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Sanctuary: Modern Green Homes August 18th, 2023 Digital Back Issue Cover

Sanctuary: Modern Green Homes Issue 64 (Digital)

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19 Articles

Letter from the editor

In this issue, one of our most popular special features is back: prefab and modular building. As we face volatile construction costs and rising energy prices, it’s timely to look at the latest developments in the offsite construction industry in Australia, and what this approach can offer for energy-efficient, sustainable and beautiful builds that are less susceptible to cost and timeline blowouts. We feature a roundup of some of the best prefab suppliers in the business, including Prebuilt, whose inviting family home on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula graces our cover. The home’s seven modules were fabricated and fitted out in Prebuilt’s Kilsyth factory before being installed into a U shape around a central sheltered courtyard. Our house profiles include a collection of inspiring urban and rural homes built offsite – from…

Letter from the editor

Hire quality Need furniture for an event, a short-term lease or for styling a house? Furniture hire and styling company Valiant is working to combat ‘fast furniture’ trends by turning waste plastic into tables, chairs and sofas, in a sector where furniture is often cheaply made and seen as disposable. Valiant’s new range includes durable ReforaStone, crafted from 100 per cent post-consumer recycled plastics and used for indoor and outdoor furniture like tables. The upholstery on Valiant’s new range of lounges and dining chairs is also made from recycled plastics, with around 720 plastic bottles used for each Selena two-seater sofa. The sustainable materials range is available for hire in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. www.valiant.com.au Wall charm Sconce lights were originally designed to hold candles, and with a…

BOOKS Architecture at Home: Houses for New Zealanders to live, work and play Debra Millar Point Publishing, 2022 NZD $80 Architecture at Home presents a carefully curated selection of 22 architect-designed, contemporary New Zealand homes. From permanent residences to holiday retreats, new builds to renovations, and tight city sites to sweeping rural landscapes, the featured projects collectively demonstrate the importance of good residential design. Author Debra Millar states that “these homes feature qualities we have all come to value during the disruption to our lives in recent years”. This is certainly true, and the book highlights just how capable New Zealand architects are at creating elegant and unique homes that thoughtfully respond to their context as well as to the needs and aspirations of their clients. The book features beautiful…

LOCATION West Hobart, TAS At a glance • Small-scale renovation of a classic weatherboard home • New staircase doubles as a passive solar heat trap • Energy rating increased from around 1.5 to 6 Stars • Integrated permaculture garden The conventional wisdom when renovating period homes is usually to prioritise perceived market expectations and resale value. This often means large extensions tacked onto the back of the original home, with more of an eye for the real estate listing than for the needs of the current occupants. What if we chose to do things differently though? What might a renovation look like if we focused more on meeting our needs within the original structure and improving its liveability and efficiency, rather than choosing to extend? Obviously, our needs change over…

LOCATION Yallingup, WA At a glance • 8.3-Star home nestled into bushland • All-electric and almost off-grid • Cosy in winter and cool in summer, with no air conditioning • Universal design for ageing in place Eamonn and Rebecca used to live in East Fremantle, in a modest house on a battleaxe block. It was great in many ways, but had the potential to be much more sustainable than it actually was. “It was an architect-designed rear duplex with big north-facing windows, but the overhang was too large and we didn’t have enough thermal mass to take advantage of the winter sun,” Rebecca recalls. “There wasn’t sufficient roof space to add solar panels, and the house was heavily treed-in anyway.” However, the floor plan of that home worked well for…

Studio portrait

LOCATION Northcote, VIC At a glance • Underutilised gar age converted into a multifunction workspace, guest room and more • Exis ting structure and materials retained where possible • Building en velope upgraded When the couple were choosing a home to buy, they were lucky to have Tom’s longtime friend, architect Cameron Greiner, helping them out with the search. By the time they purchased their Californian bungalow in Melbourne’s Northcote in late 2020, Cameron knew the property well. The house needed some love before the new owners moved in. Cameron planned a staged renovation to the main house, the first part of which involved replacing the kitchen and bathroom as well as adding skylights to increase natural light. This greatly improved the amenity of the house without requiring lengthy and…

Studio portrait

Prefab perfection

LOCATION Richmond, VIC At a glance • Prefabricated, panelised extension designed to Passive House Low Energy Building standard • Quiet, cosy and calm oasis for family living in a noisy neighbourhood • All-electric with solar PV and induction cooking When David and Sally Ritter wanted to buy into the busy inner-urban Melbourne suburb of Richmond, real estate pickings were slim for a family without a huge budget. They eventually found a tiny semi-detached Victorian cottage on a very small site near a busy main road. It was “cramped, damp and dark,” says Sally, with a lean-to kitchen and bathroom and a small yard backing onto a laneway. But it had great heritage value, and the doublebrick construction of the front section was solid and worth saving. The family embarked on…

