Dion Seminara Architecture Wins Prestigious Award

We have just been awarded first place in the L J Hooker Grantham Flood Home Design Competition.

Now we normally don’t give much thought to competitions; our primary focus is on our clients lifestyle needs, not what it will take to win an award. But this competition was different.

The Competition

The L J Hooker Grantham Affordable Flood Home Design Competition was for ‘a family home that has been designed for a site that potentially could be inundated with flood waters’. More importantly this design was actually going to be built and given to a Grantham resident who had lost their home in the tragic floods that devastated that township in January 2011.

Aside from coming up with the best possible design for this Grantham home the purpose of the competition was also to indentify an architect who could:

  • Work with the Future Housing Taskforce (FHTF), Lockyer Valley Council and stakeholders to develop an appropriate response to their needs and desires;
  • Achieve a cost effective design;
  • Develop a project that demonstrates the successful integration of flood resistant, energy efficient and sustainable design;
  • Achieve design excellence.

Judging was done by a panel made up of various housing, development, council and architectural experts with the winning design selected after much deliberation and the jury following a progressive elimination until consensus on a winner was reached.

So as you can see not only was competition fierce, the evaluation process was particularly rigorous.

Our Winning Formula

Obviously with the recent floods still being top of people’s minds there were a lot of architects submitting designs. Flood proofing homes in Brisbane is something that I have been thinking about for a while now, so I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve with my design submission.

My design was based on the property being flooded and the owner not being able to do anything to stop the water getting in. Based on that some of the key elements of my design were:

Our concept house is designed to be a flood free dwelling able to be located in a variety of locations at an affordable price

  • Our concept house gives flexibility by creating a multipurpose zone at ground level for vehicles or storage. This space will have the capacity to be cleared when flooding occurs and easily cleaned down after a flood event
  • Our concept house allows for a variety of flood levels as determined by each local authority
  • Our concept house is to be built in a controlled factory environment where the house can be transported to site in 2 parts down the middle with connection done on site this means the building construction can be controlled and cost limited where possible. This will also allow for mass production
  • Our concept house is based around the use of light weight building materials for climatic benefits for the occupants and transportation benefits which will in turn achieve affordable outcomes
  • Our concept house would be built on posts so the design can fit onto any slope.
  • Our concept house will be able to expand through inter-linking pavilion additions.
  • Our concept house will have large screened awnings to capture all natural ventilation for privacy. The large eave overhangs will provide shelter and screening to upper level bedroom windows. The main awning around the first floor level can be used as a platform for solar panel and hot water systems.
  • All materials would be low maintenance, sustainable and environmentally friendly. Aesthetically the design of the house will blend with the surroundings whether they’re bush settings or urban

A Sense of Pride

The L J Hooker Grantham Flood Home Design Competition is a prestigious award to win and we are very proud to have won it.

We are proud that not only have we created a beautiful, eco-friendly home design for someone from Grantham who lost so much in the floods, but we have also created a design that is certain to become the benchmark for future home designs in flood prone areas throughout Queensland.

It is possible that when the next major flood event occurs – hopefully not for many years to come – that my design and variations of it, may save thousands of people from suffering the heartache that so many have had to endure from the 2011 floods.

It’s humbling to win an award such as this, but as much as it fills us with a sense of pride, it means more to Dion Seminara Architecture that our design is set to become the standard that all others are judged by.

So if you or someone you know lives in an area that might be prone to future flooding, feel free to give us a call, knowing that you are dealing with the best in the business.