Tag Archives: house design

Pre-CAD Designer Me

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Lately I have been in my happy place: designing a home.

This has always been my favourite thing to do. As a child I would make house plans using the piles of grass on our lawn after my father had mown, then walk through the ‘rooms’ saying where things would be placed. Surely an early clue for my parents to foster and encourage this trait, but sadly this did not occur.

Graphic Communication at Secondary School fed this design urge. But instead of continuing down the path to become an Architect, I was detoured into qualifying as an Industrial Designer.

Back in the late 70’s and 80’s I was excited by the developments being made into sustainable and passive solar housing design. My thesis at tertiary level was on the topic of energy systems. Back then in 1980, the forecast was that coal and oil would be depleted by 2010.

During these tertiary studies I undertook an elective subject of computer programming as I could clearly see how the Graphic User Interface would open up a new world for designers. But this was way too early for the Computer Aided Design we see commonly used now. I was born too soon.

In later years as a mother with young children and working in another line of work altogether, I enrolled in a Building Construction course. I was the only female in a room full of young male tradies. I passed well enough and learned a lot, but CAD was still not being taught at this level. This was the early 1990’s. (Back in the 1980’s, when I had my children, women had to resign from their job when they became pregnant. There was no such thing as maternity leave or government assisted child-care. Maybe in some fields of work this was emerging, but not the male-dominated field of housing design and development.)

Despite this education, I have successfully designed four houses in partnership with Mick for our own family.

Swans Way 1989

Highfield Road 2002

Norfolk Place 2010

Sherwood Road 2015

These were always designed and built within our very limited budget and financial means at the time. Consequently, they were always modest and simple. We incorporated the things we wanted and needed at the time, and eventually after years enjoying these spaces as a growing family determines, we sold them and moved on. We were not ‘flipping’ houses. We are not developers or wannabe developers. We are not faux interior designers, stylists or desperate ‘influencers’.

My interest in sustainable living remains and over the years I have admired the development of “Earth Ships”. This method was initiated by a US architect Michael Reynolds back in the 1970’s. It is great to see the practical efforts and applications by Australian Architect Martin Freney continue to develop and build earthships here in Australia.

But personally, we have always lived in suburbia and are bound by the bureaucracies that bind us. Currently we have solar panels on our roof and a tank to gather rainwater for toilet flushing, and we will install these systems again in the new house.

So, we have a new project underway. We had been looking. I created a list of ideas for what we wanted – a vision board. And the very next day we had ‘manifested’ the property in the area we sought. Our wishlist formed the brief to the designer.

We have been looking at display homes, looking at materials, visiting showrooms, seeing what is being promoted online. It amuses us how curves, arches, and ribbed panels are back in style. This is an echo of the 1950’s, and not a look we like. Some interior designers seem to think they are cutting edge, but we see this style as very daggy and not new or unique at all. All things come around in cycles it seems.

So, while I used a drafting board and pens back when I was employed as a Designer, now using my graph paper, a pencil, ruler, and eraser, I have been plotting out designs for this block of land. This is what I love to do, and I envy the young designers who have their expert hands on CAD tools. The clients brief has some complexities that include a two-car garage as well as a parking spot for Mick’s small boat, while not sacrificing a nice street-facing façade of the building. The block is not big but fortunately flat (unlike our last project at Sherwood Road).

With Mick’s input and ideas, we have come full circle with our design plans, and we are up to Sketch Design Number 8B. Let’s see what our young CAD Designer has to say.

Review of 2014

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As I sat at the beach on the first day of 2015 I felt real peace. As soon as I became aware of this unique feeling I tried to identify why. I had just been for a swim in the ocean followed by a walk with Archie the dog, and I was waiting for my husband to return from his run. The sea was calm but the sky was overcast and grey. No jet skis or boats were out yet. A slight breeze blew the sand dune grasses making the little cottontail grass heads flick back and forth happily. Archie sat quietly near me watching other people and their dogs. I felt happy but tired from dancing the night before until after midnight greeting the New Year at a local venue with some friends. 2014 had been a difficult year and many of the difficult hurdles were now behind me; completed with mixed results.

Last year I was inspired by the ladies on the Up For A Chat podcast to do some forward planning after listening to their episode #40 Manifesting Matisse. I followed their idea to write out a “wish-list” of 32 items on a single piece of paper that is divided into 32 squares (by folding the sheet of paper).

