The team at Anderson Architecture has been hard at work over the past few months considering what it means to be undertaking architectural works on Country. Recent changes in the industry and a keen interest in our team have prompted an attempt to recalibrate our current systems to better acknowledge Country and design more sensitively towards Country.

Evaluation and Recalibration of our Processes

Over the past couple of years, there has been an exponential increase in the amount of resources relating to Country and its undeniable intersection with the architecture industry. We are taking on the shared responsibility as built environment practitioners to address the existing knowledge gaps and embed strategies within our existing processes to more holistically consider Country, as we have done with sustainability considerations. We have found the Connecting with Country Framework particularly insightful and useful, and recognise we still have a long journey towards deepening our understanding of and connections to Country.

Reconciliation Action Plan

The Reconciliation Action Plan (also known as a ‘RAP’) is a well established framework to foster First Nations engagement across all sectors, and we have begun cultivating our very own RAP to align with what we do and our aspirations as a company. Given we are currently in the process of recalibrating our existing processes to work towards fostering a Country-centred approach, we feel it would be beneficial to consolidate our direction prior to developing our RAP further. Nonetheless, we are aiming to finalise our first Reflect RAP draft by the end of the year and look forward to sharing this to hopefully inspire others to reflect on their practices as well.

Engagement in the Referendum Being based in what we now know as Australia, we have also embraced the opportunity to show our support for the Uluru Statement in full and thus will unanimously be voting ‘yes’ in the referendum. Knowing that over 80% of First Nations peoples support the Voice – a simple and practical change – it is a no-brainer. However, this does not seem to be the sentiment currently shared across the nation, and presuming this is due to lacking understanding around the issue, we have been raising awareness within our team and wider networks. We are at the precipice of an unprecedented and defining moment as a nation, so we implore everyone to get informed asap. This site is a great source of information.

https://top10voicefaqs.squarespace.com/

It has now been nine months since the New South Wales Rural Fire Service announced that finally, the last remnant blazes of the 2019/2020 bushfire season had been extinguished.

Prior to the 2nd of March 2020, New South Wales had been alight for more than 240 consecutive days with severely drought-affected bush and grasslands fuelling bushfires that would blanket the east coast in smoke and ash, decimate over 5.3 million hectares and directly claim 33 human and over 1 billion animal lives. This, the most extreme fire season in living memory would come to be known as Black Summer, one of the most devastating bushfire seasons on record.

As we have now entered the official bushfire season for 2020/2021, it is most certainly worth reflecting on the lessons learnt from the events of Black Summer, especially as we rebuild the towns, homes and infrastructure lost in these most recent fires. One unfortunately unsurprising realisation that many residents across NSW came to experience firsthand is that the vast majority of the housing stock in New South Wales- not only those homes in, or within proximity to bushfire prone land- is ill-equipped to respond to the conditions that we endured for two-thirds of the 12 months prior to 2^nd March 2020.

Before and after aerial images of Mount Wilson, near where a backburn started the Grose Valley Fire in December. (Supplied: Geospatial Intelligence)

Far-Reaching Effects

Away from the bushfire fronts, many of us will recall that only a couple of months prior to the Covid-19 lockdowns in NSW, our homes were first our refuge from the thick bushfire smoke and ash which smothered the east coast of Australia and ultimately caused our national capital to cancel its New Years celebrations, recording the worst air quality in the world on that day. Though we may have felt some relief to be inside and out of the smoke, due to the poor airtightness practices in Australian construction and the uncommon installation of air-conditioning or heat-recovery systems with high-efficiency filters, it is unlikely that our homes were shielding us from much of the finer particulate in the atmosphere. We have discussed the benefits of air tightness in our previous blog post “The Lowdown on Passive House”. While originally developed as a means of improving the energy efficiency and thermal performance of buildings, airtightness is a strategy for wider bushfire resilience that we utilise in many of our projects, both urban and rural, so that the internal environments that we design are equipped to support health and well-being throughout the year.

