Sustainability in Aged Care

St Louis Estate

The St Louis Estate describe their residences as “beautiful, spacious and contemporary” but it is so much more than that. SPH architecture + interiors are proud to have designed, documented and administered construction for a highly sustainable four-storey apartment building on the St Louis Retirement Estate in Claremont.St Louis was developed prior to the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) creating their Green Star Tool to assess multi-level residential buildings for sustainable design in both construction and their operation. Benchmarking the building against the GBCA’s tool today, St Louis would achieve a 5 Star Green Star GBCA rating. The team at SPH worked hard to design and produce an apartment building that would improve environmental efficiencies, reduced the strain on amenities, and enhanced the overall wellbeing of staff, residents and their families.

Key Environmentally Sustainable Design Features

The environmentally sustainable aged care facility design features include:

• Roof mounted solar hot water system and photo voltaic panels,
• Recycled rain water and grey water including basement tanks and pumps,
• High levels of thermal efficiency including double glazing, separate metering of power and water,
• Energy efficient fixtures and fittings,
• Use of recyclable material and where possible;
• Natural materials and avoidance of products and finishes using Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and fluoro carbons.

Low ongoing maintenance regimes were also implemented through the use of concrete, stone, painted render and environmentally appropriate tinted zinc feature panels.Through using environmentally sustainable design, SPH created six apartments that will dramatically reduce the financial burden from energy consumption, whilst simultaneously improving the wellbeing of the lucky residents who call the apartments home. The St Louis Retirement Apartments truly provide an independent living exemplar that proves good design principles, combined with a sustainable approach, can provide comfortable & dignified accommodation for our growing ageing populationIf you are looking to create or redevelop a retirement living or aged care facility, look no further than our specialised team at SPH architecture + interiors. Contact us today to find out how we can implement sustainable designs into your next project!