From the beginning we were clear on three basic principles for our house design:
1. We wanted to design and build our home, bringing in specific tradespersons only as needed.
2. It was important that the house design was sensitive to the environment by minimising the amount of cut and fill required, materials choice, energy consumption and the way the house sat in the landscape.
3. As small a footprint as possible – but no loft beds (and no stairs).
Also given that we purchased rural land in an area with no shops, mains water, sewerage or garbage service we were also definite that we wanted to build off-grid.
On top of that there are also a number of constraints to consider for our house design such as the relatively steep grade of the property, the off-grid requirements for solar, rainwater harvesting and a safe septic, hot summers and cool winters (giving us a temperature range of -5C to 35C), and building in a heritage area with specific design requirements.
Our original inspiration was this stunning tiny house by Maguire and Devine on Bruny Island, Tasmania. With it’s clever combination of beautiful design aesthetic, off-grid functionality and small footprint it’s been featured in quite a few architectural publications and seems to keep ‘popping up’.
Like any robust design process, it’s taken time as we’ve iterated through a number of design changes including changing our building location, updating the building aspect from East-West to North-South, and of course adding rooms – removing them – and then adding them back again!
Eventually after a few months of design work, feedback from friends, family and professional consultants, careful consideration of our aspect and functional needs, we ended up with a beautiful three pavilion home – which would ultimately receive Development Application approval in 2023 from our local Council.
Our Council-approved house design included a wrap around north-facing verandah, garage for motorbikes, walk in closets, home office, glasshouse, natural outdoor pool and yoga space.
But by this point the building footprint was sitting at 364 sq.m (3918 sq.ft) and the projected building costs were creeping well out of our intended budget.
Although our design had already been approved, again and again we returned to the simplicity of the Bruny Island tiny house.
Did we really need all that space? Was it worth the rising financial pressure? Could we simplify the design but keep the comfort?
Frankly, it was time for a rethink.
So we started over.
We went back to the drawing board, but this time we started with the Bruny Island floor plan as our base.
Much of the thinking from the original house informed this new house design including straw bale walls, passive haus triple-glazed windows and doors, room layouts and storage ideas.
And the footprint? We’re sitting at 84 sq.m (900 sq.ft)
As you can see from the diagram, our new house footprint is less than a third of the original building.
It’s about double the size of your typical tiny house here in Australia, but has lots of light, all one level, large doors that can open up the whole space to the elements, and multiple zones for two adults and two dogs to hang out in.
So where are we at since the design pivot?
We’ve met with Council (who approved the new design) and are now in the final stages of preparing construction certificate drawings and modification to the original Development Application.
Quotes and samples are also coming in and I’m pleased to see that they’ve dropped in price significantly with the smaller footprint. Having a smaller building also means we can choose higher-end finishes: Win-win!
Our lengthy-maddening-incredible-eyeopening-amazing design phase will soon come to an end as we gather our required permissions, make final design choices and begin construction preparations.
