After months of hard work, focused effort, technical minutiae and bureaucratic navigation (read about the design process here) I’m thrilled to announce that we received our Construction Certificate from local council in late December.

The final house design has landed on two small Pavilions connected by a timber deck and surrounded by native plantings, food gardens and spacious views.

Deliberately designed with a small footprint, the combined floor space of the two buildings is just 89 sq.m (968 sq.ft), which is half the size of a typical Australian home and achieves a design goal of a ‘small place on a big piece of land’.

Once a 5 acre grazing paddock, we have been diligently revegetating the land for the past five years with native trees, shrubs and grasses – which in turn has encouraged a diversity of wildlife. The house pad now sits at the highest point of the property (850m elevation), with spectacular, panoramic, rural views.

Pavilion A runs east-west and is a ‘quieter’ retreat-style building with a large open living area which will include a bed, yoga space, and full bathroom. This pavilion focuses on northern and eastern views with a skillion-style roof and a bulk of the windows on the northern wall.

Pavilion B runs north-south creating an enclosed L-shaped home and is a more active living space, including a kitchen, work area, living room and visitor bathroom. Pavilion B will have a gabled east-west roof, which will host solar panels and also echo an intentional asymmetry in the design.

Designed along Passivhaus principles of thermal efficiency and air-tightness, both pavilions boast triple-glazed windows and doors, insulated waffle-pod concrete slab foundations and a thick 140mm of insulation between the concrete slab and timber floors.

Taking the time to focus on the thermal qualities of the two buildings will pay longterm dividends for both sustainability and health with an expected temperature range of 20-25c independent of outside temperatures (which range from -5C to 40C).

Air-tightness will also help with energy usage, requiring only minimal cooling and heating on the most extreme days – which has been an important consideration as both buildings will run entirely off-grid on solar and rainwater.

Since the start of the year, the shipping container is on site, concrete slab formwork is in place and straw bale SITUP wall panels delivered.

I look forward to updating you on progress!