Sustainable Inner City Living

Four Kingspan Round Rainwater Tanks in corrugated steel with galvanised finish.

The original ‘Argyle’ Victorian heritage house used a 2,500-litre tank for vegetable garden watering and flushing toilets.

For the contemporary, sustainable living project, S2 design chose to install a maximum of rainwater storage to fit into the new basement to fulfil the aim of achieving (almost) total water independence from mains water.

A thorough water study identified the project required sufficient water for a family of four, a large dog and an Australian-first ‘roof farm’, a new approach to sustainable inner city living and a new interpretation of permaculture.

A visually spectacular design in contemporary architecture, the project was also significant for its social, functional and environmental considerations.

Application Kingspan manufactured 4 made-to-measure water round tanks of 10,850 litres (2.4m diameter x 2.4m high) to fit precisely within the constraints of the tight basement space and supply almost 45,000 litres of rainwater to the home and garden.

The flat tops on the steel tanks allowed more water storage than alternative tank types, which often feature domed or angled tops.

The surface finish of the tanks is a perfect complement to the exposed galvanised finish of the building structure and construction details.

The Solution

The household’s current daily use of mains water is only around 6 litres per person solely for drinking and cooking. The four rainwater tanks serve all the remaining household water needs throughout the year, which prior to occupation was estimated at 150,000 litres per annum, plus an additional 30,000 litres for irrigation. The recently completed roof farm is anticipated to decrease some rainwater capture and increase water usage, which will be monitored over the coming years.

We expect some minor adjustments to the water management systems should ultimately see daily mains water usage reduced to nil.