As an architect with a young family, building this home was an opportunity to see how far we could go on a modest budget to create an extremely energy efficient and thermally comfortable home. Having lived in cold weatherboard homes in Central Victoria most of my life, we were about to create for ourselves the single greatest luxury we could imagine. Warmth.
Our philosophy was to prioritise the budget on a well-insulated and airtight building envelope, rather than on aesthetic choices such as high-end materials or gravity defying architectural forms. Of course we also need to make things look beautiful and be appropriate to its context. The simple pitched roof structure is elegant and humble at the same time, as it sits perched on the edge of the escarpment.
We decided to use Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) which provides the structure, an airtight and continuously insulated external shell, and in our case also the internal wall finish. The materials sourced by the manufacturer are low VOC, but in any case we designed in a Heat Recovery Ventilation system (HRV) to provide continuous fresh filtered air while exhausting the stale moist air. This is key to not only providing a healthy indoor environment, but also mitigates structural damage caused by condensation and mould.
Trends in architecture are like trends in fashion. They are popular and look good now, but two years later we are asking ourselves “what were we thinking?” and want to remodel. Part of the ethos of sustainable building is to spend the energy on the manufacture, transportation and assembly of components once, and design them into a building which will be durable and aesthetically appealing enough that it will not need to be modified for its lifespan. It should function and serve its owners as well in 50 years as it does right now.
