Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 67 i Sanctuary: Modern Green Homes

AT A GLANCE - Historic stables building retained and renovated  - 9.2-Star all-electric home provides comfortable living and low bills - Salvaged and secondhand materials throughout In 2019, Hannah Sutton and Grant Ryan spent seven months on a remote, windswept island off the south-west coast of Tasmania, where they experienced the downside of living in a house that ignored its local climate, conditions and optimal orientation. They worked as the lighthouse caretakers on Maatsuyker Island, where 100-kilometre-per-hour winds are common, with gusts up to double that speed – earning it the dubious title of the windiest non-cyclonic place in Australia. “The house was designed in London for northern hemisphere sun angles, so it was south-facing and dark, with moisture a consistent issue,” Hannah recalls. Hannah is a long-distance sailor who has…

AT A GLANCE - Renovation focused on functionality and thermal efficiency - Minimal layout changes and no extension - Energy rating raised from 1.7 to 8.9 Stars - Great results on a strict budget Ten years ago when Kerryn Burgess was looking for a property to buy in Kyneton, 75 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, her priority wasn't the house. “I wanted a garden more than a house,” she explains, “so I went hunting for a small house on a large block, with a good northern aspect.” She found a small red brick cottage on “745 square metres of couch grass, stumps and weeds”, and launched into a “back-to-front” development, starting with the garden: rainwater tanks and irrigation, composting bays, reclaimed brick paving, drought-tolerant perennials, vegetable beds, a netted orchard and an extensive chook…

AT A GLANCE - 35m2 pavilion provides roofed outdoor living plus one multipurpose room - Structure of reclaimed timber - Designed to complement and enhance existing garden For over 20 years, Di and Mark have enjoyed the home they built in Brisbane's Chapel Hill, nestled into the garden that Di has transformed from bare clay to subtropical lushness. Recently, however, a new development across the street has impacted on their piece of paradise. A rethink of their own home and garden was needed. Architect Matt Kennedy of Arcke helped them hone their brief and fit it to their modest budget: they wanted a place to be immersed in and enjoy their garden in a new way, and a new multipurpose interior space that's separate from their existing house. “The house had always…

EXPERT TIPS Brad is a Sydney-based architect who heads up a team of six at Brad Swartz Architects, which he established in 2015 after his own Darlinghurst Apartment won a number of design awards. A small-space specialist, Brad has a background in interior design as well as architecture, giving him a strong understanding of spatial configuration. What are your top tips for saving (or shaving) space and achieving a smaller home? My biggest tip isn't about saving or shaving space exactly, but instead about focusing on how to increase the sense of space. There are lots of subtle tricks that do this. For example, finishing cupboards short of the ceiling so your eyes read the width of the room as larger, or furniture and joinery up on legs so you…

EXPERT TIPS What are your top tips for saving (or shaving) space and achieving a smaller home? – Create flexible spaces with overlapping functions rather than a separate room for each use. For instance, a large table with comfortable chairs can serve for dining, gatherings, office or school work, kitchen bench extension or workbench. – Along with lar ge and well-positioned windows, consider 2.7or 3-metre-high ceilings with pendant light fixtures, to make smaller rooms feel more generous. – Double or tr iple bunk beds for the children are fun and save a lot of space. Sharing rooms with siblings teaches children accountability and develops their social skills. – I nstead of ensuites, consider a single generous bathroom and a separate toilet that may be combined with the laundry. – One…

Welcome to the transformative realm of biophilic home design! In this series we will delve into the essence of biophilic design, examining its core principles and practical applications to create environments that promote wellbeing and are in harmony with the natural world. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CONCEPT The concept of biophilia has deep historical roots, tracing back to our earliest ancestors who lived in close harmony with nature. This intrinsic connection to the natural world has been a constant throughout human history, influencing our art, architecture, and lifestyles. However, it was not until the 20th century that the term ‘biophilia’ was brought to prominence by German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. Fromm described biophilia as the “passionate love of life and of all that is alive”. His work laid the foundation for…

1 Tint style Happily, environmentally friendly paint is getting easier to source, and Tint's water-based, VOCfree range in lovely designer colours is a great addition to the market. The company has made testing colours simpler with giant peel-and-stick colour swatches and a virtual try-on facility using the Tint app. There are 70 colours to choose from, and custom colours can be mixed via the online Tint Match option. All paint is delivered, and prices start at $45 per litre for ceiling paint and $59 per litre for wall paint. tintpaint.com.au 2 Magic mosaics Glass can be recycled again and again, reducing the need for raw materials in the production of building materials like tiles. Perini's Omnia tiles are made from 98 per cent recycled glass with a mosaic look suitable…

AT A GLANCE - Small-footprint ownerbuilt home in a suburban backyard - Cleverly designed, highperforming urban infill project - All-electric with 3.5kW solar PV system - Private courtyard garden and green roof “I love a good puzzle, and the challenge of building an entire house at the back of an inner-urban block intrigued me.” – Jos Tan, architect Michael and Claire, like many suburban property owners, wondered whether they could fit a small house in their Brunswick backyard. Claire's parents were renting nearby, having moved to Melbourne to be closer to their grandchildren. The idea of having them even closer as their kids were growing up, while maintaining privacy and independence, appealed to the couple. It would be a tight fit on their 300-square-metre block. They floated the idea at lunch with friend…

