million, but the Smart House costs what a normal house costs; you can walk into any building supply outlet tomorrow and build that house with existing technology."
The project was funded through the Victorian Government's Office of Training and Tertiary Education, with matching funding from sponsors that exceeded $150,000.
A working model
One sponsor, electrical accessories company, Clipsal, uses the Smart House as a working model to show customers its high-tech gadgets in action. "Our clients go through the house and they absolutely love it," says Anthony Prendergast, technical representative for Clipsal. "The Smart House is a fantastic project, not just for VU, but for the west of Melbourne, in terms of what can be achieved in environmental technologies. I think we're all going to be living in a house like this in the near future."
The Smart House is used to teach school students the importance of sustainable house and garden design and ways to preserve the environment.
article: Yannick Thoraval
