FREMANTLE architect David Barr is certainly catching the eye of the state government’s development arm, winning another challenge with his super-sustainable designs.

Landcorp recently ran a challenge for architects to come up with a medium-density apartment complex for the emerging Cockburn Coast development and Barr’s use of an innovative pre-fabrication technique helped him secure the win.

• Fremantle architect David Barr’s super-sustainable design for the Cockburn Coast.

Last year Barr also had the winning design when Landcorp was on the hunt for housing ideas that would attract Gen Y tenants to the old Kim Beazley school site in White Gum Valley.

Barr’s current design matches prefabrication with a building standard known as Passive Haus, which aims to virtually eliminate heat loss from a building and make it 90 per cent more energy efficient than the sieve you’re probably living in.

As a result, the Step Up Housing  project, which the apartments will be known as when they’re constructed in the Shoreline precinct in North Coogee, will be the first in WA to get a nine-star energy rating. The design features a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments.