INNOVATIVE ECO-HOUSING

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A Bigger Vision for Small Towns

 

The Denmark Ecological Collaborative Housing

project aimed to provide a new paradigm for

Australia in affordable, ecologically sustainable

homes. This is a visionary project providing a

model of high density community housing in a

rural setting.

 

Using common social, economic and environ-

mental design principles, co-housing has

become a successful model for neighbour-

hood development in many large towns and

cities around the world. But while collabor-

ative housing is not new, particularly in cities

or on large rural properties, and such housing has taken a more sustainable eco-village focus over the years, the context DecoHousing sought to demonstrate is similar ecological housing within the heart of a small town, an eco-village within a village.

 

The innovative features of this paradigm are strata titled home units on a constrained property size, proximity to the village centre, small duplexed homes augmented by common facilities, and a development company limited by shares owned by future residents.

 

STRATA TITLED

Using a Built Strata model under the state’s Strata Act, a rarity in rural Australia, allows owners to have a true market value for financing, investment or sale purposes, while maximising the proportion of land that can be held by the Strata Company and shared in common. This allows a more constrained total area for the development, improving affordability, reducing ecological footprint and limiting land under maintenance to that which can be effectively utilised.

 

CONSTRAINED PROPERTY

The opportunity to develop the project on a smaller area of land that would be expected in rural Australia allowed the possibility of siting the project close to the centre of the town. This enhances sustainability in that the resulting community is walkable to shopping, schools, medical facilities and entertainment, and readily contributes to the social and environmental fabric of the town.

 

SMALL HOMES

Although individual dwellings are designed to be self-contained - each having its own kitchen, bathroom

and living areas - they are

unusually small for rural

Australia, and duplexed.

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This improves affordability, energy efficiency and effective aging in place. The substantial common house and common gardens held by the Strata Company will complement the autonomy of private dwellings with the social health advantages of community living.

 

DEVELOPMENT COMPANY STRUCTURE

Having their own development company ensures that homes are designed, built and managed with substantial input by the residents themselves, with the assistance of qualified professional services, within a legal structure that provides high standards of governance and financial accountability.

 

HEMPCRETE CONSTRUCTION

Western Australia's first rural inner-town eco-village is largely built with hemp, such that the finished product adds weight to the growing push for it to be widely used in the construction industry.

 

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                                                    The key feature is the combination of hemp hurd, the

                                                     innards of the plant's stem, and lime, which is used

                                                     to enwall the traditional timber frames. The two

                                                     combine to form a lightweight masonry product,

                                                     which is very thermally efficient, breathes and has

                                                     high value acoustic properties.

 

It provides a construction material which is much more thermally efficient than a double brick wall and is equal in effect to the thermal efficiency of a very wall insulated timber wall — but this wall breathes, which regulates the humidity in the house.

 

Though similar houses had been built in other parts of Australia, the Denmark project was the first of its kind for WA and the largest in the southern hemisphere. The primary drive has been to create houses that are comfy, easy to live in and cost little to run because they are energy efficient.

 

ECO-VILLAGE BEST PRACTICES

Beyond these areas of innovation, many other features of the project, borrowed from eco-village best practice, will be rare for rural Australia – vehicle access peripheral to the housing cluster (unlike ‘lifestyle’ or ‘retirement’ villages, potential for an integrated PV system, integrated greywater and rainwater capture, and an integrated passive solar strategy.

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SHARING THE DREAM

All these features we believe will be very transferable to more affordable, more ecological and socially sustainable housing in other towns in rural Australia. Deco-Village community members are committed to sharing this model through social media both during and post completion, and through activities run at the community level once completed.

 

Denmark itself is a growth zone and this project will be an exemplar for other developments to follow in terms of density, building materials, sustainability and social liveability both in the region and across Australia. It provides affordable housing including hopefully some rental opportunity in a town that suffers from insufficient rental accommodation.