Michael Green

Writer and producer

Six-star homes

In Architecture and building, Environment, The Age on

Higher star ratings will add little extra cost.

The energy efficiency of our homes is on the rise again. Last year, state and federal governments agreed to lift the residential standard from five to six stars. The changes will come into the national building code from this May, and then the states must bring them into effect by May 2011, at the latest.

In Victoria, the new rules are the first major increase since the introduction of the five-star regulations in 2004. So what difference does a star make?

It’s only a small rise in cost for a cushy lift in comfort, according to the CEO of VicUrban, Pru Sanderson. With its builder partners, the state land development agency has been offering six-star homes for years. “They’ve become VicUrban’s base standard,” she says. “We’ve proven to the market that it is doable, at scale, for a very, very small price tag.”

VicUrban estimates that the better performing homes will cost $5000 extra at the most, but much less – under $2000 – if the planning, subdivision and orientation of the blocks is done carefully. “In terms of the cost of a home, it’s a very small outlay for a long-term benefit,” Ms Sanderson says. “We estimate that a six-star house uses about 15 per cent less energy in heating and cooling compared with a five-star house.”

Matt Fisher, from the Association of Building Sustainability Assessors, says the price tag could be even lower. “We did some studies that looked at real world [plans] and found that they could be increased from five to six stars for about $500,” he says.

The last jump in energy efficiency rules forced the industry to improve the building fabric and insulation. Mr Fisher says that this time around, the changes will summon designs that better suit the climate and location of the house.

David Hallett, from Archicentre, the building advisory service of the Australian Institute of Architects, agrees. He argues that the house plans and the site of the land must always be considered together. “Most of our homes are designed in isolation and plonked on a block, depending on which floor plan the client happens to like. Sometimes it works well, and sometimes, really badly.”

Poorly oriented homes may still be able to reach six stars, but they’ll need top-notch windows and insulation. It will be much cheaper for new homes to meet the higher standard if they are well-suited to their block – with features such as smaller windows to the west and south, living areas to the north, and eaves calculated to shade over summer and let in sun over winter.

The ideal way to address local conditions is with a custom design that fits your land. But Ms Sanderson maintains that big builders and developers can also offer well-oriented houses at scale – though the industry will first have to invest in expanding the range of its products. “At VicUrban we already have sophisticated guidelines about typical building configurations for different kinds of blocks,” she says.

Although Ms Sanderson approves of the higher standard, she’s also quick to point out that the new regulations don’t mean we’ll consume less energy. “The improved performance is being offset by the ever-increasing size of new houses,” she says. “The average new house is 40 per cent larger now compared with the 1970s.” Bigger homes not only chew through more energy, but also more construction materials and waste.

Likewise, the way we live in the house has a drastic effect on the amount of energy we consume. “We’re wasting our time doing all of this if we don’t help educate people about how to live in a more environmentally attuned way,” Ms Sanderson says. “We want the six-star lifestyle to go with the six-star house.”

Renovating with the stars

The six-star regulations will also apply to extensions. Retrofitting energy efficiency is more difficult than starting from scratch, but Anthony Wright, building designer at Sunpower Design, says the higher standard is well within reach. “We generally aim for seven stars or better – six stars is a minimum.”

The new rules are slated to work the same way as the current five-star renovation system, which applies only to projects that require a building permit and varies depending on the size of the alteration. For larger additions the whole house must comply, while for smaller changes only the new part must adhere to the rules. “You’re not required to do the impossible,” Mr Wright says.

To make the grade, he says designers will need to incorporate solar passive design techniques, including smart orientation to get sun in winter and exclude it in summer. That task can be tricky for additions to the shady south. “Sometimes it requires more thought, but there are lots of ways to get northerly sun in a southern extension, such as using roof glazing or setting the extension back.”

Mr Wright has two main tips for would-be renovators. “Do a preliminary energy rating at the sketch design stage to see whether the designer is coming close. It might cost a few hundred dollars, but could save you a lot of grief down the track,” he says. “And be realistic about the amount of glazing you put into the house and the direction it faces. Think strategically about it, rather than having expanses of glass.”

