new solar passive home in the hills, Glen Forrest

new solar passive home in the hills of Glen Forrest

FEATURE PROJECT FOR JUNE - Homestead in Southern Brook

This month's feature project is a self sufficient homestead on a large rural block close to Northam. Greg and Jo are long term Northam residents who are planning the move to their rural block and are already in the process of  restoring some denuded land areas by planting sandalwood trees. They enjoy the rural vernacular of lightweight sheds and their only prerequisite was to try orientate the view towards the dry creek bed and bush in the distance, and to create a home that would be energy efficient and largely self sufficient.

Our early sketches show the original concept of a large shed-like structure with a "Great Verandah" to the north, but unlike traditional verandahs this one slopes upward to allow winter sunshine to penetrate the living areas. This results in a 'butterfly' roof where water is collected down the center and captured in holding rainwater tanks before being stored nearby in 200 000 litre tanks.

The final design remainded fairly close to this original concept , with a central courtyard being the covered pool area which links to the generous outdoor room.

The covered pool area will also help with evaporatively cooling the entertaining areas, and minimise associated wind-borne dust problems. The house will be built with a lightweight steel structure with super-insulation and will also have a 5 KW photovoltaic array on the roof to add to it's self-sufficiency criteria. Greg has already built the limestone podium on which the house will sit. and we look foward to watching the steel 'skeleton' rising from the plain like some prehistoric beast!

FEATURED PROJECT - Dr. Nan Broad's "green story"

Nan's "green story" started with a referral to our studio from the landscape designer on our Ecovision project, John Mc Williams. Nan is a writer and historian, exploring the West Australian outback in her fitted-out landcruiser "Tom",  gathering information about pastoral history. Nan had recently acquired a block of land in Port-Denison / Dongara on the West Australian coastline, and wanted to build a rammed limestone home that would give her the sense of "living in a garden".  Nan's enthusiasm is contagious, and it wasn't long before we were exploring several options and materials to try achieve her unique vision of a sustainable home that would respond to her love of nature and open spaces.

We decided early on that a 'courtyard' form would be ideal to maximise views into the garden and protect against the notorious winds of the region.We also decided on a sense of 'informality' and 'discovery' where the house and garden would slowly reveal itself as one progressed further into the 'inner sanctum'. We started by setting the house as far back on the block as possible,  approached down a row of mature eucalypts and through an oversized front garden that may be planted as an 'orchard' or left as a 'field' .

The front elevation reveals little, deliberately avoiding the current fascination with 'facadism' as opposed to the 'experiential'. A 'blade wall' of rammed limestone guides one to the 'breezeway', an indoor/outdoor space that seperates the guest suite from the main house ( and thus provides an element of privacy and independence for visitors). The front door is a carved teak door sourced from Africa and complemented by a commissioned stained glass window, an abstract version of  local plants.

One enters the home straight into the open plan " Garden Pavilion" which includes living , dining and kitchen spaces and opens along it's entire north face to the central garden court. This ensures excellent solar passive gain in the cold winters while also ensuring that the garden is an integral part of the house. ( the home achieves a 7 star energy rating ) There are also openings onto the south which will be a covered 'tropical' garden, and allows maximum use of cooling southerly breezes in the hot summers.

  Nan's bedroom and study form the east of the court and is accessed via a discrete library and day bed area overlooking a private north court. All rooms have access to their own private courtyards complete with niches for scupture's/ artworks brought back from extensive travels.

Nan has also made some bold and imaginative decisions regarding other materials in the home. After coming accross an abandoned digging in the outback, she collected a number of rock samples of 'chyrsoprase' ( also known as 'Australian jade' ) and painstakingly  cut them to form a semi-transluscent mosaic mural that will be use as a screen in the shower. She has also investigated an ancient Morrocan plaster technique called 'tadelakt' that will be used on the bathroom walls in place of tiles ( and the associated mould problems in grout). Timber posts used outside will be from recyled 'mulga' , a common tree species in the outback.

The slab for this unique home is currently being poured, and we will update you on it's progress as it becomes a reality over the following months.

Chyrsoprase,  commonly known as 'Australian jade'

welcome to the blog of arcologic, eco-logical architecture

Welcome to our first blog posting. This blog will be dedicated to sharing our knowledge and experiences in our quest to provide sustainable, distinctive and cost-effective homes to more people throughout Western Australia and beyond. We will be following some of our exciting new projects as they come out of the ground, and following up with post-occupancy surveys to test wether the theory has matched the reality. We will also be posting on any new or interesting 'green initiatives' coming out of our sandy outpost of Perth, the most isolated capital city in the world. We would love to hear your feedback or suggestions, we all need to work together to create a more sustainable and interesting future for our struggling planet. And to demystify the 'greenwash' , our mission can be stated in 3 words - " green living simplified "