Here are my 32 items with the results at the end of the year – with only four actions that I did not start:

Activity Result
1 Get a new job Found a great job
2 Design a new house House design completed
3 Sell parent’s house Parent’s house sold and settled
4 Execute the Will Will execution finalised
5 Drink no alcohol Alcohol free period for 6 months
6 Paleo diet Consistently trying
7 Eat no wheat Ate less wheat
8 Photo archive Started
9 Exercise regularly Regularly but not enough
10 Write my blog 20 blog posts
11 Create a new blog Did not do
12 Build new house Still waiting for planning approval to begin
13 Learn digital SLR photography Started
14 Start writing a book Did not do
15 Do yoga Weekly sessions with gap mid-year
16 Meditate Regular but not daily
17 Walk Regular but not daily
18 Walk the Peninsula trails Walked many of the Peninsula trails
19 Visit Peninsula art galleries Visited some art galleries
20 Cycle every week Cycled most fortnightly Saturday mornings
21 Read 20 books Read 38 books
22 Garden new block Obtained formal landscape plan for block
23 Learn French Did not do
24 Paint Did a few water colour sketches
25 Start sketch book Started a sketch book
26 Whole 30 Did the Whole 30 eating program
27 Be positive Consistently moved towards positive thoughts
28 Be kind Consistently tried to be kind to everyone I met
29 Learn online Did not undertake an online learning course
30 Go to ALIA conference Yes
31 Write letters to friends Yes
32 Family dinners Yes

 Here is what didn’t go well:

  • We continue to jump through hoops trying to comply with the ridiculously convoluted and slow planning process of the local Council in order to obtain permission to begin to build a new house.
  • Our family relationships have deteriorated in the aftermath of my parent’s departure from this earthly plane; despite honourable intentions and repeated and prolonged efforts to make amends and be kind and positive.
  • Dealing with the possessions of my parents was a huge undertaking that took time, energy, help from my brother and husband, and a respectful attitude.

Here is what went well:

  • My parent’s house sold extremely quickly, making it easy to move on with our own lives.
  • We moved into a new townhouse near the beach in a place we love.
  • I have a perfect new job with great colleagues.
  • Being involved with reading lists for book clubs.
  • Our new house design is brilliant.
  • Regular yoga and cycling.
  • Time spent with some great friends – new and old.
  • I continue to enjoy listening to some great podcasts here, and elsewhere that provides me with some important information and inspires me to keep on track with my efforts.
  • My favourite movie of the year was Inter Stellar – a rare masterpiece in my opinion.
  • I read some interesting books (here are the two I rated 5-star):

So I have once again taken a sheet of paper and folded it into 32 squares, then listed my 32 things, and pasted it into the back of my journal. So come what may 2015…

Off the grid

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The first time I heard about “earth ships” was while watching an episode of Grand Designs where a couple built an alternative style house in Brittany France. Whilst passive solar house design, water catchment and recycling, and thermal mass walls were not new ideas to me, this particular construction method using car tyres rammed with earth and aluminium cans and bottles was something I hadn’t seen before.

Not long after that I was searching the web and inadvertently came across the DVD Garbage Warrior. It sounded interesting so I ordered it for the library collection. I was enthralled by this documentary. It is about architect Michael Reynolds and the story of his quest to build fully sustainable dwellings. He has been doing this since the 1970’s. The rammed earth tyre thermal walls, and aluminium can and plastic and glass bottle walls are his ideas.

I can’t believe I’d never heard about Michael Reynolds and his Earth ships. I have been interested in sustainable housing construction and development since the late 1970’s. One of my final year projects for Industrial Design was about “energy’’. I investigated the history and evolution of energy supplies to industry and society. Back then it was forecast that our oil reserves would run out in 2010!!. I soon realised the saving potential of passive solar house construction.

Garbage Warriors traces the story of Michael Reynolds and his work in New Mexico. He experiments with his ideas and invites others to join him there. He soon builds a crew and a community. This community is totally off the grid. The houses are fully sustainable providing the residents with power, heating, water, and food.

One crew member and resident, Phil, says when referring to his young daughter who has grown up in their house there:

“She doesn’t know the difference between this house and a normal house like I grew up in. It’s just part of her, that the house takes care of her and supplies power and heats itself and has plants that provide food and the water comes from the roof. She knows all that and she thinks that’s the way it is and that’s the way everyone needs to think.”

After many years of this development Michael Reynolds was stopped by local authorities and lost his architectural licence. He laments:

 “I had lost the freedom to fail.”

 And this is his point. Phil explains further:

 “You’ve got to be able to make mistakes otherwise you never evolve housing type…Everyone’s so stressed about getting sued that they can’t make a single mistake so there is no evolution in design.” Michael goes on to say, “New Mexico is the state where [we] tested the atomic bomb. They designated several thousand acres of land to be just absolutely destroyed with something they just didn’t even know if it would keep on exploding or not. They took extreme risks in the interests of national security. So what I’m saying is, can’t we make a few hundred acres test sites with no holds barred to test methods of living for the future? It’s a test site. They allow it for bombs. They test automobiles. They test airplanes. They should allow it for housing.”

The buildings in this documentary are interesting and inspiring. The work these people take on is amazing. If you are at all interested in sustainable living, self-sufficiency, saving the world, or even self-preservation, you must watch this documentary. You will come to admire the determination and tenacity of Michael Reynolds – Garbage Warrior.

“Hubba hubba hubba.”

Be sure to watch the Special Features to see their biodiesel production and Denis Weaver’s earthship.

Here are some more links: earthship.net earthships.com greenhomebuilding.com Earthships 101 Part 1 and Earthships 101 Part 2.