Prefab perfection

Among the dunes

LOCATION Robe, SA At a glance • Three prefabricated pods added to a holiday home • Designed and sited for minimal impact on fragile dune system • Simple, compact design and fitout, with robust materials • No active heating or cooling When Steve and Catherine Dunn approached Troppo Architects in Adelaide to discuss the possibility of extending their family getaway at Robe, they imagined a conventional addition to the architect-designed, longhouse-inspired home they’d built in 2000. The Dunns used to live in Mt Gambier and have owned this block since 1989. When their children were younger they used to camp on the vegetated sand dunes, and even after the house was built, overflow accommodation was in tents. But with the kids now grown up and grandchildren to cater for, Catherine…

Among the dunes

Top of the range

LOCATION Kelvin View, VIC At a glance • Off-grid family getaway and future permanent home • Prefabricated panelised pavilions built to Passive House Plus standard • Simple shapes and compact floor plans test out ideas for modular home offerings When architect John Tallis set out to build his modest two-pavilion house perched among granite boulders at Kelvin View, a couple of hours’ drive north of Melbourne, his aims were threefold. Along with creating a weekend getaway for his family and an eventual permanent home for himself and his wife Bettina, the project was a prototype for his new ‘Fabhaus’ offering: prefabricated, modular Passive Houses. “I wanted to get the design details right and get the delivery right before taking the plunge with clients,” John says. Thirdly, and importantly, the finished…

Top of the range

Committed to the cause

LOCATION Narrabeen, NSW At a glance • Small-footprint, relocatable all-electric home on a modest budget • Prefabricated and delivered in two modules • Extensive use of reclaimed, secondhand and locally sourced materials A prefabricated house that’s both sustainable and affordable can be a difficult find. Traditionally, prefab offerings have tended to be high-end and expensive with good sustainability credentials, or low-end and cheaper but with not much consideration for sustainability. Julie’s prefabricated home sits right in the sweet spot, though. It’s modest in size, designed and built to a budget, and every aspect has been carefully considered for its impact on the planet. A former librarian, Julie did in-depth research into each element and detail of her new home to ensure it would be ecofriendly while still being affordable on…

Committed to the cause

Built back better

LOCATION Runnyford, NSW At a glance • House and sanctuary built offsite and delivered as five modules • Designed for passive solar performance and bushfire resistance • 13.2kW solar PV system and Tesla Powerwall battery When wildlife carer Rae Harvey was rescued from the bushfires that destroyed her house near Batemans Bay on New Year’s Eve in 2019, she vowed that if one kangaroo on her property survived, she would rebuild. “I had 26 survivors,” says Rae, who has recently moved into her new prefabricated modular house with an adjoining sanctuary for orphaned joeys. She approached Sydney-based modular design and construction company MODE Homes to design her house and joey sanctuary. “We designed the joey house first, then we designed my home once the animals’ needs were sorted,” she says.…

Built back better

FEATURE The housing affordability crisis, inflation and a desire for an energy-efficient home in the face of rising energy bills have many people considering prefabricated and modular construction as a reliable solution. We look at what’s new in the industry, and profile a range of local suppliers in our modular and prefab guide. Just like another advanced technology, electric vehicles, prefabrication for residential buildings hasn’t been fully adopted in Australia – yet. The tipping point might already be here though. Sky-high building costs and pressures in the housing market are forcing many people to look at alternatives to traditional ways to build a home, meaning heightened interest in prefabricated and modular construction methods for Australia’s small but growing industry. “The prefab and modular sector offers greater certainty than conventional construction,”…

Reclaimed timber is hands-down the most sustainable option when it comes to using wood in your new build or renovation project. Reusing timber rescued from the demolition of old houses, factories, warehouses and other structures, and salvaged from wind-fallen trees and similar sources, reduces landfill. Even more importantly, it reduces the demand for newly harvested timber, avoiding the environmental impact of forestry. Often milled long ago and air-dried over decades, reclaimed wood is denser, harder and more stable than new timber, and brings its own unique character acquired through weathering and its years of service as a floor, a roof beam or a bridge support. We spoke to five specialist reclaimed timber suppliers around Australia, to learn about their operations and why they are committed to working with lovely old…

TOOLKIT FOR ELECTRIC HOMES: A new resource can help households make the switch away from gas

