Estate Living Digital Publication Issue 11 November 2015 | Page 35

“I see it as an on-going experiment,” says
Brian van Niekerk, the homeowner and
managing director of the Rhino Group of
Companies who have been responsible for
the systems and integration of some of the
building design.

An intricate system of rainwater harvesting from all
the roof areas as well as the front parking area via a
hydromedia system allows water to drain through
and get captured below before being pre filtered to
join the water from the roof area and stored in 30 000
litre storage tanks in the utility room. The water is then
pumped and treated via a number of filters including
Ultra-filtration and UV creating high quality potable
water for the home.
A secondary filtration system has also been
implemented, where all black water, along with
organic kitchen and garden waste, is fed through an
Agama biogas digester. The natural gas produced from
this process is used for cooking and delivers enough
gas for four hours’ of cooking time per day. The grey

water meets up with the black water after the biodigester where it then is treated through a trickle filter
and a further reed bed system. Thereafter in the utility
room, the water goes through a number of filtering
stages before being re-used for toilet flush back to
the home, irrigation for the garden and top up for
the aqua-gardens.The aqua-gardens all form a part
of the swimming pool filtration, providing a natural
eco system and chemical free swimming pool that
circulates 24 hours a day.Finally the extensive use of
recycled materials included in the decking, natural
rock features, cupboards and counters made from
shutter board and concrete baths, basins, polished
concrete flooring and counter-tops ensure the house
retains its sustainable feel.
House Rhino is an autonomous, functional and modern
family home that not only applies sustainability at
a whole new level but also successfully shows that
building an entire environmentally friendly home, as
opposed to with some sustainability solutions, is both
possible and affordable.
www.rhinoplastics.co.za

35
INTEREST PIECE

in the bar room and the air conditioner. In summer,
cooling of the house is achieved through a thermal
tower that extracts warm air via the highest point
passively, as well as through cross ventilation via doors
and windows strategically placed. The aqua-gardens
also aids the process, providing cool humid air inflow
as well as a high pressure fogging system atomising
water droplets down to 10 microns around all the
veranda areas, thus creating evaporative cooling.