Resilient Architecture
‘Of droughts and flooding rains’ - Dorothy Mckellar’s famous poem ‘My Country’ always come to mind when we experience the weather extremes of Australia. Last month as I wrote about bushfire resilient design, millions of hectares were on fire as Australia experienced one of its worst bushfire seasons. As I write this month, most of the East coast of NSW is under threat of flooding. Whilst McKellar’s poem, eloquently portrays the climate extremes that the Australian continent regularly undergoes, she wrote at a time when climate change science was not on the agenda at all. These days her words take on a new level of meaning as we face a more extreme and unpredictable future climate.
There was a time when designing a house was pretty straightforward. It was shaped by locally available materials, trades and generally applied the default regional (or ‘vernacular) style that the houses nearby were built in. With climate change in mind, we need to build homes that not only are resilient to the elements of today but are future proofed for tomorrow. Whilst a sustainably designed home will go a long way to future proof a house, the new buzz word for future proofing our homes is ‘resilience’. Resilient design takes into account not only the historical climate conditions a home needs to account for, it anticipates the more extreme events to come.
There are some straightforward design factors we can put into new homes or retrofit older homes to make them more resilient. Below are three of the more important things that that need to be considered when integrating resilience into our homes.
Roof
The basic element of a home is that it provides shelter and therefore it goes without saying that a top down approach is super important! Whilst traditional roof coverings such as tiles might be preferred by many homeowners, the benefits of a sheet metal roofs outweigh those of tiles when it comes to long term resilience. Pitched roofs are better than flat roofs, but the pitch shouldn’t be too high as to require anyone working on them to have a harness. Ideally there’s a large roof plane that pitches towards the North so as to accept a good bank of solar panels at their optimum angle. Roofs should be simple in form and have deep eaves to protect from rain and summer sun - think wide brimmed hats!
Insulation
It needs to be everywhere and it needs to enclose the entire house - roof, walls, floors and windows (yes - even windows think double glazing, curtains or blinds). The majority of wall insulation in most homes is batt insulation. Whilst its effective in between a timber frame, there have been studies to show that up to 10% of heat losses or gains can be through the timber frame. Ideally it creates a complete and well sealed but breathable envelope, like a new winter thermal onesie.
Long life, loose fit
No, not another undies reference! When it comes to buildings, ’Long life, loose fit’, means that the home is built to last but has the ability to suit more than its current set of occupants. This can have many impacts on the overall design but an example is wider doorways. As the Australian population is ageing and our lifespans get longer, there are more chances that those elderly among us will require walking aids. Your standard door width of 820mm just doesn’t allow enough clearance for walking aids. Wider doorways with 1m clearance or more will be better placed to allow for the future needs of the homes occupants (it also makes it easier to move furniture!).
Lucky for us, there are two great examples of resilient housing at the Innovation Campus of the University of Wollongong - The Illawarra Flame House and the Desert Rose House. If you are considering how to make your home more resilient, a visit to these buildings are a must! For those keen to experience resilient design more intimately, you can even book the Illawarra Flame House to stay in overnight.