Archicentre

Archicentre today announced it would soon release a plan book of designs as a strategy to target housing renewal and address the real issues facing Queensland home owners - flooding, affordability and smarter design.

The plan book featuring twelve design concepts will be launched on Saturday 3 March 2012 at the Brisbane Home Show.

Contemporary House Concept Design by Evan Pickering, Focus Architecture

The Archicentre Plan Book will enable people to choose a plan they like and have a home design concept developed for their block of land, and then have full working drawings developed by the architect of the original design.

Archicentre Queensland State Manager, Ian Agnew said, "the flooding of 10,000 homes in Brisbane last year, the continued threat of floods in regional and rural areas across Australia, the problems of housing supply and affordability mean a major game changer for future housing design in flood prone areas is required."

In 2011 Archicentre, LJ Hooker and The Future Housing Taskforce in Queensland recognised the need to create flood resistant housing designs and ran an architectural competition to create twelve new designs by local residential architects which could be built for under $200,000. The exercise thus prompted a re-think in the way we have been approaching housing design.

The release of the Archicentre Plan Book is the next step in putting these designs on the ground to establish a major understanding of the need to design and build for Queensland conditions and the way in which good design can address everything from flooding to the costs associated with running the family home.

Up to $63 billion of existing residential buildings, including as many as 247,600 individual buildings, are potentially at risk of inundation in Australia this century, according to Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coast, published by the Australian Department of Climate Change.

Mr Agnew said, "one of the main aims of flood resistant design is to provide for an easy clean up after the flood with a flexible multipurpose use of the ground level for vehicles or storage, allowing for a flood clearance level of 4.5 metres to the first floor".
"Materials and finishes which can be hosed down without damage should be included on lower levels and designs need to allow for water to flow through the lower level of the building without placing pressure on the structure."