Richard TAYLOR
Sustainable design is not a recent concept - it is a recently lost one.
Sustainable Design consultant, Chris Reardon, 2008
The challenges and opportunities of rural conditions and the limited resources of Australia's first settlers forced the development of a series of passive technologies to provide architectural comfort. With the growing recognition of the environmental impact of architecture those same early solutions are now being revisited for their environmental advantages. Earth construction - the simplest form of settler building - has been revitalised due to its minimal embodied energy and its heat-storing thermal mass. Timber - the most common frontier building material - is now recognised as a carbon-capturing renewable resource with low embodied energy and excellent insulating properties. Natural ventilation and shading - once the only cooling options for remote country houses - are again being explored as a passive antidote to mechanical air-conditioning. Corrugated iron - the industrial age's great gift to rural architecture - has become a valid sustainable material because it is low maintenance, durable and recyclable. And water collection and conservation - a practical necessity for those who first pushed into the country's dry interior - have resumed their importance in the face of the modern water crisis.
The Historic Houses Trust's outreach/touring project entitled, Built for the Bush, shows how and why Australia's settlers developed their customs of self-sufficient housing technologies. The loss of this tradition in the twentieth century is explored as prosperity, fashion and technological advancements broke the reliance on natural strategies. And the contemporary renewal of sustainable design practices is highlighted through the showcasing of a series of modern environmentally-friendly country houses.
The project, which encompasses exhibition, education and public programs, aims to raise awareness of environmental design and engender pride in the rural tradition of sustainable technologies. The concept and form of the project was developed in consultation with regional museums to ensure its relevance and engagement with the receiving venues. The paper that will be presented to the conference will describe the thesis and form of the exhibition and the associated programs that the Historic Houses Trust has developed to support the exhibition.