First principles
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 5.
Architect Ric Butt says being “environmental” comes naturally to someone who has been raised in the countryside in a post-war environment. Butt’s parents’ generation were acutely aware of the limited availability of food, water and energy, and instilled in Butt and other post-war children an appreciation of resources and sustainable living. Butt says that growing up in the Riverina district in central southern New South Wales, ensured that “sustainability was automatic.”
“Power, energy and water were precious. Everything was recycled. We saved nails, roofs and sheds. We had to fix everything.”
Butt’s company, Strine Design, strives to create “electricity-neutral, water-neutral and carbon-neutral autonomous buildings.” Sustainability is one aspect of being an environmental architect,” he says, pointing out that design should harmonise with its locale. “Sunlight is therapeutic and proportions and sequences of spaces should allow the building to flow and relate the outside to the interior.”
The eHouse was designed with the above principles in mind. The prototype, which comprises 200 square metres of living area with an internal courtyard positioned between the bedroom zones, can be reconfigured through adaptable, nonloadbearing internal room dividers. The aim was a design with built-in flexibility to maximise a seemingly compact space. “The house has ‘outside rooms’ and a veranda,” explains Butt. “The north courtyard has a pergola which allows it to function as a ‘living room’ in summer. The courtyard allows a seamless transition from the family area.”
Owner Stefanie Pidcock says she was immediately drawn to the house’s “funky design” when she first saw it 18 months ago. “It is different-looking to the conventional Canberra house with its courtyard and floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows on the northern side to let in warmth and light,” she says.
“The adjustable shade panels located on the northern side of the house are both practical and aesthetic and the mainly concrete walls and floors add an edge. It’s just so light, sunny and airy.”
Pidcock is impressed with the regulated temperature of the house, contrasting it with the “traditional Canberra cottage” she used to live in with husband Connall O’Connell. “The temperature was freezing cold, which was great in summer but icy cold in winter. We expended a lot of energy to warm it. It was also very dark.”
Butt says that it was in the 1980s that he set himself the challenge of designing buildings in Canberra that didn’t need heating. Concrete floors and walls are integral to this, as well as solar chimneys that are left open in summer and closed in winter through the manual use of an internal rod. “Solar chimneys work on the stack effect,” says Butt. “Hot air rises and, in summer, escapes. In winter, it is redirected back into the house.”
The precast insulated concrete panels are quickly erected, simple to deconstruct and are able to be recycled. The panels also minimise the use of finishes and volatile organic compounds found in tiles, glues, carpets and painting.