 

Greensburg, Kansas

In Architecture and building, Community development, Environment on

On 4 May 2007, a tornado nearly three kilometres wide ripped through Greensburg, in Kansas, USA. It levelled the town and killed 11 people. The townsfolk decided to build back sustainably, with all city buildings to meet the highest level of the US Green Building Council’s rating system. Their blueprint for recovery was all green, taking in public buildings, infrastructure, housing and the downtown business area.

Last year, Greensburg mayor Bob Dixson visited Australia. He spoke to the Green Building Council of Australia, and also to the people of Flowerdale, who lost much of their town during the Black Saturday fires.

MG: What was your message to people in Flowerdale?

BD: The number one thing is to know that there is hope and you will recover. The other thing is sometimes you have to be real patient – we want things to happen faster than they do. Sometimes you have to plan and do the best you can without getting in such a rush that you find out later mistakes are made.

Over 95 per cent of the buildings in Greensburg were totally destroyed and that’s a lot like in the Flowerdale area, so there was a real kindred spirit between us because of the smaller town atmosphere and the sense of community.

MG: How did you come up with Greensburg’s long-term community recovery plan?

BD: Planning started the first week after the storm. The community had no place to meet so we met under a big circus tent and we did everything there; we had meetings, we ate together, we had church services together. And part of the planning process then was to come up with a sustainable long-term recovery plan. It was facilitated by government agencies, but we were the ones who had the input in what we wanted the community to look like. It’s a living document and we need to revisit it regularly.

We’ll be totally sustainable. We’ll have a community wind farm that will generate electricity for our town and it will be big enough to [connect to] our fellow communities that belong to the power pool. It’s kind of a cliché, but it’s a wind-wind situation.

MG: It’s a big change from the way the town was before. How did it come to be so environmentally focussed?

BD: We knew what we were doing was for future generations. We needed to make sure we built back for the 21st century, not for the way it was beforehand. It was about being good stewards of those resources we’ve been blessed with, and about seeing how our ancestors handled it when they pioneered our area. They utilised the resources they had available; no more, no less. And they understood that if you took care of the land, it took care of you. So really the concepts of being green have been around for generations. It’s just that we have such modern technology now to take advantage of those environmentally friendly and energy-saving green initiatives.

MG: What message do you have for communities, towns or cities that haven’t suffered such a disaster?

BD: One thing we’re really proud of is we’re the first community in the United States to have totally LED street lights. That’s a saving of 43 per cent on our energy and when you figure energy and maintenance combined, it’s a 70 per cent saving. It reduces our carbon footprint by 40 tonnes of CO2 per year. If Melbourne went to LED street lights, it could cut its emissions tremendously. Any community can implement things – you just have to do it.

MG: Has the Greensburg community changed since the tornado?

BD: It reinforced the values of our community. It mattered not your economic status in the community, you lost everything. So the only thing you had left was not your possessions, not your vehicle and not your home; all we had left were our relationships with each other. And we found out they were there all along.

Several young couples have moved to the community who have no ties to the area and that’s because of the excitement and the sense of renewal and rebirth. In the midst of it all we’re seeing interest from all over the world. To me, it’s beyond the disaster and building sustainably. People see hope in Greensburg right now; hope that you could come back from a disaster. We have been blessed with a tremendous opportunity, but we also understand we have a tremendous responsibility to share with the world anything we’ve learned, because as far as sustainability goes, we are all the new pioneers of the 21st century. We live in the most exciting times in the history of this planet, because we have an opportunity right now to truly make a difference in where we’re headed.

Sustainable House Day

In Architecture and building, Environment, The Age on

On Sustainable House Day, Sunday September 13, eco-conscious stickybeaks can learn from the people who know best. Visit two Melbourne homes open for inspection.

Lorraine Hughes has shown over 1300 people through her two-bedroom sustainable home in Knoxfield. “I’m into education,” she explains. “I just invite people, left, right and centre.”

She’s got it down to a well-practiced art, complete with information boards and pamphlets. The diminutive and dedicated 73-year-old begins her tour across the road, looking back at her home. “The house says ‘Solar, solar, solar, solar’, right?”

