Sustainable design with a long-term horizon
Low-impact building, high-impact living across Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Our Approach To Sustainability
Australians build the world's biggest houses… we're not entirely sure why. For over two decades, we've helped people build less, but better. The most sustainable square metre is the one you never build — and clever design means none of it goes to waste. Every room earns its place.
To us, sustainability isn't about how many solar panels fit on a roof. It's the fundamentals like smart orientation, natural ventilation and passive design — the same principles that keep a home comfortable through extreme heat, not just on the one nice day Melbourne gives us all year.
Altereco’s Six Pillars of Sustainability
Built for Generations
Sustainability isn't a buzzword. It's a starting point for every design.
A home that requires a massive renovation or demolition after 20 years isn't sustainable, no matter how green the materials were. True sustainability is longevity.
That's why we design for Australia's real-world conditions, designing homes to withstand soil, climate and bushfire — built to shelter families for generations, not just impress at handover.
Flexibility & Adaptability — One Space, Many Uses
One Space, Many Uses
Sustainability also means designing spaces that work harder.
We design rooms to flex and serve more than one purpose — a study that doubles as a guest room, or a living space that shifts as family needs change.
This reduces the need for extra building area, lowers material use, and cuts the energy it takes to heat and cool your home. It also means your home evolves with you, rather than becoming outdated.
Fewer rooms. More function. Less waste. And less time cleaning rooms you never use.
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Design for Every Stage of Life
To us, accessibility is sustainability.
Designing homes that adapt over time — as families grow, needs change, or mobility becomes more limited — reduces the need for costly future renovations.
Our ethos is simple: design homes that support you through every stage of life, not just the one you're in right now.
Materials With a Purpose
Your home's resilience starts with the materials it's built from.
That's why we make sure every material has a job to do. We focus on locally sourced, low-toxicity, durable materials that protect your health, your budget and the environment.
By vetting everything we use, we build for longevity — so what we put into your home today won't become a problem down the road.
Raising the Baseline
We stopped designing to the building code in 2020. Not because we had to, but because the code is the floor, not the benchmark, and we refuse to put our names to the bare minimum.
Whether you're building something custom through Altereco or walking the pre-designed path of Altereco2, you're choosing a higher standard of living.
By involving builders from day one, we ground our sustainability targets in financial reality and hold high-performance standards at every stage.
Sustainability Must Be Achievable
Sustainability isn't just about materials, energy or design principles — it's also about making the home achievable for the people who'll live in it.
A home that exceeds a client's financial capacity isn't sustainable, no matter how well it performs. If it can't be built, maintained or adapted because of cost, the design has failed before it's even started.
That's why we work closely with clients to balance performance, durability and lifestyle goals against realistic budgets — because a home that's actually achievable is the only kind that gets to happen.
