Sustainability in the design
industry is not really just looking at buildings at the moment it's about looking at what they are
in 50 years time and over the life of the building the construction industry is probably one of the
largest polluters of all industries and so we feel it is our responsibility to minimize that.
Hello I'm Amy Hallet and I'm one of the directors
from topology studio and we are the architects for House at Otago Bay.
My name's Mel Shutt I am the owner of the property my husband and I have lived in a
large properties previously with multiple living spaces and multiple bedrooms we really wanted a
small footprint to feel like we can be part of the landscape while we are inside the house.
Otago Bay is located on the River Derwent in Hobart,
it's actually quite a long narrow block with a house on the adjacent property and we really
sighted the building so that it turned its back and looked across and down the river.
The house is very modest on approach you come down
the driveway and around the boat shed to a small forecourt in front of the house.
As you walk through into the main living space both the wall
opens up and the ceiling raises which brings in the top of Mount Wellington.
The ceiling is a continuous curve
from one end of the house to the other which can make a space that's not actually that
large feel much bigger because it's not boxed in or margined by frames.
The kitchen has a door directly to a terrace and you go down four steps to a lower terrace
so that you don't have outdoor furniture in the way of your view, there are stairs off
the main hall down to the lower ground floor in which there's a bedroom and an ensuite.
This is partially set into the ground
and you get a real sense in looking out across grass level to the water.
We've brought the external facade right inside the house
there's a very seamless connection from inside to out
and the blurring of those lines that really make this house feel connected to its environment.
Very early on we were looking at the tones of the landscape
and we just wanted something that sat here quietly and calmly.
The concrete blocks are manufactured locally here
in Tasmania it was really important when you're using a singular material inside
and out to try and find something that didn't need to be imported.
Tasmania is an island and anything that's shipped you need to allow for
a lot of wastage and there's also a lot of embodied carbon in that transport.
So the very first instance say the building needs to face not only in terms of views
but to maximize bringing winter sun into the property but also the exclusion of summer sun.
The Masonry and the concrete floors provide a high level of thermal mass
so in the winter the low-level sun can enter through the large windows and warm the slab
and then hold on to that heat during the day and then release it again at night.
In the summer the opposite happens sun is kept off the slab by the
blinds on the western facade and also by the overhang on the north.
The house is entirely electric there's no connection to gas
much of that electricity is supplied by the solar panels which are located
on the roof of the boathouse to minimize ongoing running costs.
The impacts of climate change are incredibly real and so we
do need to think about bushfires that are becoming ever closer to our city centres.
The home is located right next to a reserve which has a lot of trees and undergrowth we
worked with TAS fire in the early days and showed them our initial designs
it was really important that we built the building out of a non-combustible material.
We also see the importance of sustainability in the ongoing running of the building.
One way in which we do that is to minimize footprints of buildings and build buildings
that are as large as they need to be and no larger we also respect the materials and the
embodied energy of those materials that we use and make sure we're using things that are robust and
we'll have a longevity so that they will still be around and still useful into the future.