Right. The cream-coloured house has a long north-facing aspect, and it’s sprouting solar power. There are thickets of photovoltaic panels on the roof – some gathered towards the back and others standing proudly at the front like sails in the wind. There’s also a solar hot water system and two solar ventilation units.

“I’ve got a 4.5 kilowatt (solar PV) system and it will be providing clean green energy long after I’m dead and buried,” Ms Hughes says.

She built the house – designed by Andreas Sederof from Sunpower Design – for her retirement in 2001. “I wanted to downsize, stay local and build a house in suburbia,” she says. “My aim was to be as sustainable as possible on a small block that looked the same as everybody else’s.”

The home is self-sufficient in water and, over the course of a year, produces electricity well in excess of its needs. The building materials and finishes were chosen for their low embodied energy, wherever possible.

After discussing the technical details of solar power, Ms Hughes heads back over the road, around the front fence – made from radial cut timber, to minimise waste – and through her gate to the waterworks.

She has an enormous 27,240-litre rainwater tank, which captures the runoff from all her gutters. Further around the back, past the citrus trees, her greywater treatment system collects wastewater from the washing machine, showers and bathroom basins. The peat-treated outflow is used in the garden and toilets.

Ms Hughes’s interest in sustainable living began in her childhood – her parents planted veggie patches and fruit trees and kept farmyard animals wherever they lived. “I travelled in my youth too,” she says. “I worked in third world countries, so I’ve seen life from a different perspective. There’s nothing new about living sustainably.”

She also has a full grasp of the latest technology. After years of going to talks and short courses, she studied energy auditing and sustainable building design for a year at Swinburne TAFE. “I enjoyed it up to the hilt. I hadn’t been back to school for over 50 years,” she says.

Inside her home, there are all kinds of details to take in, from the smart solar passive design, cross-ventilation, double glazed windows, clever blinds, and eco-friendly fittings and finishes.

Ms Hughes has spent years attending to every detail, but she wants to illuminate, not intimidate, her visitors.  “You don’t have to do what I’ve done. I always tell people: if you’ve got an existing house, concentrate on one room at a time. Do the things that you can – insulate, seal your gaps,” she says. “And the most important part of all is the person living in the house.”

***

A tour of Cameron and Karin Munro’s house in Malvern begins in the small front yard. Mr Monro scratches at a patch of red stones to reveal a shiny metal plate. “The downpipes all feed into a stormwater exit that just runs underneath our feet,” he says.

From there, the water is diverted and pumped to a tank at the back of the house, which feeds the laundry and toilets. The saving has helped the Monros cut their consumption down to just 45 litres each per day, less than a third of the state government target.

The couple bought their neat, late 19th century weatherboard cottage in 2007, after moving to Australia from Europe. Ms Monro, from Sweden, had shivery memories of accommodation down under. “I spent a year in South Australia as an exchange student,” she says. “Temperature-wise, the winter was nowhere near northern Europe, but I’ve never been as cold as I was then, because there was no heating except a wood stove at one end of the house.”

Mr Monro, an Australian engineer and transport planner, had also become accustomed to smarter housing design. “Sweden has an extreme climate and they’ve built houses to match it,” he says. “The Australian climate is also extreme, but I think we’ve lost our way in building for it.”

So the couple decided to blanket their house in insulation – they doubled the batts in the roof and injected expanding foam in their walls. The tour’s next stop, at the weatherboard side wall, provides the evidence. It’s dotted with patched-up holes where the foam was squirted in between studs.

It’s slightly spotty inside too, on the ceiling, where the Monros have removed 21 power-hungry halogen downlights. In their lounge area alone, their lighting energy use has tumbled from 250 to 15 watts.

The extra efficiency has helped them to consume only about as much electricity as they generate with their 1 kilowatt solar photovoltaic system. “I think solar PV is brilliant,” Mr Monro says. “You just get it installed and do nothing – that can’t be beat. There’s no greasing, noise or any ongoing maintenance costs. It just sits there and ticks away.”

