Would you love a sustainable home but think it's out of your budget? Well, think again.

In today's episode, we continue exploring renewable materials and investigate the design of an affordable environmental home built using standard construction methods. It features Durra Panel internal wall and ceiling boards made from agricultural waste straw. Architect Matt Delroy-Carr, the director of MDC Architects, shares the story behind his Scarborough Sustainable House, located on a small suburban site in the beachside suburb of Scarborough in warm temperate Perth.

Today we'll learn about;

ideas for an affordable sustainable home,
climate responsive design for warm temperate climates,
the process, costs and benefits of using Durra Panel internal wall and ceiling boards in custom residential construction, and
a wealth of insights and practical information drawn from Matt's extensive experience.

Australian Architects can earn formal CPD hours by listening to these podcasts and completing an online quiz.

MORE INFORMATION

Find everything you need on the Renovation Collaborative website.

www.renovationcollaborative.com.au

PODCAST Key points summary, timestamps and resource links
FREE RESOURCES Transcript edited into clear Q&A.
CPD Australian architects can find more information on CPD, and
COURSES Eleven easy to read courses demystifying the entire home design and construction process.

KEY POINTS SUMMARY

1. In this project, like so many others this season, the clients drove the environmental agenda and they were very well educated about environmental design and materials. This is what they were seeking and it's a fantastic brief for everyone to keep in mind:

A floor plan sized to suit their needs that connected to a diverse and productive garden.
Maximum thermal comfort for now and the future,
A life cycle assessment to help understand and reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint, and
All within a modest budget.

2. To control costs, the strategy involved standard construction techniques combined with climate responsive design and environmental materials. This included:

a single level design,
a slab on ground floor,
a trussed roof with flat ceilings throughout,
a 90mm timber stud frame,
external cladding in low maintenance, pre finished compressed fibre cement sheeting, and
internal linings in Durra Panel.

3. Key strategies for achieving a maximum NatHERs energy efficiency rating in a warm temperate climate included:

orienting the house toward the north,
appropriately located and sized windows and shading to provide shade in summer, spring and autumn while allowing sunlight in during winter, and
ensuring effective ventilation.

Also, double glazed, thermally broken, clear glass windows greatly enhanced the thermal performance.

4. Matt utilised a mix of thermal mass construction techniques throughout the house to stabilise the internal temperature. This included reverse brick veneer walls on selected orientations, exposed concrete slab floor and an internal double brick mass in the kitchen. It's important to note that all the bricks used were recycled.

5. Durra Panel is an internal wall and ceiling board product made from compressed wheat and rice straw waste with linings on both sides. The default lining is paper, but a range of lining board options are available depending on the application. Durra Panel offers a heap of benefits. It's cost effective, it's renewable, it reuses an agricultural waste product, it sequesters carbon, it's 100% biodegradable, it provides excellent thermal and acoustic insulation and it's very flame resistant.

And finally,

6. Durra Panels are around 50mm thick and are screw fixed to a standard stud frame. The key item to note is that you can't have a flush finish like plasterboard. All panel joins must be covered with a timber batten or other cover strip.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

[00:00] Introduction

[01:19] How did you get started in sustainable design?

[02:55] What types of work does MDC Architects do?

[04:38] How do people access your affordable house plan packages?

[09:58] Tell us what your clients were looking for when they came to you?

[12:01] Tell us about the Warm Temperate Perth climate?

[15:58] How did you decide between 1 and 2 storey?

[19:11] What where your strategies to keep costs down?

[21:24] Tell us about your use of reverse brick veneer?

[24:28] What strategies did you use to achieve a high NatHERS star rating?

[25:35] What doors and windows did you use?

[28:41] What external materials did you use?

[30:03] Tell us about using a Life Cycle Assessment?

[36:23] Tell us about Durra Panel?

[38:26] How does Durra Panel construction work?

[40:50] How does the cost of Durra Panel compare to plasterboard?

[41:51] What environmental choices did you make in the interior?

[43:30] What other environmental initiatives did you include on this project?

[45:20] What are the key take away messages from this project?

[47:34] What advice would you give to someone considering a sustainable home?

[48:56] What advice would you give to someone considering using Durra Panel?

IN THE NEXT EPISODE

Next week we move on to our next sustainable design theme, Earth Building.

We'll investigate the use of rammed earth in the design of an affordable and very environmental new home on an off grid site located in Rutherglen in the hot, dry summer and cool winter climate of north eastern Victoria.

I talk to Steffen Welsch, director of Steffen Welsch Architects, who'll give us the inside story on his Butterfly project.

RESOURCE LINKS

MDC ARCHITECTS WEBSITE

Project Page (images) https://mdcarchitects.com.au/projects/scarborough-sustainable-house/

PROJECT INFO

Internal wall and ceiling linings - Durra Panel: https://durrapanel.com/

Greywater system: https://www.greyflow.net.au/

Life Cycle Assessment tool: https://cerclos.com/

Internal timber finishes: Osmo Australia https://www.osmoaustralia.com.au/products

External cladding: CSR Barestone https://www.cemintel.com.au/product/barestone/

Kitchen Cabinets: Hoop pine plywood

OTHER INFO

MDC Architects - Farrier Lane House https://mdcarchitects.com.au/projects/homes/farrier-lane-carbon-neutral-home/

Architect Glenn Murcutt

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GET IN TOUCH

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