Sustainabiity
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about sustainabiity
Project • By Fergus Garber Architects • Housing
A Natural Fit
Shielded by a screen of Douglas fir and redwood, a contemporary home’s glass walls and earthly elements blur the line between indoors and outdoors.
Tom Rossiter
Looks can be deceiving. Designed with clean-lines from honest materials like steel, reclaimed wood, concrete, and zinc, this Woodside home is seemingly simple.
Tom Rossiter
Tom Rossiter
But despite the structure’s copious use of clear glass, there is something that cannot easily be seen—the complexity of its siting and footprint. The 13 acre site had suffered from unsustainable alterations that caused significant erosion and steepened the natural slope. The design response was to extensively regrade the hill returning it to more natural grades. The... More
Project • By Architecture for London • Private Houses
Hackney House
This early Victorian house in Hackney was restored and retrofitted to create a warm and comfortable, family home. A rear extension provides family entertaining space and improves the connection to the garden at the rear. A new curved stair in lime plaster leads to the loft conversion, which provides an additional bedroom with a generous dormer window.
Nick Dearden
The house is fossil fuel free, with two air source heat pumps in the rear garden running the underfloor heating. An MVHR unit supplies fresh, filtered pre-heated air. The house was insulated internally with wood fibre and aerogel was used in window reveals to remove potential cold bridges and reduce condensation risk.
Nick Dearden
Nick Dearden
Embodied energy was... More
Project • By Vanessa Wegner Architect • Housing
Tighes Hill Recycled House
Once a humble miner's cottage, the Tighes Hill Recycled House in Newcastle, NSW, underwent a significant renovation and expansion, transforming into a much-loved two-storey family home. Owner-builder Matthew Wegner and his wife Alex turned to his architect sister Vanessa Wegner at Sydney-based architectural firm, Vanessa Wegner Architect, to help them reimagine the space.
© Katherine Lu
The brief was simple: renovate and improve the home to accommodate their family of four. “The cottage had a dilapidated 1960s rear extension full of asbestos,” Vanessa explains. “They wanted a functional, comfortable family home but didn’t have a strict design brief. Optimising the views to the park and reusing as muc... More