Sanctuary magazine issue 11 – The Machinery Shed – North Watson, ACT green home profile

Words Rachael Bernstone
Photography Sophie Seck

Excerpt: When Keith and Gillian Helyar decided to build a new house in Canberra, they drew plenty of inspiration from houses they visited during Sustainable House Day. So it seems fitting that they should open their home to the public to share the knowledge they accumulated during the course of designing, building and occupying their environmentally friendly abode. “We weren’t intending to build initially,” Keith Helyar says. “We looked around at Canberra houses, but we couldn’t find what we wanted. Then this block came up, and we thought we could start from scratch here.” “It was attractive because of the Mt Majura Nature Reserve across the road, which can’t be built out, and also because it’s easy to get into the city,” explains Gillian. “Then we visited a number of homes on Sustainable House Day in Canberra and we gained a lot of knowledge. It was really stimulating.” “Sustainable House Day is great because you can look at so many ideas in a short time, and then adapt them for your own home,” Keith adds. “We were conscious of the need for northern exposure, but the concept of building a house in Canberra with no heating or cooling was foreign to us then.”

Sanctuary magazine issue 11 – Modest Makeover – Preston, Melbourne green home profile

Words Verity Campbell
Photography Rhiannon Slatter

Excerpt: West Preston is a Melbourne suburb brimming with postwar brick bungalows and a mix of long-time residents and young families lured to the area by its roomy houses and large backyards. It’s a familiar story in Melbourne’s inner north, and one which has led to not a few unsympathetic renovations and boxy additions. But what makes this story unusual is that instead of modernising the home and extending its footprint, architect-owner Brenton (Rexroth Mannassmann Collective) and his family chose to retain and uncover the home’s original features and layout, creating a comfortable home on a modest budget.

Sanctuary magazine issue 11 – A Study in Contrasts – Spring Hill, QLD green home profile

Words Danielle Dunsmore

Photography Christopher Frederick Jones

Excerpt: Twelve years ago, architect Brian steendyk bought a cottage in Brisbane’s Spring Hill. It was freezing in winter and riddled with termites and borers, but it had potential. Brian would sit on his back (north facing) steps and think how glorious it was to have a coffee in the winter sun. “I knew I could do something to turn it around,” he recalls. “All buildings talk to you and there are things you learn by inhabiting them.” Fast forward to today. Brian still enjoys his coffee in the winter sun but in his living room, not on the back step. The house has been transformed, and in many ways it has become his own personal experiment in sustainable housing. “When I started, things like water tanks and solar hot water were expensive. I was building sustainably because I wanted to have this house as a manifesto, as a statement of belief of what you can achieve.”

Sanctuary magazine issue 11 – Spreading its Wings – Maleny, QLD green home profile

Words Fiona negrin
Photography Christopher Frederick Jones

Excerpt: When Captain James Cook Came to the hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in 1770 he was awed by the dramatic volcanic crags that dominate the landscape. The Glasshouse Mountains are one of the region’s main drawcards, and the owners of this sustainable house in rural Maleny wake to views of them every day. “The house is high on the ridge, 500m above sea level, so the views are fantastic. You can see the Glasshouse Mountains, and on a clear day you can see 140km away to Brisbane,” says architect Dan Sparks, who is the son of the owners. Being high on a ridge is great for panoramic views but its downside is exposure to ferocious weather. “This place gets hammered by wind and rain,” says Dan. One of the briefs for the house, a renovation of an existing house, was to make outdoor areas liveable by protecting them from the elements.

