RAIA Water Works Exhibition
Melbourne Design Festival 2007
Pre-fab Strawbale Prototype House
Nearing completion, this house was designed in collaboration with well known local florist/sculptor Joost Bakker. This large house is designed for a family of four and includes two large workshop spaces.
The house consists of two pre-fabricated steel sheds with straw bale walls and roof. The house will have an autonomous water supply, water recycling system and solar power and hot water generation.
All of the materials used in the house are recyclable including an external galvanised reinforcement mesh wall that houses 7140 terracotta pots. The pots will contain various plants depending on the orientation, location and degree of shading.
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A screen of vegetation also acts as an additional shading device for the walls. The landscaping for the entire project is designed at 45 degrees to the house and develops different themes and zones that like the external walls codify and disguise the house.
The systematised pre-fabricated construction, developed in collaboration with Telfords, reflects the ambition of the project: sensitive environmentally sustainable houses using simple cost effective construction in sustainable resources. The system is currently being developed to be applicable and appropriate for rural, suburban and urban sites.
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The prototype house is large due to the integration of workshop and studio space, this provides a large roof area over 900 m2 specifically intended for the collection of rain water, enough to provide for all usage within the house and workshop. A series of water storage tanks are located downhill from the building and these tanks supplement the reticulated potable water supply, and all grey water is recycled.
The desire of the collaboration, the ambition in developing a pre-fab system, is to see more of these sensitive houses built, each a single working system, a single drop of rain, and, as many of which make a shower, such that when it rains it pours.
Pre-fab Strawbale Prototype House
Antarctica Group with Joost
House and Workshop 920 m2
Yarra Ranges, Victoria, 2006-07