Sustainability led architect Mark Thomas of Buzz Architecture when he built his family home in Australia’s Adelaide Hills. “From the start this was never going to be a sexy, glossy, highly specced architectural masterpiece,” he states. “It had to be an affordable, practical pair of spaces that matched our family’s needs.”
The house utilizes various procedures to capture and store heat — north-facing windows that let sunshine flooding in, heat-absorbing rammed-earth walls and solar-heated water pipes embedded in concrete slab. The combination allows the house to capture and redirect heat to ensure even on the hottest days, all the homeowners need are a couple of open windows and ceiling fans.
in a Glance
Who lives here: Jolie and Mark Thomas; their kids, Jaya (age 14), Kael (7) and Lila (5); dog Bessie; parakeet George; and 6 hens
Location: Aldgate, South Australia
Size: 200 square meters (about 2,150 square feet); 5 bedrooms, two bathrooms, home office
Budget: $350,000 Australian (about U.S.$361,270)
That is intriguing: The house and water are heated together. The hot water heats the flooring in winter. The water is solar heated and fostered with a heat pump.
Jeni Lee
The door to the screened-in room mostly stays open to let cool breezes into the main part of the house.
Jeni Lee
The colorful Ikea kitchen fit with the homeowners’ desire to maintain as many elements prefabricated or standard as possible; Mark Thomas, revealed here with Lila and Kael, also wished to do a lot of the installation labor himself.
The home construction process became a precursor to Thomas’ new firm for building sustainable homes, Goodhouse.
Jeni Lee
Among the most successful elements of the property’s design is the way that it’s heated and chilled. In winter sunlight streams through the northern windows, “giving significant heat, which can be retained by the solid concrete slab floor along with also the rammed-earth walls,” Thomas says. This can be supplemented with a couple of hours of underfloor heating system every day, supplied by solar-heated hot water pipes within the concrete slab (hydronic underfloor heating system). The result is a living temperature through winter.
The house does not have any active cooling other than ceiling fans. It’s designed with a mix of high- and – low-level windows, which create cooling breezes through every room. “From the heat of the day, the house is shut down, and we rely on the concrete slab and rammed-earth walls to soak up the heat, which retains temperature inside down,” states Thomas.
Jeni Lee
The entrance hall leads to an open-plan kitchen and living area which joins to the deck, a screened-in room and the laundry and utility area. This distance is often overspilling with people. “We appear to have many people calling, or picking up or dropping off kids through the week,” Thomas says. “I guess
this is only one of the benefits of working from home.”
Jeni Lee
His favorite thing to do at home is to read a novel on the screened-in porch. The family eats here during summer.
Jeni Lee
The living room ceiling is plywood, which worked out to be a comparable cost to the conventional gyprock ceiling. Black bookshelves highlight a collection of treasured books and objects gleaned during journeys.
Jeni Lee
Jeni Lee
He created relief patterns in the rammed-earth walls using a design inspired by the Taj Mahal. “My family has a strong connection to India,” he states. “My parents used to reside, and I’ve been many times, including a recent trip with the kids. Before kids, Jolie and I traveled to both India and South America and have enjoyed with regard to various cultures and experiences in our home.”
Thomas utilized a CNC wood router to create plywood molds for the patterns.
Jeni Lee
The eastern end of the house surrounds a light-filled family room with a cozy reading nook and play area. Doors connect to the bedrooms, the main bathroom and the home office.
Jeni Lee
The main living and bedroom room cantilever over the garden area, improving the connection of the family with the surroundings. “We were eager for our minds to be alongside opening windows with a strong connection to outside, almost like we were camping in a tent — a comfy tent,” Thomas says.
Jeni Lee
The homeowners kept the children’s bedrooms little, with the aim of having all the kids’ activities and interactions be in the shared living spaces. All four bedrooms have loft beds to save space.
Jeni Lee
Philosopher and architect Rudolf Steiner motivated the design from the screened-off play area, which includes natural wood toys and filtered light.
Jeni Lee
The toilet shares a rammed-earth wall with the entrance hall. Fixtures and fittings were kept simple to keep costs down and stay in line with an efficient design ethos. The distance is as little as you can while still being incredibly functional. The light and fan have a motion sensor and timer.
Handmade Moroccan tiles create a focus in the basin.
Jeni Lee
The residence is located at the end of a cul-de-sac and contains a laidback Australian sense. The kids often ride bikes and play outside with other kids on their street. Thomas’ clients also visit the home office and increase the sense of community.
Jeni Lee
A peaceful hills setting, an edible garden, eggs from six hens and a wonderful connection with the local community finish the encounter.
The back of the house features two cantilevered pavillions to lessen the cutting and filling of land throughout the build and also to “express how the terrain drops off to the southwest,” Thomas says. The decking was made out of stringy bark trees harvested onsite.
Jeni Lee
Lila and Kael sit on the large platform-style backyard deck, which extends into the garden and provides spectacular views of the surrounding trees. This really is a much-used area for entertaining and playing.
Jeni Lee
The backyard includes an abundance of homegrown produce, such as pie melons, pumpkins and figs, one of which Lila shows here.
“Our wastewater is delivered via our Biolytix wastewater system to a 200-square-meter subsurface soakage area,” Thomas says. “This waters our productive garden, a mix of seasonal vegetables and around 20 fruit trees”
“Two years on,” he adds, “we’re still monitoring and refining how we sail this boat. We are becoming more efficient with electricity usage and are very delighted with the size and functionality of the planning.”