It was a nondescript government book about how to create energy-efficient homes in Australia published in the 1980s that got engineer David Sutton interested in the concept of passive houses.
The now-chairman of clean energy technology company RayGen was then but a humble engineering student, keen on pursuing architecture – his other love – after graduation.
While this plan did not eventuate, Sutton’s love of energy efficiency and design has manifested in two homes built according to sustainable passive-house principles, one of which is Limestone House , designed by Melbourne architect John Wardle, for sale for the first time, quoting $11.5 million to $12.65 million.
“We [Sutton and wife Cate] built a passive house in Italy in about 2011, which was fabricated in Germany and trucked down, erected in 10 days and finished in six months,” Sutton says. “We just really loved the whole passive house calmness and the whole airtight thing.”
Sutton, whose career has taken him around the world, returned to Melbourne a decade ago with dreams of building another passive house, “without holding back on the architecture”.
“The one in Italy is more of a classic Passivhaus, a rectilinear box, like [the designs of] Denton Corker Marshall,” he says. “And that’s easier to [add] all the thermal bridges, etc.”
Passivhaus, which translates as “passive house” , is a housing performance standard conceived in Germany in the 1980s, and optimises insulation and the airtightness of the building envelope to stabilise the internal temperature.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom home at 3 Leighton Court, Toorak , is the first in Australia to be designed and constructed under both Passivhaus principles and the Living Building Challenge, which requires the home to operate as a regenerative environment, including generating more energy than it requires and managing its own water and wastewater.
While the home is not formally Passivhaus- or Living Building Challenge-certified – because it involved more effort and cost to go through the formal process at the end of the build – Sutton says his focus was incorporating as many of the principles as possible.
Set across three levels, Limestone House – wrapped in Mount Gambier limestone – includes a rooftop kitchen garden and terrace, theatre and music room, wine cellar, four-car garage and a natural swimming pool by Phillip Johnson Landscapes .
Using limestone for the exterior was “an absolutely perfect fit”, says Sutton, who hails from western Victoria.
Finding the right north-facing site was difficult, with Sutton inspecting up to 800 blocks before settling on one, initially a vacant block adjoining another with a home that the Suttons had to buy, renovate and sell before embarking on the three-year project.
The home features 40 solar panels, which feed a battery, and a 31,000-litre underground water tank which collects rainwater and treats it for drinking. Wastewater is processed on site.
Sutton was aided by his trusty, dog-eared copy of the Department of Housing and Construction book, published in 1985.
“From the start, when I was at Monash doing engineering … I just latched onto this fabulous book, which covered all the energy systems and the passive design of housing right through all the geographies and different cultures around the world,” he says, holding up a battered blue book.
For architect John Wardle, the project was a “very ambitious vision” from the Suttons.
“They came as a very well-informed client who’d already done research into passive houses and particularly the Living Building Challenge,” he recalls. “It was a very ambitious vision, particularly for all the environmental initiatives, which was the primary direction of the project.”
The brief was also to make a beautiful family house “responsive to the ether of intimacy and sociability” without sacrificing the processes and technologies of both philosophies.
“A lot of these initiatives are international, and we are proud to have localised through using the Mount Gambier limestone, beautiful Tasmanian oak … and even having local artisans apply their skills to the incredible systems and materials inside,” Wardle says.
Marshall White lead agent Jack Fowles says the home has attracted buyers looking for a luxury Toorak family home, as well as people not actively looking, but willing to buy if “something special comes up”.
“We have seen both types of buyers already, as well as people interested in design and architecture – it has a lot of broad interest which has been wonderful,” he says.
Despite the decision to sell – “it was always a project to sell” – Sutton says he will miss having people sitting around the John Wardle table.
“We love having people around, and Cate’s a fabulous cook,” he says. “But it’s time to set ourselves up for the next stage of life. I just had a brainwave that it’s a good time to buy an apartment, in East Melbourne probably, and a house in Lorne.”
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This story has been updated to clarify the process of Passivhaus certification.
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