Building better: Sustainability feature

This is the third in a series of features profiling climate leaders from across the Fleurieu Peninsula. In this issue, we meet some of the people building climate resilient developments.

Building better Story by Nina Keath.

New suburban developments will always prompt strong feelings, particularly among neighbours. It’s the nature of these developments that determines whether locals will look optimistically at what new subdivisions can offer the community and the environment, or whether they will be met with trepidation.

At a recent economic development forum, prominent Fleurieu business leaders agreed that our region cannot afford to roll out the kinds of suburbs linked with poor social, economic and environmental outcomes. As one panellist said, ‘Our suburbs are already too hot and they’re going to get a whole lot hotter under climate change. We know we can do better.’ Another of the panellists said, ‘I worry about sounding elitist, but we need higher-quality housing in the south. It’s hard to attract professionals to the region when our housing stock is so poor.’ So, what does better look like? And does more sustainable and climate-resilient housing necessarily have to mean more expensive or exclusive?

Tricia O’Donovan and Rick Davies don’t believe so. As co-directors of housing development company Living Not Beige, they have shown that you can build affordable and sustainable homes and still make a tidy profit. My friend, Gabrielle Scarman, happens to live in one of their developments and her experience shows that the economic benefits don’t stop with the developer but flow through into long-term affordable living and wellbeing outcomes for the homeowner.

In 2014, Gabrielle and her young family had begun to worry their $320,000 budget would never secure them a suitable home. Then they heard about Living Not Beige’s Orchard Walk development in Aldinga. I remember pouring over the plans with Gabrielle and feeling excited but also sceptical that the promised sustainability benefits could be achieved on their budget. I’m delighted to have been proven spectacularly wrong.

Left page: Living Not Beige’s Orchard Walk development in Aldinga combines green space, passive solar design, and well designed and insulated homes at a fair price. Above: Gutter to gutter housing in dense suburban environments is not the way forward.

‘Our suburbs are already too hot and they’re going to get a whole lot hotter under climate change. We know we can do better.’ ‘The old adage that sustainable design is elitist and vastly more expensive is just not the case anymore.’

For the past four years, Gabrielle and her family have been thriving in a passive-solar, light-filled, 3-bedroom home replete with solar panels, rainwater tank, insulation, double glazing, internal thermal mass, communal greywater, private courtyard and garden. It’s a stark contrast to her previous dark and freezing rental. She says, ‘Our new home is so comfortable and low fuss and we couldn’t be happier. It feels so spacious even though it’s small. Our bills are very low because of the rainwater and solar power and it’s so energy efficient that we don’t need a heater or air-conditioning.’

As long-term residents of the Aldinga Arts EcoVillage themselves, Tricia and Rick have experienced firsthand the power of smart design and they want to share this with others. Their developments thoughtfully balance the individual and the collective, based on their motto ‘building community as well as homes.’

Tricia particularly appreciates the way the EcoVillage has blurred the boundaries between private and public space, removing all fencing and instead relying on landscaping to provide visual cues to delineate spaces. Tricia says, ‘Kids can run free and are able to form precious relationships with the elderly. We get intergenerational integration and people receive passive support from their neighbours.’ She places particular value on this integration in contrast to the way aged care is traditionally managed by separating the elderly out. ‘We have an aged care model that’s not working but here the community are supporting our elderly without formalisation of care. It’s just being neighbourly. This is a product of design as much as anything and we, as a society, need more of that,’ she continues. We’re gazing into their north-facing courtyard leading into communal land bursting with blossoming fruit trees and productive shared vegetable gardens when, as if on cue, two teenagers knock on the door to mumble good-naturedly about returning a borrowed table.

When we talk about climate-resilient housing, it’s easy to get fixated on technology – and don’t get me wrong, the EcoVillage is an ecstasy of electric cars, double glazing and recycled water. Each week, the villagers only put out fifty rubbish-bins between 180 houses because of their sophisticated closed-loop waste management system. But resilience can’t rely on technology alone. Agreeing to share your bin with three other families relies on connection, cooperation, adaptability and kindness. And, as >

Above: The Beyond Today Development in Hayborough.

Tricia and Rick have so ably demonstrated in their Orchard Walk development, these principles can be purposefully designed. We just have to prioritise them in planning and investment models.

Further down the Fleurieu, that’s exactly what the multi-award winning Beyond Today estate in Hayborough has done. Going well above government planning requirements, this family-owned company wanted to create a development that they’d want to live in themselves. As Beyond Today’s Adam Wright says, ‘Dad can’t bear the cheek-by-jowl developments that squeeze you in without any open space. We’ve found there’s no issue with blocks being smaller because we’ve introduced lots of wetlands, trees and open space and nearly every house backs onto a reserve. It’s so healthy to have landscape and life around us.’

Beyond Today’s model of sustainability isn’t only environmental. Adam says that when the 2008 Global Financial Crisis caused developers everywhere to fail, Beyond Today still managed to sell blocks. He says, ‘the sustainability and open space we offered was our only point of difference.’ In fact, Beyond Today has been so successful that it has become a national precedent for sustainable development. Alexandrina Council now uses Beyond Today as an exemplar for educating other developers, and Adam consults to developers all over Australia.

There are several new developments currently proposed for the Fleurieu, and I ask Tricia, Rick and Adam what it would take for the residents of these new suburbs to experience the same positive outcomes as my friend Gabrielle. Any risk of utopianism is quashed by their sobering response. Rick speaks for all when he says bluntly, ‘If nothing else happens, the new developments will end up with lowest-common-denominator housing. Under our planning rules, there is no chance that they will be high quality – none at all.’

However, Rick says this could be readily fixed by governments insisting on a seven-star energy rating for new suburbs. ‘To achieve seven stars, you’ve got to orient the house north to achieve passive heating and cooling benefits,’ explains Rick. ‘This would then require the people designing the houses and subdividing the land to work together.’

Adam agrees, ‘it’s such a simple thing for a developer to make sure northerly solar access is possible. It does take a little more time and planning than a traditional cookie cutter approach, but we’ve shown there’s a market for it. If you offer someone a house with airflow, natural light and the ability to be bill free forever, for a 10% increase in the cost, most people will take it!’ He goes on to say, ‘the old adage that sustainable design is elitist and vastly more expensive is just not the case anymore. Building a sustainable house is now 20% less than it was twenty years ago because the costs of things like solar, double glazing and insulation have all come down significantly.’

Adam shares an experience with one of South Australia’s large volume developers, recalling, ‘this developer said they wanted to be more sustainable, but it was like trying to turn a super tanker. He used the analogy that the captain is turning the wheel but the ship takes a long time to change course.’ But the wheel won’t be turned by brute strength alone. ‘It takes someone being wholeheartedly committed and wanting to do things differently to make it happen,’ Adam continues. ‘The major developer who goes first on this will reap the highest benefits.’

And as Adam, Tricia and Rick have shown, our communities will benefit too. When developers prioritise building not just homes but also healthy communities, they create suburbs that are connected, climate resilient and affordable both now and into the future.

Above: Tricia O’Donovan and Rick Davies are co-owners of the company Living Not Beige. They have shown that you can build affordable and sustainable homes and still make a tidy profit.

Fly the Fleurieu

Cactus Canyon at Sellicks Beach looks spectacular at any time of day, but the rock formations take on a breathtaking glow in the golden hour that makes any photograph an absolute winner.