Meet the architects building luxury into green homes

The building, which won the 2019 Sustainability Award for Intelligent Design, also serves as a declaration of intent for Cole’s sustainable architecture practice, CplusC. “At the time we were designing it, there was a lot of ‘talking’ but very little ‘walking’ in the industry when it came to sustainability,” he says. “I wanted to walk the walk.”

The house demonstrates that sustainability and comfort need not be mutually exclusive. “That is very relevant to the type of client we are now attracting,” he says.

“Not so long ago, the typical sustainability client had a budget so small you almost couldn’t work with it. That is changing. Now, people come to us because they want the creature comforts they are used to, but they don’t want them to cost the earth, literally.”

Cole is one of several Australian architects designing top-tier residences with sustainability embedded in their DNA.

These homes, which have cropped up recently in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, are not only kinder to the environment than traditional Australian residences but also provide health benefits, rely less on external services and are more comfortable to live in.

In Melbourne, the 20-year-old architectural firm Austin Maynard is leading the way. According to co-founder Andrew Maynard, many well-heeled clients have realised that sustainability features can enhance their lives.

“They certainly feel an urgency about the climate crisis,” he says. “But they also want to address things like energy independence. If the grid fails, as it sometimes does in Melbourne, they don’t want their day to be impacted.”

Austin Maynard’s newly completed Garden House, in an affluent Melbourne suburb, is a prime example of sustainability enhancing day-to-day comfort.

The residence, which is occupied by a professional couple and their children, has soaring ceilings, long glass façades, a heated swimming pool, sophisticated airconditioning and advanced smart-home automation.

Yet the building produces more energy than the occupants consume. In fact, there is enough left over to charge the family Tesla and to make a tidy profit selling electricity back to the grid.

Austin Maynard used a mix of so-called passive sustainability features (such as building orientation and construction materials) and active ones (such as solar panels and heating technologies) to make Garden House a sustainability superstar.

“Thermally, it’s the most comfortable house I’ve ever lived in,” says one of the homeowners, who requested that his family remain anonymous.

The orientation, insulation and awnings mean there is little temperature fluctuation inside. “I can switch off the heating and go to bed on a cold Melbourne night, and the room will only be a degree or two cooler the next morning,” he says.

The home also incorporates a fully electric kitchen, electric pumps to heat water and a ventilation system that adjusts the temperature of outdoor air before circulating it within the house.

“We’ve found that the technological advances that go into a sustainable house actually work better than the old alternatives,” says the homeowner. “Not burning fires inside your house, with gas cooktops or gas hot water systems, means that you have better air quality. And most people who try an induction cooktop would never go back.”

He says living in a residence that generates excess electricity is incredibly liberating. “There is this perception that to be sustainable, you have to sacrifice: to eat less, or endure the heat and the cold, or turn off your lights,” he says. “But in a home like this, you can literally do whatever you want to do and not feel guilty about it.

“I think that’s the untold story of the sustainable world that we’re going into.”

The market for well-appointed sustainable homes in Melbourne has become large enough to accommodate another practice, Archier, founded in 2015 by three graduates. Aside from sharing a modus operandi, the principals of both Archier and Austin Maynard all studied at the University of Tasmania.

“Before you study architecture there, you have to get a degree in environmental design,” notes Maynard. “We were well indoctrinated.”

In 2017, one of Archier’s founders decided to return to Hobart permanently, and the firm now maintains offices in Victoria and Tasmania. As a result, it has produced a diverse portfolio of site-specific work in each state.

Its most lavish project to date is Hampden Road House: an extended 1850s cottage in the Hobart heritage precinct of Battery Point. Behind the original cottage, which once served as a milk depot, sits an expansive pavilion punctuated with courtyards and framed by greenery.

The homeowners, a retired couple, asked for floor-to-ceiling windows and several airy showcase rooms for their cherished possessions, including a baby grand piano and a significant art collection.

But they also wanted a comfortable thermal environment that remained stable throughout the Tasmanian seasons without requiring endless adjustment.

In response, Archier used thermally isolated concrete floor screeds (thin slabs of concrete that do not touch the structural bones underneath) for the hydronic underfloor heating system.

“We’re only heating a small amount of concrete, which means the system is really responsive to the external conditions,” explains design director Chris Gilbert. “We can chill the screed very quickly, too.”

Passive design features – including sophisticated insulation and carefully calibrated awnings that minimise sun in summer and maximise it in winter – provide additional temperature regulation.

And, as in Garden House in Melbourne, there is a heat recovery ventilation system. “It is constantly pulling stale air out of the building and pumping fresh air that matches the internal temperature into the bedrooms and the living spaces,” Gilbert says.

“It’s great for maintaining stability, and it’s also just a healthier way to live.”

According to homeowners Greg Kay and Trish Knight, whose previous home on the Derwent River was exceedingly tricky to heat, the new residence is a revelation.

“The house pretty much always remains at 21 or 22 degrees, which is the most gorgeous temperature to live in,” Kay says.

Gilbert believes Hampden Road House is a more “honest” interpretation of sustainability than a home that forces the occupants to live a restricted life; and he reckons the sustainable housing movement is more likely to go mainstream if it prioritises the needs of homeowners.

“If we can frame sustainability as a way to have a more comfortable home while lowering your energy bills, I think the argument becomes compelling.”

Archier’s Maynard points out that incorporating passive sustainability features into residential architecture rarely costs more at the outset and provides significant savings over time.

“I’ve been hearing for the last couple of decades that sustainability adds 20 per cent to your building costs, which is crazy,” he says. “It’s just not true.”

But he concedes that the current lack of demand for certain active sustainability technologies, such as solar batteries, means that advanced sustainable homes like Garden House will remain out of the reach of ordinary Australians for now.

In Sydney, Cole from CplusC is agitating for change within the architecture profession.

“It’s increasingly frustrating to see the types of residential buildings that are celebrated by our industry in competitions and the press,” he says. “These are basically just sculptural monuments that make no contribution to the environment we live in. I find it incredibly disappointing.”

For now, he says, consumers must lead the way.

“We’re currently working on an oceanside property for a client with a significant budget, and they’ve asked us for a natural lap pool that’s filtered by reeds: no chlorine, no chemicals,” he says.

“Five years ago, no one asked me about natural pools. Now, it’s common. The high end is becoming much more aware of these technologies. If that keeps growing, everyone will benefit.”