Sustainable House Day 2017: The most innovative homes across Australia

With 190 energy-efficient and adaptive houses open to the public this Sunday, it has become undeniable that residential sustainability has hit the mainstream. 

The 16th annual Sustainable House Day event, put on by the Alternative Technology Association (ATA), attracts more than 20,000 visitors interested in exploring the tricks and technologies to lower impact – and let’s be honest – much cheaper-to-run lifestyles. Across Australia, visitors can take a look inside and talk directly to the owners, architects and builders of clever and environmentally conservative homes that have been popping up in metropolitan and regional areas for several decades now.

One quirky and individual example that will be open is the domed, circular and tiny (30-square-metre) one-bedroom “man cave” at Wilby, in Victoria. This project cost its owner/builder/designer $70,000 to set up as a two-level off-the-grid construction.

The walls of Yr Ogof Ddyn (Welsh for “man cave”) are constructed of two-metre-thick, and therefore super-insulated, load-bearing cob that is made up of natural materials such as sand, straw, water and clay.

Many of the houses taking part in the open day are ingenious, displaying the considered thinking of owners who want to take full responsibility for their footprint on the earth. The butterfly-roofed, four-bedroom house at Cape Patterson, in Victoria, by local building firm Sociable Weaver in collaboration with Clare Cousins Architects, is one such project and has achieved a phenomenal 10-star energy rating.

That means it’s costing the occupants $300 a year to run the electricity, a truly enviable $2000 less than an average, artificially heated and cooled household. The house build cost $495,000.

Although the seeds of enviro-friendly housing were in the home-made “alternative” or back-to-nature hippie years of the 1970s, these days it’s not unusual for name architects to be designing houses that function primarily for comfort and efficiency and in doing so, generally present as more utilitarian than fancier, more financially onerous statement homes.

High-end Sydney architect, Matt Elkan, helped a couple make a South Coast weekender out of four recycled shipping containers. This has resulted in a descending house that can, if pushed, accommodate 10.

• Related: The couple building their house from straw
• Related: What the houses of the future will contain
• Related: Victoria’s most sustainable community

Used for sleeping and service needs, the now super-insulated containers have double-glazed windows and share two huge decks that step down to give the residents much more headroom. Capable of a 5.5 star energy rating, Container House cost $360,000 to put together.

Another architect-designed building, is the Prefabricated Folding House by Matthew Dynon and Mode Homes that is on view at Belmore, in the Bankstown council area. The project is a tiny, 60-square-metre prototype of a one-bedroom, granny flat structure.

With the structural components, including insulated panel walls, being factory-made before being delivered in a flat-pack to the site, Dynon believes two people can assemble the structure in a matter of hours.

This “testing of a big idea” project cost $120,000 and is capable of an 8-star energy performance.

There are underground houses, recycled material houses, hemp and straw bale houses, off-grid houses that harvest most of their own water and energy, zero-waste houses, houses that look as simple as sheds, those made from materials salvaged mostly from skips, and those so sophisticated you’d never pick they are environmentally and energetically conservative.

Most are by their very nature future-proofed. Exemplifying this is River House built into the sand dunes behind a beach in Carlton, Tasmania, by Beachhouse Architecture.

The attractive two-bedroom home, with its raked frontage, is well above sea level now but provision has been made for dinghy mooring on the front deck should sea level keep rising.

So responsive and responsible are the occupants of River House that they only have a stove with two burners and keep the hot water they need for the day in a vacuum flask. They only have one bathroom (no bath), no lawn and turn off lights when not using rooms.

Costing $300,000 to build and including 20,000 litres of roof-harvested water storage, the lovely home and office operates with a 7.1-star energy efficiency.

Sustainable House Day is on Sunday, September 17. Access to houses is either free or by gold coin donation and locations can be discovered here.