Building for an Uncertain Future

Closer to the bushfire fronts, it is becoming apparent that the existing housing stock may be unable to withstand the changing nature of the Australian summer as the effects of global warming amplify the severity of natural disasters. Exemplifying this, at the recent 2020 Australian Bushfire Building Conference it was announced that 11% of homes lost during the 2019/2020 bushfire season were outside areas declared as “bushfire prone”, while of all homes destroyed, 92% were lost due to ember attack alone. With the number of days with a high to extreme fire risk expected to increase by up to 70% by 2050, there is arguably a need to prepare, design and construct our housing stock so that it is more resilient in the face of future summers with conditions mirroring that of 2019/2020. Rather than a cause to panic, we see these statistics as a call, and an opportunity, to adapt.

The effects of smoke from the Snowy Valley bushfire on the outskirts of Cooma on January 4, 2020. (Photo: Saeed Khan/ AFP via Getty Images)

Our Process

Over the years, our particular interest in architecture for bushfire prone areas has allowed us to develop an understanding of the processes and practices involved in designing and building homes in bushfire zones.

Each new project in a bushfire prone area, rated Bushfire Attack Level 40 (BAL-40) or Bushfire Attack Level Flame Zone (BAL-FZ) requires the submission of a development application (DA) to the local council, demonstrating how the proposed development meets the design and construction standards required for each level of BAL exposure. Determining the BAL rating for a property is by no means a straightforward process on every site that we design for. It is for this reason that we work closely with external Bushfire Consultants in the early stages of the design process to determine the initial BAL for each facade of the home, and through the later stages to fine tune the BAL ratings and extents of the Asset Protection Zone (APZ) surrounding the build site. As every bushfire-zoned property that we work on is unique, the site constraints, extents of the APZ and the amount of bushland to be managed into the future also vary considerably. Following the development of a design that complies with the bushfire attenuation measures prescribed by the Bushfire Consultant, the final design and associated Bushfire Report are submitted to council- and as part of this process, the RFS- for their assessment.

The RFS Blue Mountains West Sector 2020 Graduating crew at the Megalong Valley Show Ground. Source: Facebook

When designing in a bushfire prone area, there are several key and interlinked factors that we consider to contribute to the resilience and defensibility of our projects.

The siting of the proposed build is one of the first factors that requires consideration. This involves an analysis of the property in collaboration with the bushfire consultant. Existing structures and neighbours of the site, access and egress points, topography and vegetation inform the location and form of the design early in the process and identify potential points of vulnerability within the property in the event of a bushfire. In siting the proposed build, acknowledging and preserving the bushland character which is typical of many bushfire zoned sites is also an important part of our practice. We seek to design landscape schemes which both celebrate the location of the property while discouraging the build up of vegetation and debris around the home, in turn helping to reduce the structure’s vulnerability to bushfire attack.

Hand in hand with the management of the site’s landscape and vegetation, the form and detailing of the home itself is a means by which the susceptibility of the home to particularly ember attack can be reduced. Reducing the potential for ember lodgement, the build up of ignitable debris and the specification of non-combustible materials strongly influence our design practice in bushfire prone areas. Supplementary systems such as bushfire shutters and staples such as bushfire rated windows feature in our designs in order to comply with BAL construction requirements and to protect potentially vulnerable aspects of the facade. 

Bodies of water close to the house and minimal vegetation will help reduce risk. (Photo: Nick Bowers)

As one of our team is a volunteer firefighter with the NSW RFS, we also have a unique insight into the operation of the fire crews on the ground during a bushfire, and what features of a home under attack from a bushfire may deem it to be defensible. We have gained a better understanding and appreciation of providing access to static water supplies as well as how to best manage the capture of water to supply these tanks which aid in the protection and defence of properties during a bushfire event.

sources

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1920/Quick_Guides/AustralianBushfires

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/03/australia/new-south-wales-fires-extinguished-scli-intl/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/03/canberra-chokes-on-worlds-worst-air-quality-as-city-all-but-shut-down

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(19)30267-0/fulltext

What is Passive House?