Sanctuary magazine issue 11 – Height & Light – Kensington, Melbourne green home profile

Words Fiona Negrin

Photography Sonia Mangiapane

Excerpt: If you thought that an extremely narrow plot of land with little direct sunlight would make an inauspicious site for a house, you would be right. Unless, that is, you’re a couple of architects in the market for “a weird block of land that nobody would know what to do with”. So it happened that Tim Hill and Dominique Ng of Tandem Design Studio bought a tight 160 square metre block wedged between a former factory and an industrial kitchen in Melbourne’s Kensington. “We couldn’t see any way to get into the real estate market apart from buying a cheap block of land and using our standard skill set to build a house ourselves,” says Tim. He and Dominique had already spent six years plotting their dream home when they found this site. “We’d read a lot about small houses. We were thinking about what a good house would be like. ‘Sustainable’ is a word that’s come into common use, but we simply thought of it in terms of function and good design, which to us meant natural light, effective ventilation and comfort.”

Sanctuary magazine issue 11 – Once in a Lifetime – Hill End, Brisbane green home profile

Words Danielle Dunsmore
Photography Christopher Frederick Jones

Excerpt: Queensland gets its fair share of sun. Now its warmth and light have been harnessed to an extent rarely seen in an amazing new home in Brisbane’s Hill End. Designed by David Gole and Emma Scragg of Riddel Architecture (RA), this house goes to extraordinary lengths to harness and control the elements. Which is just one way in which RA realised their clients’ brief “to build the most sustainable home possible”.

Sanctuary magazine issue 11 – Best of Both Worlds – Glebe, Sydney green home profile

Words Judy Friedlander
Photography Sue Stubbs

Excerpt: It’s a sign of a good renovation of an old period terrace when it brings out the very best of the original heritage features while providing present-day panache. Thanks to architect Caroline Pidcock, this little terrace in Sydney’s inner western suburb of Glebe is now showcasing its boomperiod Victoriana through a 21st century lens. Says Pidcock: “While the house is not heritage listed, it contributes to the area. “We aimed to retain the best of what is there in the public realm, while ensuring the new work is well designed so it contributes positively to the heritage of the future.” In the front half of the house, two original fireplaces framed by crisp white walls, high ceilings, plaster cornices and ceiling roses seem to invite the visitor or lucky inhabitant to repose with a good book and a glass of wine. Step into the renovated addition in the back half of the house and the style is contemporary with a nod to period detail.

SPEED DATING WITH SANCTUARY @ State of Design Festival 2010

Do you have plans for a new green home? Are you looking to renovate your house to make it more sustainable? Bring in your plans or ideas and talk to Australia’s leading sustainable architects and designers. Ten-minute slots per ‘date’.

Come meet the architects and house designers profiled in Sanctuary magazine!

Learn how to make your home cheaper to run and more comfortable to live in. Lessen your environmental footprint. Transform the place where you live. This interactive event is a unique opportunity to meet some of Australia’s leading green architects and house designers.

Time: 2:00pm-3:30pm, Saturday 17th July 2010

Venue: Royal Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne, Victoria

Cost: Free

What do I bring?: Bring your ideas, photos, and anything else you think will make the sessions informative and fun.

SPEED DATING ON TODAY. COME ALONG, EAVESDROP, AND MEET THE ATA’S SUSTAINABLE LIVING EXPERTS!

Sanctuary magazine is an official media partner of the 2010 State of Design Festival (www.stateofdesign.com.au).

By Helen Norrie and Alysia Bennett

Excerpt: Wanting to build their own homes but reluctant to move to the city fringe to make their project affordable, two Hobart-based families came up with an idea that provides an excellent model for sustainable living – not just environmentally, but also economically and socially. The two families pooled their resources to buy a very steep site on the edge of the inner city, and developed the design for their houses in tandem. This allowed them to share the cost of site works, and to develop a standardised building system that could be utilised in both houses while providing enough flexibility to suit the varying needs of each family.

One of the houses is for Mike Verdouw, a director of 1+2 Architecture, and his partner Julia. The other house is for their friends Daniel and Kylie. Both families have small children, with more on the way. The friends were interested in how they could establish a model of communal living that would provide “an alternative for ordinary families seeking to live creatively in the suburbs”. Each family had a slightly different brief (with Daniel and Kylie wanting to allow the possibility to share their home with a tenant or boarder).

