Eco community designs win prize

Green design champion Christine Doan from the Atherton Tablelands put up $1000 in prizes for students to design sustainable, practical and economical options for land developers.

Ms Doan was looking at options that meet the "triple bottom line" for environmentally, economically and socially sound designs for a large block of land near Malanda in the Far North.

She asked Queensland University of Technology urban development lecturer Paul den Ronden to inspire his students to design an eco community.

Mr den Ronden said the students explored the use of innovative, low-embodied energy materials such as "hempcrete" (a low-carbon mix of hemp pulp and lime), straw bale construction and soil block technology.

"All of these are materials are undergoing a worldwide resurgence in an effort to build more sustainably and lighten our carbon footprint," Mr den Ronden said.

They investigated the use of the Biolytix system for recycling wastewater and other market- available energy and resource efficient systems.

Ms Doan said she had read about Mr den Ronden and his teaching with real-world situations through an on-going project in which his students had designed and helped build a schoolhouse and accommodation for orphans in Botswana, Africa.

``Now they've designed a neighbourhood for a tropical climate like Far North Queensland," she said.

The students' designs addressed development issues such as drainage and wastewater, sustainable building materials and recycling.

Ms Doan said she would like to use some of the QUT students' ideas and community consultation was underway to test acceptance of them.

``A development application has yet to go in and I'm looking for serious community involvement to decide the future of this block,'' Ms Doan said.

``It's time for green to become mainstream but it's a huge challenge to make it pay.''

Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1841 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.