Ideas & Advice
Renovate on any budget
Wanting to improve your home but don’t know where to start or how far your money will stretch? Experienced designer Simone Schenkel shares her tips for sustainable renovations with a starting budget of $10,000 through to $350,000-plus.
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Outdoors
Shared yards
Tearing down the backyard fence or installing a gate between your house and next door sounds good in theory, but what’s it like in reality?
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Ideas & Advice
The right to roam
Forage-friendly landscapes are everywhere in Australia, including in the suburbs. But before you go out and fill your basket, familiarise yourself with the rules of engagement, writes Kirsten Bradley of Milkwood.
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Ideas & Advice
Energy upgrade: From 1 to 7 Star
Danielle King and her partner were keen to find a way to measure the impact of their renovation, and she explains what they did to improve their 1 Star home into one with a 7 Star energy rating.
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Sustainable Design
On the verge
Public meets private in that space between front fences and the road, which makes verge gardens a contested but exciting frontier for sustainable landscape design.
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Sustainable Design
Natural connectors: Biophilic design takes root
Bringing nature into our homes and building designs is shown to improve our health and wellbeing – so it’s little wonder leading sustainable designers are integrating natural systems into residential architecture and landscaping in Australia.
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Outdoors
Getting rainwater collection right
During the millennium drought many people installed water tanks for the first time. Ten years on, as we face drought again, what more do we know about the best ways to optimise rainwater collection for your site?
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Sustainable Design
Mind the gaps: Passive House from the inside
Certified Passive House is gaining traction in Australia, especially with sustainable designers and builders. But why are people embracing a voluntary building standard, and what does it offer that passive solar design does not?
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Sustainable Design
Window of opportunity: Costing the benefits of bushfire design
Almost a decade since Black Saturday and the subsequent introduction of Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) ratings, many people are still grappling with this aspect of the building regulations. Building designer Dick Clarke unpacks his experiences with the standard, and suggests ways to improve its workability.
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Building materials
Fair dinkum wood: Locally sourced ecologically sustainable timber
CERES Fair Wood has established itself as an honest broker, linking people seeking environmentally and socially responsible timber with small local farm foresters and salvage sawmillers who can struggle to find a market for their resource. While still small in scale, could this social enterprise’s local ‘chain of custody’ approach become a new model for sustainably sourced timber?
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Ideas & Advice
Finding your tribe: Navigating the owner-builder journey
Experienced owner-builder Megan Waru from Home Base explains how to get started, and the importance of like-minded support networks.
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