Mustard Seed Recoding Studio @ EcoVillage - Australia

Hi! I'm back. You may remember me from such threads as "Looking for a property for new studio - Gold Coast", "Lou's Studio" and "Pro tools/logic" I've been away for a while touring with a couple of bands and renovating an apartment that I'm selling right now. I'm not giging just now and I believe now is the time to in-barking on a new venture. I'll be purchasing 2500 sp meters of land in an estate just outside of the Gold Coast in Australia. The place is known as the EcoVillage and has won about 8 or 9 international awards for their vision, construction and management of a 100% self sustainable community. More about that later, lets get down to studio stuff. I was running my studio in our house up until a year ago. Sadly, all my gear is in boxes packed in our garage right now. $80,000 worth of equipment sitting idol, it's not my dream plan! I began looking for a commercial building to put the studio into 18 months ago when we where just about to buy an apartment to renovate. I concluded that it was just too risky, financially, to jump into a commercial venture at the time as I had lots of gigs and was not able to manage a studio full time. Thank God I decide not to go ahead with it because we had no idea the world would plunge into a Global recession. Well......It's time. I'll be building a studio from the ground up. The EcoVillage have very strict covenants and building codes, especially when it comes to building 'green'. Two major issues I have are: 1. Cutting and filling is strictly limited to 500mm 2. No air-conditioning (that includes HVAC) 'sigh' I'm having a meeting with the developers, a couple of builders from EcoVillage, an architect and the panel of the EcoVilage building approval board tomorrow morning. It is a special concession I've been given that no other buyers has had to meet with all these people at once. The plan is to put our heads together and work out a way to build the worlds first natural cooling and heating ventilation system, get some lenience on the amount of cut/fill I can do, and obviously, build a 100% self sustainable recoding studio. There are other Eco-studios around but they all have HVAC offset by a million solar panels to power it. This is new, innovative and bloody big challenge but I believe it can be done.........someway? One of the reasons I think they have organized this meeting is because I've shown the ability to take advice, be flexible with my designs and....well.....I'm just basically an all round terrific guy! That means I'm totally open to ANY suggestion ANYONE has about this project. As it is being built from the ground up size and so forth is very flexible. To start off with, lets begin with a 12m x 7 m slab for the studio and take it from there. This one is going to happen. I'm selling two houses to fund the project. This project will also include a three bedroom home and a small two bedroom pavilion on the same building envelope (Maybe 2x 2br pavilions?). The 3 bedroom home will sit atop the studio. The land is approx $350,000 neg and I'l have around $350,000 to build. Did I mention the land I'm looking at is on the side of a hill! I'll be the owner builder so my costs will be almost halved. I'm giving myself 18 months to 2 years to finish the entire project. Here we go....

HEY! Congrats on the plans and good luck. i'm not sure about the slab limitations, but with the cooling issue. Have you heard of ground to air heat tranfer...i think thats what it's called. Where you suck in your ventilation via a 5-10m tube under ground which stays at a constant. I'm not sure what that "constant" is at the gold coast Also if you utilise the slab as the natural floor and maybe run your cold water lines through it? Might cause noise issues though! You would be keeping you heat generating equipment in a machine room and not too many windows :wink:

My advice with all that money: Hire a pro to design your new studio!

i know the Ecovillage Glenn - I used to drive past it when I was visiting Recording Oasis which over in the Tully valley. It was just a bare block with a couple of start houses and amain office with a bank of solar panels out front. At the time I was living halfway up Mt Warning in a solar powered house. Just remember that a soundproof studio is an airtight studio officially and an airtight studio without air exchange is a death trap.

Are you gonna have neighbours or its an open space? In that case just record drums with the window open :)

Wow!! slow down...... First. Hi John, Thanks for a great resource like this. I thought you would know EcoVillage. There are now about 40 houses and they have opened up the valley on the other side of the hill now. It's really pumping along and there original concept for community is really starting to kick goals for everyone involved. I understand a sound tight space is an air tight space. Let us consider......A HVAC system has 'S' bend soundproof ducts entering and exiting the room. This is my basic principle for getting air in and out, just like HVAC except for one thing.........NO HVAC! jbassino - It may seem like a lot of money but I can't just pop down to Bunnings or Home Depot to buy wood. Everything is Eco. Eco wood, eco glues, eco glass and there has to be a least 20% recycled. I'll be using rammed Earth, Denim recycled insulation, lots of Earth more Earth ummm......Did I mention a Rammed Earth Floor? Apart from the dirt, all the eco friendly materials are very expensive, and solar panels are a big investment too. I will be using professional Eco Architects and Designers There will be some space around me with the nearest neighbor about 300m away but I still need it soundproof. Soundproofing is not just about sound getting out but sound coming in too. I don't want a bird whistling in the background of the Gold Coasts newest Heavy Metal bands recording, do I?! My wife will be upstairs with her consulting business too. lilith_envy - Thats what I'm talking 'bout! I'm researching some heat exchange systems. Some studios transfer the heat from their racks to heat their reception. I'm also looking at geo thermal exchange too. I'm not so concerned about heating as Queensland is semi tropical and winter only lasts a couple of months, gets down to about 6 degrees C sometimes. Brrrrrrrr! I'm more concerned about cooling. Now I'm imagining some kind of refrigeration system and in-floor cooling system. You got me going. Yes! Everyone, thanks for your immediate interest and excitement. I can see there will be lots of ideas coming in. Cheers!

"6 degrees brrrrr" HA! you don't know what cold is!