Double-glazing proved the biggest expense. They replaced nearly all the window units in the house. “The new windows are incredibly expensive but incredibly good,” he says. “They cut down the noise as well as improve the thermal performance. You feel it walking around the house.”

All up, Mr Monro estimates they’ve spent between $35,000 and $40,000, of which the windows took up about two-thirds. “It’s not a financial thing because the economics currently just don’t stack up,” Mr Monro says. “It’s really an ethical thing about our futures and that of our baby, Sophia.”

“And also about the quality of living and comfort,” Ms Monro adds. “The house is so much nicer now.”

She’s got a cosy message for people who visit their home. “It is possible to retrofit an existing house. You don’t have to buy a new house or demolish and build again. You can reduce what you’ve got and make a big difference.”

Sustainable House Day will be held on September 13, 2009, from 10am to 4pm. Across the country, 170 homeowners are participating. In Victoria, there will be 45 homes open to visitors, all for free.

Petite force: container housing is on its way

In Architecture and building, The Age on

Has the ship finally come in for container housing? Visit a metal model home.

In 1964, Geoff Fulton installed a collapsible caravan into the roof of a Mercedes Benz in Germany and began travelling the world. By the time Russian authorities confiscated the vehicle three-and-a-half years later, the young man had learnt a lesson in scale. “I proved to myself that you don’t need a lot of space to live in.”

Now, four decades on, Mr Fulton and his partner Carla Salomon-Kerkering want to pass that message onto the public at large. Sitting in the lounge of their ‘Small is Smart’ display house – a pint-sized but fully equipped dwelling built from a single recycled shipping container – the couple is adamant that bigger doesn’t mean better. “Why do we need more?” Mr Fulton asks. “The main reason is because we’re used to it, or because we don’t want people to think that we’re living in a little house.”

At just 12 metres long, 2.4 metres wide and 2.7 metres high, the home can be easily packed onto a truck. And as befits its modest dimensions, it is super cheap and eco-friendly – both traits in high demand thanks to global eco and economic woes. “If it’s owner built, we anticipate it will cost about $30,000,” Mr Fulton says. A fully pre-made, basic model is likely to come in at about $50,000.

“Our aim is to show people that living in a container isn’t slum dwelling. Nor does it have to look like an ugly tin box,” he says, nodding towards the sleek interior fit-out. The prototype is complete with a lounge room, kitchen, bathroom, double fold-out bed and space for a washing machine and dryer. Given its size and form, the biggest drawbacks appear to be lack of storage space and natural light.

Ms Salomon-Kerkering – a garrulous German interior architect who first met Mr Fulton on his epic voyage in the 60s – says that with attention to detail and deft use of colour, small can seem spacious. The interior walls, ceiling and floor of the Small is Smart house are all dark grey. “Everything in life is about illusions,” she says. “When you have the same colour all the way around, you lose your dimensions. If you had a different coloured floor it would look narrow because you see exactly where the wall starts.”

Carefully placed mirrors in the lounge area and bathroom also help maintain the deception. “If I’m sitting here and I have the illusion that the room is double the size, I’m happy,” she says. Among other clever design elements, the dwelling has an all-white kitchen to enhance light gain, as well as varied ceiling heights to de-box the interior.

There are over seventeen million shipping containers around the globe and, although still structurally sound, most fall into disuse after their stint at sea. According to Mr Fulton, salvaging this resource slashes the carbon footprint of the Small is Smart home. “The main structure has already been recycled and at the end of its life, can be recycled again.”

Also, by combining effective insulation and shading with a smart ventilation system that prevents heat exchange and humidity, Ms Salomon-Kerkering believes that the freight container home won’t need artificial cooling. “Air conditioning is the past, not the future. It is not necessary,” she says.

The designers, from Torquay, envisage all manner of uses for the Small is Smart house, including holiday homes, granny flats, student accommodation and retirement villages, as well as worker, social and emergency housing.

“It’s ideal for bush holiday facilities. You can leave the big steel doors on and shut them. If a fire goes through, there’s not much risk of it going up,” Mr Fulton says. “First home buyers could also get in for next to nothing and then expand the house as they need more space, without having to move out. They can just add containers.”

