The Green Copper House is an exemplary representation of intelligent modern building design, bringing together style, livability and both passive and active energy saving measures, ensuring house that is comfortable year round with minimal environmental impact. The building is located overlooking the ocean, receiving diverse and often sudden changing weather.
During the construction phase, all waste generated from demolition, excavation and construction was either recycled, reused on site, and only sent to landfill where there was no other alternative.
The site was found to consist of loose sand, subject to slippage and destabilization of the neighbouring house if disturbed even slightly. To overcome this, they elected to use hand-augured contiguous piers, eliminating the need to excavate. Rock wasn’t encountered anywhere on the site, so the piers were dug 6m deep to give sufficient lateral stability to the later excavated basement, without any damage to the neighbouring property. 
All concrete used was 3 Star Envirocrete with up to 60% reduction in cement and virgin aggregate materials. Recycled sand stock bricks were used for the internal face brick wall with some of the previously painted surfaces turned in to create a colourful feature wall to the staircase. The highly detailed copper cladding was used because of the harsh environment, providing for low maintenance. The majority of lighting is with low energy LED lamps. Low VOC paints, sealants and internal finishes were used throughout. High levels of thermal insulation are used in the walls, ceilings, roof and floors. Internal thermal mass along with phase change thermal storage between the ceilings and insulation are used to stabilize the temperature in all seasons.
A large 7.4 kW photovoltaic (PV) system is installed on the roof which is complimented by a 6kWh battery bank. Due to the large size of the PV system installed, electricity is used to drive heat pumps for water heating, swimming pool heating and the hydronic space heating. Rain water is harvested and stored in 10,000 litre tanks for use in the laundry, toilet flushing, gardens and topping up the swimming pool.
The end result is an energy efficient home that is warm in winter, cool in summer, has a low environmental impact, low running costs, and is healthy for the occupants. A worthy Winner for the Excellence in Environmental Management Award for 2015.