The site was previously an old dumping ground for construction waste, thought to be too steep to be a viable building site. It was overrun with weeds, but had a fine collection of mature Eucalyptus globulus trees to the south and spectacular views to the east. The previous owner had bulldozed a small area at the edge of the site, and this provided a relatively flat zone to manoeuvre cars and to create a shared outdoor living space – for barbeques, Frisbee throwing and bike riding. The houses were placed at either end of the site, arranged to capitalise on the views and to maximise access to any sun that could be found on the south-facing slope.

The steepness of the slope led to a desire to reduce the footprint of both buildings. Each house is double storey, with a modest floor area of 170 square metres. They are both compact rectilinear boxes, with the living spaces on the upper level to reach for the sun and give the impression of living among the tree-tops, while still being connected to the ground on both levels. The efficient plan ensures savings in construction and running costs. Every metre of floor space has been planned to achieve its greatest potential. Bedrooms are reduced to the minimum spatial requirements for sleeping, while the size and number of living spaces is increased. Each house has three living spaces, which allow for a range of uses now and as the families expand, ot their needs change.

By Mara Ripani

Excerpt: The classic Victorian facade of Averil and Florian’s home in inner Melbourne, where they live with their two daughters Jess and Sophie, suggests dark heavy furnishings, copper boilers and wood stoves. But on closer inspection a very different aesthetic and lifestyle is revealed. The contemporary renovation forgoes fusty Victorian for contemporary sustainable chic, while opening its doors to embrace the neighbourhood. The design brief for Steffen Welsch of Steffen Welsch Architects was to create a sustainable home that would support an active and social lifestyle. These objectives were applied through every aspect of the design, from the sustainability features and open spaces to the way the design supports social cohesion and community engagement.

To Steffen, sustainability and an “active” design go hand in hand. “To achieve a sustainable design the home requires active occupants, because it needs to be occupant operated. If you want to shade your house you need to pull down the blinds. If you want to help cool your home, you need to purge heat trapped in the house at night,” explains Steffen. The house forgoes bathroom ensuites for modest size and double glazing, a concrete slab, external blinds, energy-efficient lighting and bulky insulation. The external walls downstairs plaster. While the house has fulfilled its environmental sustainability brief, its social sustainability is also worth noting. The home revolves around a central courtyard, located in the heart of the house. The courtyard offers abundant natural light and ventilation to the bedrooms, as well as the living, dining and kitchen areas. It enables Florian and Avril to supervise the children while they prepare meals and catch up with friends or each other. It creates a dynamic house with adults and children being able to choose alternative routes from the bedrooms to the living spaces, either by traipsing across the courtyard or travelling around its perimeter. And for a close-knit family like this one the courtyard fosters supported independent activities: each member can retreat to his/her own space comforted by the presence of another.

“We like to spend time at home with everybody in the family quite close together, but not necessarily in the same room all the time. The design around a central courtyard with kitchen/ dining and the children’s bedrooms facing it provides us with a sense of being close to each other. This creates a beautiful, peaceful atmosphere,” explains Florian. Along the central corridor each bedroom door is discernible by a different colour. Jess’ bedroom is bathed in beautiful natural light from clerestory windows. A lush purple curtain hangs from the ceiling and when fully drawn it hides a third of the bedroom, creating a more intimate space in winter (a smaller space to heat) and a cubby-like nook to hide in. The bedroom overlooks the front porch and native garden – and most importantly the street – and offers Jess an opportunity to scan the neighbourhood. Steffen recalls a time when Jess glimpsed neighbouring children and excitedly went out to say “come to my house and play with me”. “This was a very positive response,” explains Steffen. “I wanted to create a home that helped connect the family to neighbours and environment. By connecting, you increase opportunities to look after one another and to look after the environment.”