Open Field Coliving 2024

Open Field Coliving

Open Field Coliving will be a functional homestead for 10 to 12 people. The design intentions are to:

1. Allow multiple families and individuals to live together, with a balance of communal facilities and private space
2. Integrate with the homestead and permaculture systems of the property, with easy access to the gardens, orchards, compost and water systems
3. Support a net zero transition: using almost no energy to heat and cool, and avoiding high embodied energy materials such as concrete and polystyrene during construction
4. Be resilient to the effects of climate change: heatwaves, droughts, floods, and resource scarcity
5. Create a calm and earthy sanctuary for its occupants, with rich natural, recycled and local materials
6. Provide universal accessibility to make the house safer and easier for people with disabilities or injuries, older people, and
families with young children

The design is a simple, compact, hempcrete home with a big passive-solar roof. The high point on the north eave allows for
deep solar penetration from March to September and total solar exclusion from October to February.
The design intentionally forgoes ‘features’ such as dramatic roof shapes and unnecessary changes in the perimeter walls.

Rather, the simple form has the benefits of:

– Being cost effective to build
– Durability, with less chance of bulk water ingress around the roof and windows
– A more compact thermal envelope
– Resistance to ember attack in bushfires
– Simple, gravity fed, roofwater collection

These savings allows more money to be spent on the builder’s craftsmanship, and high quality materials such as hempcrete, straw,
and recycled hardwood.

Due to unforeseen circumstances this home is no longer opening in-person. If you have purchased tickets we will be in touch with your refund.