The resilient home
Resilience is the capacity to withstand and recover from adversity, and our homes should embody this strength. As places of shelter, nurture, rest, sustenance and increasingly where we work, a more resilient home supports our ability to meet our needs and navigate life’s challenges in an ever-changing world. By fortifying our living spaces, we create environments that support and sustain us through all circumstances.
Planning for change
A resilient home is prepared for change. Creating one begins with anticipating potential challenges and planning for the future. This involves incorporating adaptability into your home’s design, considering the evolving needs of the life cycle and health. It also means accounting for social, economic, environmental, political, local and global trends, as well as technological advancements and property laws that impact our way of living.
Future-proofing: Trends affecting housing
Homelessness, mortgages and rents are higher than ever, with the trend continuing upward. In December 2023, BBC News announced that the Great Australian Dream of home ownership was offi cially over. Sydney now ranks as the second least aff ordable property market in the world, surpassed only by Hong Kong. As a result, intergenerational living is on the rise.
Climate change is another signifi cant factor altering our living environment. According to the Climate Council, by 2030, one in 25 Australian properties will face prohibitively high insurance premiums due to climate impacts, rendering them virtually uninsurable. The primary cause is fl ooding from river inundation. Additionally, climate change heightens the need for repairs, heating and cooling, and impacts our ability to grow food, among other challenges.
Other household expenses, such as power, food, construction and home improvements, are on the rise.
With higher living costs and infl ation, it’s essential to reduce as many bills at home as possible. Additionally, government policies around aged care and disability increasingly promote living at home with community aid. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, about one in six Australians have a disability, a figure expected to grow.
While it may seem daunting, humans have always battled adversity. There is hope in rising to the challenge and benefi ts in making plans to adapt. So, what can we do?
Designing across time
Carol Marra, a sustainable architect and co-founder of awarded architecture firm Marra + Yeh, suggests we think of design as a process rather than a finished product. “A lot of times when people talk about homes, they talk about design as a look and a product. It’s also a verb,” she says. Design, in this sense, is dynamic, a way to explore alternative methods of living and how we can accommodate the future. We need to consider not just the next fi e years, but the next 20 or 40. And, while we don’t know the future with certainty, we do have indicators, she says, allowing us to design across time.
Marra, a tutor and guest critic at The University of Sydney and a leader in her fi eld, has been designing resilient and climate-ready homes globally and within Australia for decades. She reassures us that we don’t have to do everything at once: “Break it up into manageable pieces that you do over time.”
Changing family composition
The post-war model of housing most of us live in today was based on the nuclear family and assumptions that we would continue to live in this way, Marra explains. “That in itself is not a resilient family composition. A family is resilient when we can call upon and help each other and have the environment and tools to do that.” She says we need to think beyond the restrictive, single-family home as the only housing model we have to work with. Changing times and the housing crisis mean our homes may need to accommodate more people: elderly parents, children who leave the nest (and may return with partners and their own children), ex-partners and others.
A core strategy for accommodating this is designing for flexibility, Marra says. This might include building with the potential to compartmentalise parts of the home or separate one space from another. Consider having more than one entry or an alternative entrance and constructing multiple smaller buildings on one property rather than a single large one. Studios, granny flats and utilising attic or garage space are other effective ideas. The goal of such space planning is to create privacy so everyone isn’t living on top of each other, Marra explains.
The changing nature of work and study
Rooms that can be closed off , separated quarters and separate entrances also support the needs of those working from home, Marra says. A 2023 report by McKinsey & Company predicts remote work will only increase. And according to The University of Queensland, upcoming generations can be expected to have about five to seven different careers over their lifetime. The fast pace of technological change and the Fourth Industrial Revolution mean workers will have to update half their core skills every five years, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023.
Flexible spaces for studying, working from home or running a business can help support career changes. Separated spaces or external buildings can also be used to generate income as accommodation, a guesthouse or rental space.
Disability and aeging
Flexible spaces are also crucial for accommodating disability and ageing, Marra notes. For instance, the ground floor of multi-level homes can be equipped with a bathroom to serve those who cannot use stairs, whether temporarily or permanently. Upper levels and separate buildings can house live-in carers or provide family support.
Ageing is a signifi cant consideration in home design due to changing demographics, Marra adds. New building codes effective this year require homes to be more liveable and accessible as we age. These regulations include reducing steps, expanding bathrooms, toilets, halls and doorway spaces and reinforcing walls in bathrooms and toilets to facilitate the installation of grab rails.
In older homes, some features can be retrofitted, Marra explains. Level access can be provided with ramps, and handrails and brighter lighting can be installed. As we age, our need for light increases significantly. “When you’re 40 years old, as opposed to when you’re 20, you need twice the amount of light to see the same thing,” Marra says. “A lot of people are not aware of this.”
