Grand Designs Australia Sourcebook — November 2017

W

hen I talk about building

smarter homes, I am not

referring to technology.

Being smarter is thinking

about the way we approach the design of

our homes. We need to start future-proofi ng

through design adaptability.

Today’s homes are built larger and on

smaller blocks by families with smaller

households than in the past. The Institute

of Family Studies shows that the average

family household reduced from 4.5 to 2.6

household members between 1911 and 2011.

Although families are getting smaller,

the kids are staying around longer. This is

where design adaptability comes in.

As we have been increasing the size of

the family home, we have been sacrifi cing

the size of the backyard. What happened to

the spaces where the kids would play cricket

in summer and footy in winter? If you were

fortunate enough to have a pool, it would

end up looking like the local community

pool, brimming with kids.

People wonder why Australian sport is

not at the level it used to be. It’s no wonder

that with limited backyard space to play

in, Australians are not performing on

the world sporting stage like they used

to. It is very rare to see children playing

cricket or football in the street today. With

the introduction of the internet and the

evolution of computers and mobile devices,

children prefer to be indoors nowadays,

sending messages and taking pictures of

themselves to post online. If there was an

Olympic event for people taking the perfect

selfi e, I’m sure Australia would win the

gold medal.

So does size matter? I understand that

people want to build large homes, but

what many fail to understand is that the

bigger the house, the more diffi cult it is to

thermally regulate. Although an open-plan

design is fantastic, it creates thermal issues

in regulating temperatures within the

house. With open-plan design, effi ciency is

lost because instead of heating or cooling

a single room, you must now heat or cool

an entire fl oor area. The dependence on

mechanical heating and cooling devices

adds to the increase in our energy bills

while also increasing our carbon footprint.

It is great to own a new home, but

competition between display home builders

to reduce costs comes at a price. These

builders work on very small profi t margins

with high turnover, and to redeem and

increase the profi t margin, they place an

emphasis on variations. Small changes can

add big costs, such as upgrading the kitchen

or minor alterations to plans.

What most people fail to realise is that

although they are receiving a new home at

a competitive rate, the builders can only

supply at these rates by using the cheapest

materials available. Consequently, these

homes have limited lifespans and require

more regular maintenance.

With this type of property, one needs

BUILDING SMARTER HOMES

In today’s society, bigger is always portrayed as better, but when it comes to our homes,

size doesn’t matter; what does is how well it performs and how smart its design is

WORDS // CHRIS KNIERIM PHOTOGRAPHY // NICK WILSON

to consider aspects of the build that will

provide a more effi cient outcome.

ORIENTATION, INSULATION,

ADAPTABILITY

Many people don’t realise how important the

orientation of a house is. When you consider

purchasing a display home, fi nd out if the

design is adaptable to suit the orientation of

your new block. This will aff ect the heating

and cooling of your home.

Insulation is an important aspect to

consider. Insulate where possible the roof,

fl oors and walls. On an average home,

around 30 to 40 per cent of the external wall

surface is glass and regardless of how well

the remainder of the house is insulated, all

the insulating benefi ts could be lost through

the glazing. Up to 40 per cent of heating

energy can be lost through glazing, while

87 per cent can be absorbed via heat gain

through windows, hence the importance

of performance glazing. In the long run,

the money spent on energy bills to heat

and cool the home far exceeds the cost of

upgrading your windows to a more effi cient

specifi cation at the construction stage.

What if we didn’t have to leave our homes?

Not many people think about adaptability

of design and the importance of future-

proofi ng your home. This is achievable by

building smarter and thinking smarter.

After living in your home and becoming a

part of the community, do you really want

to leave as you get older? Many people don’t

IMAGES Deakin House from

Grand Designs Australia Series Six

EXPERT ADVICE

(^) // BUILDING