Although the petite prototype was only recently completed, Mr Fulton says it has generated a lot of interest. “We’ve had Toorak ladies say ‘I could live in this. In fact, if I can’t get the kids out of my house, I’ll put one of these in the backyard and I’ll live in it,’” he says. “What better recommendation could you ask for?”

Home steel home: cheap and solid

“There’s no doubt that modular and container housing will catch on big time,” says Brian Haratsis, managing director of property industry consultants MacroPlan. “There are a growing number of people looking for a low-cost housing alternative. A lot of people these days would rather spend their money on travel; they’re mobile contractors or Internet bloggers or whoever they are, and they just want somewhere that they can afford.”

Mr Haratsis predicts that the initial demand for low-cost housing will come from retirees who find themselves short on superannuation and decide to sell their family homes. “The peak year for the number of retiring baby boomers is 2015. With the global financial crisis impacts on super, between now and 2025 will be the crunch years for housing in Australia.”

With those downsizing baby boomers in mind, Geoff Fulton has begun planning a large ‘Small is Smart’ retirement village at Leopold, just outside Geelong. But he’s not the only one getting ship shape. Architect Matthew Grace recently designed ‘resPOD’, a series of plans for container homes.

Using between one and six crates, resPODs range in cost from about $70,000 to $185,000, depending on size. “The concept was about taking the architectural level of detail into a small package and making it affordable for the majority of people,” Mr Grace says. “(Using shipping containers) was a way of utilising an existing waste resource and trying to minimise the environmental impact from the ground up. There’s been lots and lots of interest.”

The outlook for shipping crates as disaster relief is not so promising. In 1999, prominent Melbourne architect Sean Godsell designed ‘Future Shack’, a prototype for emergency housing made from a recycled shipping container, but despite worldwide acclaim, it hasn’t gone into widespread use.

Founding Director of Architects Without Frontiers and RMIT design lecturer, Dr Esther Charlesworth says that while container housing may be a good idea for a bush-block weekender, a granny flat or an extension, it’s unlikely to provide appropriate relief or social housing. “Architects quite often assume that they can produce the universal solution. I’d argue that with social housing, container homes can become problematic in terms of social stigmatisation of the occupants but also because of the harsh climatic conditions in monsoonal or arid zones.”

In any case, Dr Charlesworth says that in many disaster situations, such as post-tsunami Sri Lanka, locals can build homes at a much lower cost than imported options. “And once you start to literally ship in an object, you’re losing a whole lot of local future employment and training opportunities that come through housing construction.”

Close encounters: why medium-density living is the way of the future

In Architecture and building, Environment, The Age on

With a fast-growing population, we need more homes on the block. Michael Green finds out what makes medium density housing work.

Melbourne’s got density on the mind. The state government’s high-profile plans, Melbourne 2030 and Melbourne @ 5 Million, both aim for a more compact city. And even though our suburban boundaries continue to spread, haphazard change is underway.

Medium density housing grew seven-fold in the decade following the 1990s recession, according to planning expert Michael Buxton, and it’s been booming ever since.

Medium density means more homes in less space. It means townhouses, units and flats, where each home is attached to the place next door. Traditional suburbs have about 8 to 15 dwellings per hectare, whereas medium density ranges from 20 to 80. High density – residential development above about four levels – is yet more again.

“People said we wouldn’t embrace apartment living, but we have,” says Dr Buxton, from RMIT’s Environment and Planning unit. “There’s no doubt that Melbourne will continue to intensify its development. The real issue is what form it will take.”

So when it comes to medium density housing, what separates the good, the bad and the inconvenient?

DESIGN

Clare McAllister, from McAllister Alcock Architects, says that with careful design, flats can offer comfort as well as convenience. “If you get it right, a compact dwelling can feel a lot more spacious than its footprint would suggest.”

Ms McAllister is the jury chair for the Australian Institute of Architects award for multi-residential development in Victoria. Among other criteria, the panel considers the level of ‘amenity’ each dwelling affords: “the things that improve the quality of day-to-day living,” she says.

