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Sustainable House Design |
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about short course
dates and locations
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The challenge of building a home that is functional,
comfortable, beautiful and environmentally responsible fascinates many
Australians. It is not difficult to design a home that costs little to
run and creates minimal Greenhouse impact.
A range of passive solar buildings including an extension to the homestead and a studio, have been constructed at The Food Forest from materials including straw bales, rock, insulated galvanised iron, timber and hollow concrete block. You will be to see designs in action and technologies such as simple reedbeds for the recycling of greywater, composting and conventional toilet systems which avoid the loss of nutrients and water, wood fired space heating which also boosts solar hot water production, roof catchment and reticulation of rainwater and a unique system for harvesting the warmth of the sun in winter. In September we will be installing a photovoltaic system of 30 thin film amorphous silicon modules providing electricity to the house, farm and grid. The average Australian causes the production of more greenhouse gas than a person of any other nationality on Earth. Become one of the trail blazers in creating a home which is functional, beautiful, comfortable and environmentally responsible! We’ll discuss the details of passive-solar design, solar hot water and electricity production, how to stay warm in winter and cool in summer. We’ll consider site assessment, the qualities of different building materials, waste recycling systems, extending your home outdoors and the integration of gardens in total design, how to engage builders, engineers and architects and systems for council approval. Guest presenter in this years course will
be Emilis Prelgauskas who has been a registered architect for over 30 years.
He lives and works in a sustainable home which he developed for his own
needs 20 years ago. Since 1988 he has developed many such projects for
his clients, each minimising environmental impact by limiting the resources
used, integrating passive and benign materials, carefully choosing construction
methods, comfort systems, renewable energy and biological waste systems.
Contact
us for details of dates, booking forms etc
Adelaide has a number of architects who are really committed to energy efficient design and over the next few years we hope to invite a range of architects to present in our courses. In the 2002 sustainable house design workshop
we invited John Maitland, Energy Architecture, who is well known
for award-winning designs guaranteeing natural light, minimal needs for
heating and cooling and clean architectural lines.
Updated: 24 August 2003
To see a large scale version of this plan for the outdoor area at the homestead of The Food Forest click here |
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