With the recent rise of green building, I’ve seen a lot of amazing things. This little 850-square-foot house in Brisbane, Australia is one of them.  It was apparent to everyone at the beginning of the project that the home’s site was beautiful, but the house itself wasn’t. As an old, dilapidated monster, the home did not provide an ideal living space. That’s putting it mildly.

What followed was a green inspiration. The design team thought, why not use the materials from the old house and make a new one? Great idea. And amazingly, it worked flawlessly. Through creative collaboration and outside-the-box thinking, the new house used 95 percent of the materials from the old one (shoddy windows and crumbling plumbing had to be recycled). In addition, photovoltaic panels, a rainwater recycling system, and a smart climate-oriented system turned the house into an energy-saving, eco-friendly green machine.

Every drop of hot water that flows from the low-flow faucets is heated using solar thermal. The water itself is collected in a rainwater collection system. The innovative greywater recycling system uses sink drainage to recycle for toilet flushing—saving thousands of gallons annually. Even electricity is largely self-generated, coming through the solar panels on top of the roof.

It’s not just an eco-friendly house. It’s an eco-friendly house with style—inside and out. The exterior of the house boasts an Asian flair with a modern edge—lots of clean lines and open spaces. The interior has a crisp, fresh design, making smart use of big windows and skylights to bring the outside in. Natural wood hues and an open floor plan add to the airy feel of the inside.

This is essentially a self-sufficient home. It is as kind to its inhabitants as it is to the planet it inhabits. Hopefully, we will see more of this kind of home in the years ahead.

Via Inhabitat