Originating in Germany, ‘PassivHaus’ is an evolving performance-based standard for measuring the energy efficiency of a building. The core aims are to maximise energy efficiency, indoor comfort, and occupant health and well being, as well as gain economic returns on one’s investment. Passive House follows 5 principles including thermal insulation, insulated glazing, air tightness and ventilation. This leads to a minimised demand for heating and cooling, and significantly reduced energy use across the whole building. Given Australia’s climate is relatively mild compared to many other countries, it tends to be comparatively simpler to achieve Passive House certification.

Figure 1: Outcomes of Passive House buildings (Source: Australian Passive House Association

How do we engage with Passive House principles?

The Passive House Planning Package (or PHPP) enables us to develop our designs through thermal modelling software. The process of thermal modelling a home involves drawing up the design, assigning construction materials to every surface and then running a series of simulations based on building physics. The output is an accurate overall picture of the energy usage of the home based on each of the design iterations. Through performing adjustments to the design – including modifying construction materials, shading, and window size openings – we are able to find an optimal outcome, along with a series of suitable alternatives.

Figure 2: Strategies for achieving Passive House designs (Source: Australian Passive House Association,

Do we exclusively design Passive House certified homes?

The short answer is no! We are strongly guided by Passive House design principles, however obtaining Passive House certification does not always provide the optimal result for one’s project overall. Each development – and client – is different. We consider each project in its own right and in a holistic sense. It is important to note that because Passive House is an energy efficient standard, it does not account for sustainability in a broader sense. As a practice that promotes holistic sustainability, we incorporate Passive House strategies while considering other factors such as biodiversity, water and the embodied energy of materials. As such, a Passive House certified design outcome is not always the most sustainable solution.

What are our goals in terms of engaging with Passive House principles and software?

Our primary goal is to achieve optimal sustainability overall – using the Passive House strategies and data to ensure ideal thermal performance, as well as incorporating our own energy efficient building strategies. One of the primary ways we achieve the outcomes of both is by harnessing the strong Aussie sun. Unfortunately, there is a common misconception that Passive House buildings all tend to look the same, so another one of our aims is to challenge this notion. The strategies mentioned above and used in combination achieve thermal, auditory and visual comfort, which together help to ensure the wellbeing of the home’s occupants and the home itself. Moreover, understanding the energy efficiency of our designs ensures operational energy costs will be significantly reduced once the home is up and running. We love the challenge of finding the right balance between thermal principles, site conditions and client dreams to guide anyone who is planning to renovate or rebuild their home to greatly decrease their carbon emissions and the impact on our planet. 

Why did we decide to go Carbon Neutral?

We pride ourselves on designing spaces that address energy consumption. Our core aim is to assist others to reconcile their impact on the environment by integrating sustainable practices into their homes. With this pursuit of contributing sustainable architecture to our local communities, it seemed fitting to address the carbon emissions that our office produces.

Although we used our workplace a little differently this year, having to mix both working in the office as well as some work from home, we were able to acquire a Greenhouse Gas Assessment that took these inconsistencies into account.

What was the process preceding going Carbon Neutral?

First of all, we needed to gather data about our office expenditure and usages, which was broken down into several categories, including utilities, equipment, employee commutes, transport fuels, third party services, food and beverages, and waste. These groups covered the obvious office uses, such as electricity and printing, as well as the less visible energy uses, for example the varied means and distances of each team member’s commute to and from the office.

The next step was to engage a company which specialises in sustainability, energy and carbon management in order to obtain a Greenhouse Gas Assessment. This enabled us to acquire further qualitative data to understand our energy consumption in terms of carbon emissions and consider the impact that each of our office needs has on the environment.

What were the results of our Greenhouse Gas Assessment?

Our office equipment made up almost a third of our overall carbon emissions, which was not surprising given the number of computers running, our use of paper and other stationary in the day to day carrying out of our work. However, we were quite taken aback by the amount of carbon emissions contributed by our utilities, as we have GreenPower electricity in the office. Having said that, our office is located within a larger building and as such, we also had to take into account the base building services which are not renewable. In total, it is estimated that our office produces 8.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent yearly.

How did we offset our carbon emissions?

Once we knew our net total figure, we were able to contribute to any number of projects in order to offset our carbon emissions. We decided to donate cleaner cookstoves to the Bugesera region in Rwanda.