Those things include adequate storage and well-resolved layouts. “You’ve got to look for plans that have no wasted space and no tortuous little access ways,” she says. The design should allow for privacy without inducing claustrophobia, and outdoor spaces must be usable.

Environmentally sustainable design has also become an important yardstick. Ms McAllister evaluates passive solar design techniques, such as good orientation (to catch sun in winter and block it out in summer) as well as insulation and cross-ventilation. “We look for projects where the developer has taken that extra step [in eco-design] without being forced by legislation,” Ms McAllister says.

The jury also mulls over what each development adds to the local community. In the inner city, that might mean cutting edge architecture, or in leafy suburbs, generous gardens. “Often, there’s a lot of angst when you put something new into a neighbourhood, but if it’s well-designed it can make a positive contribution,” Ms McAllister says. “Good medium density housing does give something back.”

PLANNING

Shrewd building design isn’t all that’s needed for urban consolidation to work. As with all real estate, location is crucial. In this case, according to Dr Buxton, it’s all about proximity to public transport. “Increasing density on sites far from public transport isn’t doing any good, because it just leads to increased car use.” Well-located developments also link into existing infrastructure such as schools, healthcare facilities and parks.

Dr Buxton says medium density development in the inner- and middle-ring suburbs is in demand for the access it gives to activities. “Its popularity is related to the perceived social advantages, where people can walk to public transport, shopping and cafes.”

But he says it’s not enough for developments to sponge off the existing range of activities in the area. “We should be aiming for a mix of uses – residential, as well as retail and other employment-generating uses – even in individual developments.”

Other planning measures, such as height limits on development, can improve environmental performance. Dr Buxton says that medium density homes cause the least CO2 emissions, thanks to their modest size, shared walls and low heating and cooling needs. In contrast, high-rise apartment buildings fare the worst. “They tend to be very poor performers, because of the glass construction. They also have lifts, and big foyers and other spaces that have to be heated.”

VALUE

Adrian Jones, President of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, says medium density units are popular with the younger generations and with retiring baby boomers. Despite the recession, interest remains strong. Mr Jones expects prices will continue to rise in the long term. “There’s keen demand for units because they’re more attractively priced. It’s a good entry-level way to get into the market.”

He says prices range from about $200,000 for a one-bedroom flat in a middle suburb, up to about $550,000 for a well-appointed two-bedroom apartment with a lock-up garage and small garden.

“People look for a little extra amenity space,” he says, “a pocket-handkerchief garden, or at least a balcony. They also want a garage or a car space. Anything without a car space is a disaster.”

Mr Jones says that while some buyers are wary of living too close to their neighbours and of the lack of soundproofing in newer apartments, higher density living is inevitable – and not only to curb urban sprawl. “As our younger generations get more money, a lot of them will want to live in apartments,” he says. “It gives them more flexibility: low maintenance is a great attraction.”

Close to shops, transport, icons

At 30 The Esplanade, architect Michael Bialek knew his firm, SJB Architects, had a unique design opportunity.

“The site occupies a prominent position in an iconic location,” he says. “It’s got some very different neighbours: The Palais and Luna Park opposite, and heritage terrace and the McDonalds car park [either side]. I think the building fits into that chaotic framework and breathes on its own. It pays homage to the things around it without deferring to copying them.”

The striking, voluptuous 12-apartment building won the 2009 South East Design award for outstanding medium density housing development and is nominated for the Australian Institute of Architects’ multiple housing award for Victoria.

The design includes rectangular, terrace-style apartments and curved, irregular residences, as well as a green, fishnet-patterned, glass façade. The penthouse roof gardens boast million-dollar views over the bay and beachside icons.

“We felt that the building should reflect the vibrant character of St Kilda – the interest in art and form-making,” Mr Bialek says. “The graphic [on the building] is a tongue-in-cheek recognition of the fishnets of the fishermen and of the hookers’ stockings.” 

As well as it’s sculptural form, the building has space for two restaurants at ground level. “Once they open, it will be in the European style where you walk past on the street and you won’t even realise what the building is,” Mr Bialek says.