Climate change and extreme weather
As the recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship, Marra travelled to Japan, China and the Philippines to study design methods that accommodate severe climate patterns. Humans have been designing dwellings to withstand climate extremes for eons, Marra emphasises. “This is something that’s been going on for a very long time. Some places on this planet have had extreme weather for the entirety of their existence. Whether that’s cyclones, heavy rain or extreme heat, people have found ways to adapt to those conditions through their built environment and the way that they behave.” Designing for climate mitigation and adaptation, she explains, involves looking to the past to understand what worked and what didn’t.
Whether it’s a new build or an existing one, and regardless of your budget, there’s something everyone can do. When it comes to heating and cooling, choices revolve around “passive” and “active” systems. The key difference is that an active system, such as air conditioning, requires energy to operate. In hot climates, passive systems are primarily about creating shade and ventilation. This can be as simple as planting trees or installing shading devices or screens over windows. Ideally, you want a flexible system that allows you to let heat in when needed. Rearrange your rooms for climate comfort, using the coolest, southfacing room for daily living during hot summers.
Holding water in the ground helps cool the air and can be achieved with swales, ponds, dams and rain gardens. Avoid surfaces that retain heat, such as concrete and asphalt. Roofi ng should be light-coloured to absorb less heat.
In cold climates, insulate your building with proper sealing, double glazing and upgraded windows. Shutters, drapes and thick rugs are also helpful. These measures reduce the cost of running a heater. “Whatever you do has to be an investment that gives you a return,” Marra says.
Heavy rainfall, flooding, fire and strong winds increasingly damage our homes. Long eaves, deep verandahs and 45-degree angled roofs can help protect building walls from rain. Wind can be buff ered with enclosed verandahs, window shutters and strategically placed hardy trees and shrubs. Interlocking building elements and perforations in awnings and shades also reduce wind impact.
In flood-prone areas, elevated buildings, stone or concrete ground floors and walls and rust-proof components are the most resilient to flooding, Marra says. Sunken courtyards can trap and disperse water, while swales, rain gardens and tanks can manage water flow.
Fire-resilient homes can save lives. Design measures, according to Marra, include using non-combustible materials and creating a vegetation-free zone between buildings with gravel, paving or masonry. In the garden, use materials that allow water to permeate the ground. Water tanks, sprinklers and roll-down external screens over windows are useful fi re defenses. “You don’t have to do all of these things. It’s like a menu, you can choose individual things,” Marra says.
Higher living costs
Of course, a quandary for many is how to fork out for money-saving and planet-friendly retrofits amid higher living costs and time constraints. Nevin Sweeney, founder of Under the Choko Tree, a popular educational blog about sustainable living in the suburbs, is a master of the low-cost retrofi t. “We have limited time, energy and money, so you want to get the best bang for your buck,” he says. The answer is to plan.
Sweeney suggests beginning by gathering information, starting with some energy audits. Many libraries hire out easy-to-use gear that can help you identify what your appliances are using and where the big loads are.
A former president of Permaculture Sydney West, Sweeney lives in St Clair, which he describes as a “solar oven” in summer and “cool” in winter. “One day a couple of years ago, we were the hottest place on Earth: we hit 49 degrees,” he recalls. To beat the bills, Sweeney has implemented many eff ective but small-scale ideas. These include building a deck on the western aspect of his house, shielded with shadecloth and bamboo blinds. Extra heat defence is provided by plantings of food trees including a mulberry, olive and mandarin.
When it comes to switching on the cooling, fans are the lowest energy option, he says. In winter, he uses “wearable blankets” (“they keep you warm without necessarily doing things to the house”) and a headlamp charged via USB. “One of the things I found helpful was to think about the immediate area you’re in rather than the whole house — in terms of heating, lighting and so on,” he says.
For those renting or unable to aff ord double-glazing, polystyrene and other materials can be cut to the inside diameter of the window to reduce heat loss, he says. “You can also put on stuff like bubble wrap to have a perfect double glazing that’s quite cheap,” he adds. Curtains with a pelmet and “window quilts” are another way to insulate windows.
A wood heater with an attached oven and cooktop allows Sweeney to “multipurpose” energy, using the same source to both heat the home and cook food. He also has a range of low-to-zero-energy cooking appliances including rocket stoves (these heat using small sticks and twigs), solar ovens and woks. Those who can aff ord it can invest in solar panels, solar hot water heaters, heat pumps and other options on the market.
Creating areas for growing food is another way to reduce the bills. To prolong the home harvest, Sweeney recommends regularly rotating annual vegetables according to a planting plan, drying and freezing food and making use of edible perennials and trees. The idea, he says, is “to provide a small amount of food continuously, rather than a big glut”. Those in flats can grow food on balconies or indoors — even if it’s just sprouts and microgreens, he says.
To protect his food garden from extreme heat, Sweeney uses mulch and shadecloth. Raising some of the beds helps protect against “rain bombs”. “For me, resilience is being able to take a hit and keep going,” he says