This project aims to improve kitchen regimes, as typically meals are prepared over three-stone open fires in poorly ventilated areas. Not only is the firewood unsustainably sourced, it has detrimental health effects. By offsetting our carbon emissions through the purchase of these cookstoves, we are enabling Rwandan families to buy these cookstoves at a highly subsidised price and given the cookstoves are produced in Rwanda, it also creates jobs at a local level.  We selected this project as we believe it is an integral part of our work to advocate for the health and wellbeing of others.

What are our next steps?

We decided to offset our carbon emissions for the next three years through contributing to this project. That said,  we will continue to strive to reduce our overall in-house carbon emissions. Our soon-to-be renovated office bathroom will provide adequate end of trip facilities to enable more of the team to cycle or run to work. We are also working towards minimising our printing and stationary supplies where possible. We understand lowering our carbon emissions will be an ongoing process and challenge, and we look forward to seeing how far we’ve come when we do our next audit. 

What is it?

Buildings require a massive amount of energy.  Worldwide, 30-40% of all primary energy is used to construct and run the places we inhabit. The Australian construction sector is a big emitter, with the construction, operation and maintenance of buildings accounting for almost 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. It’s important we consider how a building can be less resource-intensive and pollution-producing, and be more sustainable across its lifecycle.

The carbon footprint is the amount of carbon released by all the processes associated with the production of an object, from mining, processing, manufacturing, transportation and recycling/disposal. Similarly, a measure of embodied energy looks at the amount of energy consumed across this process. It can be considered as what needs to be put in (energy) and what is spat out again (carbon).

How to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings

When looking at the carbon footprint of a house, there are many ways to reduce its impact on the environment. The first that comes to mind for most people is improving how it performs in its everyday operation. This is closely followed by how much energy it takes to maintain the house over its lifespan. This may be a consideration of more durable materials that last longer and don’t require replacement as quickly. This reduces consumption as well as waste.

To reduce the carbon footprint of houses that we design, we apply a variety of sustainable design strategies, which are covered under our sustainability tab. These strategies are easiest to achieve if executed properly at the design stage. By considering the carbon emitting potential from the design stage, we can control how much energy the building consumes once up and running but also during its construction. Unlike the operational carbon footprint, which accumulates year after year, this comes into account when considering how the building is to be constructed. Figure 1 demonstrates how much embodied energy is consumed by the separate components of an office building.

How does this apply to design and construction?

In our work, we always strive to create enduring designs with integrated sustainable principles. It is important to note that each project has a unique set of constraints, thus the combination of strategies used to reduce the carbon footprint, embodied energy and operational energy are reviewed on a site by site basis. That said, when designing a sustainable building, we seek to balance three main design principles. Firstly, the building ‘biology’, in which we look at the well-being, comfort and performance of the building. Another consideration is the building ‘ecology’, in which we look at the material selection and environmental impacts, with the aim to reduce waste and emissions during the building’s life. Finally, we consider the conservation of natural resources, which sits between the other two design principles. Generally, we aim to design buildings which are as self-sufficient as possible, while remaining connected to ‘the grid’, as this is often the simplest and most cost-effective means to achieve optimal sustainable outcomes. 

Our past projects

Below are some examples of past projects which indicate the design strategies that have helped reduce the buildings’ total carbon footprints.

The Shed

Many carbon footprint reducing measures were applied to the design of The Shed. For example, its compact design increased the spatial efficiency of the layout. The effective use of thermal mass and adequate solar orientation work to reduce its operational costs and need for heating and cooling services. Reducing the ‘conditioned’ areas of the house (areas which need heating and cooling) is the most cost effective method of achieving carbon zero status. The total carbon footprint of the construction was reduced by using predominantly timber framing rather than steel as timber has a lower embodied energy. Also using an exposed concrete slab eliminated the need for tiles and their installation. Finally, VOC-free paints were used to minimise the impacts of off-gassing.