AT A GLANCE - 35m2 apartment renovated and modernised - Minimal layout changes focus on creating a sense of spaciousness - Cabinetry wall does triple duty as a work, rest and play space Andrew and Luana moved to Queensland from Sydney with a bunch of friends for a better lifestyle during the Covid pandemic, and loved it so much they never went back. After the lockdowns ended, the couple bought a one-bedroom apartment in an art deco block in Brisbane's trendy New Farm to set up their home base. The location is fabulous, carefully selected for car-free living and within walking distance of cafes, the city and the Brisbane Riverwalk. And despite its small size – just 35 square metres – the apartment had what they describe as “good bones”, including high…

WHEN LESS IS MORE Australians build some of the world's largest houses: on average, larger than even American homes! It's very possible to live comfortably in a home that's much smaller than average, though; read on for inspiration that will, hopefully, lead you to consider bucking the national trend when next looking for a home – to buy or build. HOW ON EARTH DID WE GET HERE? In the 1960s, our homes averaged around 100 square metres. Through the next few decades, the average floor area kept growing; since the turn of the century the average new home size in Australia has hovered between 225 and 250 square metres. This is not a worldwide, or even a first world, problem: for example, Denmark, the country with the largest houses out…

EXPERT TIPS What are your top tips for saving (or shaving) space and achieving a smaller home? – Make sure every part of the home serves a function, and put storage in everywhere – great storage makes small homes sing. For example, Little Loft House (described below) features shelves for cookbooks in the laundry right next to the small kitchen, and a whole wall of bookshelves with an integrated window seat on what was previously just a blank wall with a window. – ‘Borrow’ space to make small spaces feel more generous; this can be done by using batten screens to delineate spaces while sharing light between adjacent areas. – Doors allow small spaces to function more flexibly. A large sliding door can allow a room to borrow light and…

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have noticed that Australia is experiencing some pretty stressful cost of living issues, along with a housing affordability crisis. (If you are living under a rock, that could well be the reason!) At the core of the affordability issue is a housing shortage. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the year ending 30 September 2023, Australia's population grew by 659,800 people. The average household size is 2.52, meaning around 260,000 new homes are needed each year to house them. However, according to PopTracks, just 170,000 new homes were built in the year to March 2023 – the most recent data available. And indications are that construction of dwellings is slowing, not increasing. We are simply not keeping up,…

AT A GLANCE - 42m2 studio designed for flexibility of use as an office or dwelling - 8.7 Stars and designed to Passive House standard - Iterative energy ratings used to optimise design elements On the slopes of kunyanyi/Mt Wellington in South Hobart, with tranquil forest views to the north and a creek burbling at its feet, sits a diminutive wedge-shaped studio. A secondary dwelling on the property of architects Uta and David Green, it was built as the new office of their practice, Green Design Architects. As is often the way when designers create something for themselves, it was a testing ground for ideas and materials the couple wanted to try out: “As architects, when we design our own place, we get to play,” says Uta. In this case, they set…

The Passive + Prefab project is very much a collaboration between Evan Graham, the builder, and myself. The design of the Pod, as we're calling our prototype studio, was conceived in response to skyrocketing building costs and our desire to streamline quality sustainable architecture. We were interested in integrating our knowledge of building health and Passive House Standard science into a small project. In our area, in and around Newcastle, there's a significant number of single people living in large homes. We saw an opportunity to offer greater flexibility, choice and viable long-term options for downsizing, freeing up larger homes for families and contributing to more efficient use of housing resources. Having worked together on several custom projects, Evan and I began discussing our shared experiences in the industry and…

Helen, you've worked in sustainability, climate advocacy and community engagement for over two decades. Tell us about your background and what drew you to Renew. I started working in the environment space as a political researcher at Greenpeace's Canberra office in 2001. After a decade working in child health and development, my growing concern about climate change had prompted me to go back to university to start a Masters in Environment Law. I quickly found myself immersed in environmental politics, and learnt a lot about campaigning and advocacy on issues ranging from illegal logging and fishing to chemical regulation and pollution. It was quite a shift to move from international and national policy to local ACT politics as an advisor in the Legislative Assembly in 2009, but it was a…

In a well-insulated house, an uninsulated concrete slab edge is like having a hole in your jumper. If you want to stay warm, you need to patch up the hole. WHAT IS CONCRETE SLAB EDGE INSULATION AND WHY DO WE NEED TO CARE ABOUT IT? Despite the high embodied energy of concrete, slab floors are a popular choice for sustainable homes as they can provide a positive contribution to passive solar performance as internal thermal mass. To do this effectively, the concrete slab must be exposed to the sun in winter and to cooling night breezes in summer. Once warmed or cooled, though, the thermal mass needs to be exposed inside the house and not outside. The part of a concrete slab exposed outside a house acts as a thermal…