Breathe Retirement Village 2015

Breathe Retirement Village

Breathe will be a 30-residence, environmentally-smart™ neighbourhood at Tumby Bay and designed for those who are 55+ and not ready to retire in the traditional way, in a traditional village, in a traditional location. What if every single thought and act of design and construction of Breathe made the world a better place, starting with our residents?

That is what we are doing. That is what being environmentally-smart means. It goes past the net-zero environmental impact, to actually have a net positive benefit.

Environmentally-smart is based on seven primary goals:

• Sense of Place – A key element that defines Breathe is its resounding harmony with the surrounds.
• Net Positive water – The goal is to achieve 100% of Breathes’ water supply by capturing precipitation or from other closed loop recycled water systems.
• Net Positive Energy – 105% of the Breathes’ energy needs will be supplied by on-site renewable energy on a net annual basis.
• Healthy Happy Homes – Creating environments for physical and psychological well-being is another critical element. Breathe will include elements that nurture the innate human/nature connection.
• Non-toxic – Breathe must eliminate all building materials that are toxic, carcinogenic,mutagenic or endocrine-disrupting and have no negative impact on human and ecosystem health.
• Equitable – Breathe has a broader goal of supporting a just, equitable world. One imperative for making this happen is for breathe to be human-scaled rather than automobiles-scaled place so that the experience brings out the best in humanity and promotes culture and interaction.
• Beautiful Buildings – It is imperative that Breathe celebrates a design that uplifts the human spirit — in other words, beautiful buildings.

These are the guiding principles on which Breathe is being created.

A long-term sustainable solution to climate change requires that we eliminate or substantially reduce the amount of carbon being emitted into the atmosphere from human (anthropogenic) activities.

My contribution to this global ambitious task is to creating zero-carbon homes at Breathe.

The implementation of the following six features offer a promising solution to zero-carbon living to drastically reduce the amount of energy consumed by Breathe residents.

– Low-energy design and features
– High performance building materials
– Solar thermal energy and solar lighting with intelligent passive design
– Solar photovoltaic’s for a renewable energy micro-grid
– Energy storage with latest technology batteries
– Demand management systems to balance supply and demand

The Research Node for Low Carbon Living at the University of South Australia is working with Breathe to create a landmark zero-carbon retirement neighbourhood. The University of South Australia in association with the CRC for Low Carbon Living have awarded a PhD scholarship valued at $100,000 to map the energy service needs of retirees at Breathe and match them with affordable energy efficient architecture, solar energy and energy storage technologies. This world leading research project will develop the template for future sustainable retirement communities.

Breathe’s design is fundamentally underpinned by ‘sustainability’ in its broadest sense. A common understanding is that sustainable living includes the grand goal of managing or Environmental, Social, and Economic impacts on the world so that we meet present needs, while ensuring the ability of future generations to meet theirs.