If you’ve managed to stay blissfully unaware of rising energy prices, and of the changing political, social, and cultural landscape regarding fossil gas, you’re probably already living an all-electric life, and/or an off-grid one. If you are one of the majority of Australians heavily dependent on gas and electricity utilities, however, the recent price rises will be most unwelcome. Predictions warn of a 19 to 23 per cent increase to retail electricity costs, depending on region, meaning a net increase of between $402 and $594 per household over 2023-2024. Likewise, gas prices rose by as much as 22 to 28 per cent in the 12 months to January 2023, and are likely to rise further. It’s becoming increasingly attractive for the average Australian to look for alternatives as cost-of-living pressures,…

TOOLKIT FOR ELECTRIC HOMES: A new resource can help households make the switch away from gas

ON THE DRAWING BOARD: A tale of two retrofits

In early 2021, the team at Tochi Workshop carried out thermal performance assessments on two very similar two-bedroom units in Melbourne’s inner north. One home is my own place, located in Westgarth. The other, located in Northcote, belongs to a client, Rob. Both homes were built in the late 1960s or early 1970s using brick veneer construction and both suffered from dismal thermal performance – they were hot in summer, freezing cold in winter, and mould would form on the windowsills where condensation could be seen collecting every winter’s morning. The purpose of the thermal performance assessments was to determine the potential of the two homes to be made more energy efficient, and to understand the likely costs involved with upgrading them. First, we modelled the existing houses. The Westgarth…

ON THE DRAWING BOARD: A tale of two retrofits

DESIGN WORKSHOP: A home for the generations

Want us to Design Workshop your house? To apply, email sanctuary@renew.org.au with your plans and a brief outline of your project. PROJECT TYPE Renovation and extension LOCATION North Curl Curl, NSW (Guringai Country) EXISTING HOUSE SIZE 90m2 PROPOSED HOUSE SIZE 150m2 LAND SIZE 700m2 BUDGET $400,000-$500,000 THE BRIEF • Add two-storey rear extension while retaining the home’s character • Accommodate two households on the property with shared, accessible spaces on lower level • Use the north-eastern orientation for natural lighting and passive solar heating The original two-bedroom house has sentimental value for Heather, as it was built by her grandparents and holds many happy childhood memories. Now owned by her mum Margaret, it suffers from typical issues associated with its era: hot in summer and cold in winter, with an…

DESIGN WORKSHOP: A home for the generations

RENEW LAUNCHES GETTING OFF GAS TOOLKIT TO SUPPORT AUSTRALIANS TO DITCH GAS Australian homes must be at the centre of the renewable energy transition. Renew’s Getting Off Gas Toolkit, launched in July, is dedicated to supporting residential electrification and providing practical independent resources from Renew’s extensive archive on replacing gas with efficient electric appliances. “We are seeing a massive groundswell of community interest in getting off gas,” says Rob McLeod, Renew’s policy and advocacy manager. “Getting off gas cuts energy bills and cuts emissions, but upfront costs and a lack of practical information can be barriers to making it happen. Households need support, and the independent resources in the Getting Off Gas Toolkit are an important part of that.” Renew’s research has found that new homes with all-electric appliances can…

Sweet and wild Sumptuous syrups from foraged flora

OUTDOORS There exists enormous potential to create unusual floral syrups from a broad range of plants. These syrups are sweet infusions made with flowers or buds from shrubs and trees, akin to berry and herbal syrups. My passion for creating them began when I was living in Melbourne and cycling everywhere; for me, foraging became synonymous with cycling. When you are out in the elements, seasonal changes wrap you in a blanket of fragrance as you ride, and pulling over to harvest fruit and flowers for making jams and syrups is an attractive adventure. Three of my favourite floral syrups are callistemon-melaleuca, mugolio (made from pine buds or cones) and lilac. Each has a distinctive flavour and colour and can be used to flavour many things, from summer drinks to…

Sweet and wild Sumptuous syrups from foraged flora

DESIGNERS IN PROFILE

SHANNON BATTISSON Architect The Mill: Architecture + Design www.themilldesign.com.au Based on Ngunnawal Country in Canberra; works Australia-wide What kind of house did you grow up in? I moved house many times as a child, but my first house was a small two-bedroom house that had a beautiful garden and no fences between us and the park next door. I lived with my parents, my older sister Jade, and our golden retriever Sam, who wandered freely and was much loved by our neighbourhood. What was the first design project you were really proud of? I designed a house for my mother and stepfather, and it marked a return to my love of residential architecture. I believe strongly that our homes are sacred spaces and deserve far more consideration than we currently…

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