Imprint House

Imprint House embodies ‘small home’ design principles to transform a once modest, free-standing terrace in Alexandria into a contemporary family home. The project brief was framed by the space-saving measures adopted to cater to the small site, which fit well with the environmental and sustainable focus that shapes our practice. With a desire to maximise its thermal efficiency, carefully placed windows and awnings maximise the winter sun while providing character to the building’s exterior. Hydronic heating pipes running through the slab heat the new portion of the house with the thermal mass of the slab which stores and slowly releases the heat generated. Radiators installed in the original house run off the same cost-effective heat pump as the hydronic pipes. Provision for solar panels was incorporated into the design of the roof and as such, they have now been installed. A 2000L rainwater tank supplements the household’s water demands, and passive cross-ventilation creates airflow and allows the home to cool down quickly. A light-hearted narrative is born from the raw palette, with the old and new meeting in moments of playful disjunction.

The Cube

The Cube is the alteration and addition of a modest weatherboard-clad cottage in inner Sydney, which we designed to increase temperature control, insulation, thermal mass and air flow, and house a solar PV. With a long-term plan of battery storage and increased self-sufficiency, the project improved the energy efficiency of the home without encroaching further on the 300sqm site. The house opens to the north and is clad in a combination of Blackbutt and Shadowclad. In order to include insulation, the original house was re-clad in weatherboards. Some of our signature timber design features, including slatted screens and deep window seats, have added visual interest as well as thermal efficiency. Looking out to the garden, double-glazed, low-e glass and a deep awning reflect and protect from the summer heat. Careful restoration and reuse of elements of the original weatherboarding decreased the embodied energy generated by new material input.

Off Grid House

Nestled in the dense bushland of the Blue Mountains, Off Grid House is a premium ‘green’ benchmark home which caters to the bushfire prone area. Firstly, the materials used in the construction of the dwelling were selected due to their thermal and environmental qualities, ensuring a low impact home in terms of both operation and resource demand as well as waste produced during the manufacturing and throughout the lifespan of the material itself. Though a concrete shell is utilised primarily to ensure safety, the embodied energy of the concrete is partly offset by the cladding and decking of the dwelling which are high durability and contain 60% recycled industrial materials, while boasting the appearance of timber. Much of the timber that needed to be cut down due to its close proximity to the dwelling was reused for the internal structure of the home, including for the loft floor joists as well as for joinery and the kitchen bench top, in order to maximise reuse and minimise the transport and manufacturing of additional materials to the site. An experimental 2.4m external metal screen is utilised for a variety of purposes, for example it can be lowered as a flame zone barrier and in other extreme weather conditions it can be used to protect against heavy rain. To ensure thermal comfort, the elongated rectangular form aids the passive heating and cooling of the dwelling. To optimise use of the strong Australian sun, Off Grid House adjusts this typical form to create two distinct forms, marked by the two steeply sloped roofs oriented in opposite directions.

This allows for the maximisation of solar energy generation for electricity on the one side and the optimisation of passive solar penetration to increase the ‘natural’ thermal mass performance on the other. A modest wood fire provides sufficient additional heat throughout the cooler months due to the high levels of insulation, under-floor heating and double glazing within the dwelling. To promote further self-sufficiency on the property, 100% of the roof area is captured and stored in a 22 000L rainwater tank, which is then used for all of the homes water needs. Additionally, the disposal and management of sewerage is facilitated through the use of a worm farm wastewater treatment system, which is extremely low maintenance. Ultimately, this single storey residential home is a low impact, environmentally and ecologically considerate development which effectively integrates architectural expression with sustainable building practices and bushfire protection and prevention systems, surpassing regulatory requirements. Today, the ongoing operational energy and costs continue to be minimised.

Designing a low carbon home requires that each design solution be tailored to the unique properties of that site. This includes making the most of natural systems like solar or cool breeze access and recognising alternative solutions when these are not available. Utilising these systems to both bring comfort within the home as well as power the energy used by the home’s users themselves through the incorporation of renewable energy sources such as solar PV’s will help reduce the carbon footprint of the house. When these systems are paired with correct user behaviour and a consideration of low energy materials from the outset, achieving net zero carbon status is both viable and affordable.