Moruya Eco Motel Building Design

Moruya Airport has seen an expansion recently. Southcoast Seaplanes needed a headquarters and asked PdD Building Design to draft an affordable floor plan for a new building design. The development includes a commercial hangar space, office and tourist accommodation.

The challenge of the site was that the main view of the development would mostly be from the highway and so how could we make it look attractive from the side elevation?

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Scandinavian Architecture Australia

Paul Dolphin has spent a lot of time in Scandinavia and is in love with Scandi design, architects and architecture. This building design uses Scandi design as its inspiration both for the overall building design and the internal interior design.  The simple flat gables of the building sat at a right angle to the commercial building space reads as a simple geometric form. It is reminiscent of the first house design a child will ever draw. So coming to stay at this eco accommodation provides a sense of coming home and relaxing.

The other challenge of the building design for this site was that the accommodation faces South with great views over the Moruya river and the Moruya markets, home to the award winning farmers' market run by SAGE. Whilst that is great for getting your organic veggies, the sun shines in the North in Australia so how to design a solar passive design with no North glazing. 

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The answer is a solar active design.

 

This building design uses the latest energy efficiency technologies and sustainable technologies to achieve a very cost effective operating cost. The air conditioning is ultra efficient. The hot water is heated by super efficient heat pumps. The lighting in the hangar is operated using a Lux level sensor, so they dim as the external light level increases. This reduces the running cost of lighting the building. All of this is plugged into a huge North Facing Solar PV array which powers the whole site. There are huge water tanks which capture and reuse the rainwater for washing seaplanes and in the car park there is an EV charging point. So this Scandinavian building design looks great, both internally and externally and performs exceptionally well for a modern commercial design.