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obtain a BASIX certificate to attach to their development application
to obtain approval to build from local government. Obtaining the BASIX
certificate is an Internet-mediated process in which the applicant
fills out an online form and, if the proposal meets minimum standards,
is awarded a certificate which is printed out. Progress towards the
standard is indicated as the form is completed online.


Under BASIX, introduced under the NSW EPA Act, buildings must:


1. Reduce their water use by 40 per cent. Water tanks become
mandatory. The use of grey water (NSW Health has guidelines on their
website) and water recycling is encouraged as is the reuse of
stormwater.


2. Reduce the emission of Greenhouse gases by 25 per cent. 


3. Thermal efficiency and thermal comfort of buildings must be
increased. 


Points two and three are achieved through energy efficient design,
building materials, energy efficient appliances  and technologies that
reduce production of the gases. Solar alignment and solar water
heating are encouraged as is the use of photovoltaic panels to
generate power.


DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Architect Tone Wheeler spoke on energy and resource efficient building
design. While a student at Sydney University in the late 1960s, Tone
was involved in the 'Autonomous House', probably the first experiment
in energy efficient housing in the country using the then-called
'alternative technology' (documented in a 1978 'Undercurrents'
magazine, London, article by Sydney architect Mark Baxter and Russ
Grayson).


Tone describes post-World War Two housing in Australia, houses all
with their ubiquitous 'Leichhardt tree' for hanging our washing (named
after the Sydney suburb), as suffering 'brick venereal disease'.


"Living in Arcadia in the bush - a farm house on a plot of land - has
driven the model of suburbia", he said. "Cheap, sustainable housing is
seen as made of building material such as mudbrick, rammed earth and
strawbale. But if we are thinking about the city we need to think a
little bit smarter". (Another speaker showed a house extension made of
rendered strawbale in Sydney's northern stockbroker belt of Killara).


Tone uses materials such as plywood sourced from plantations, steel
(it has high manufacturing energy input, he says, but that is offset
by the long life and durability of the material and its almost 100 per
cent recyclability), fibro - cement sheet in modular sizes with low
embodied energy and little wastage in use - and concrete. He also
makes use of refabricated/recycled wood products, glass (good for
lining bathrooms - no tiles with their bacteria and dirt catchment in
the grouting, easy to clean, very long lasting - and a new lightweight
roofing product consisting of an external layer of galvanised iron
with an insulating foam core and an internal rippled iron layer.


His buildings, unlike conventional structures, should last for 100
years or more, a duration that justifies the use of materials which
embody more manufacturing energy.


Tone makes use of water efficient and passive solar design but is
critical of energy efficient buildings that are tightly sealed, such
as some in colder climates overseas. Some of these, he explained, have
been shown to be more polluted inside than was the air outside. 


With their backgrounds in energy efficient materials and design, the
speakers made clear that modern materials have a rightful place in
resource efficient building. Likewise the modern design of their
buildings - nothing that looks to the past here, all innovative
modernist that is honest to materials used, very contemporary, even
the renovated inner urban buildings where, behind the classic
streetfront, lay entire new buildings that are filled with light,
indoor and especially outdoor living space and that are energy
efficient.


The latter approach is useful where local government stipulates that
period streetscapes are to be retained. Those old Victorian era houses
are remarkably inefficient, their rooms closed off from one another,
pokey and dark. The renovations retain that streetfront but replace
the dingy, pokey interiors with open plan structures that integrated
courtyards and rooms.


The talks contradicted the criticism sometimes leveled against modern
materials that they are toxic by showing examples of new and modern
materials that do not outgas harmful fumes and that comply with energy
and resource conservation criteria. Their point is that modern
materials and design can be safer than older materials. Renovators
know just how toxic old buildings can be, with their asbestos, lead
paint and garden soil contamined with it and other materials.


Materials on display in the expo outside the hall included a new,
lightweight brick made of 65% sawdust waste, sand and cement and a new
type of solar water heater consisting of an array of sealed glass
tubes.


The seminar was held at Manly West school, site of Sydney's newest
organic market. 


The previous seminar was on sustainable home gardening and featured a
garden presenter from ABC Gardening, Manly Council staff and Fiona
Campbell, a community college organic gardener who some on the
listserv may know. The next Manly Council seminar in the Sustainable
Living series will be on waste management.


Local environmentalist and founder of Manly Food Coop, Kelah Lamb, has
offered to hold an open day at her retrofitted suburban home which
features energy and water efficient design, on July 17. Interested
readers should contact the author.

<bold><fontfamily><param>Arial</param><color><param>0000,FFFD,807E</param>..........................................................................................................</color>

<color><param>0000,807E,807E</param>Russ Grayson</color><color><param>FFFD,0000,0000</param>

</color><color><param>0000,807E,807E</param>Media services: 
journalism-print/ online/ photo

info at pacific-edge.info  Phone/ fax: 02 9588 6931

PO Box 446 Kogarah NSW 2217 Australia</color><color><param>0000,FFFD,0000</param>

</color>http://www.pacific-edge.info

<color><param>0000,807E,807E</param>TerraCircle development aid team,
Oceania

</color>http://www.terracircle.org.au<color><param>FFFD,0000,0000</param> 

</color><color><param>0000,FFFD,807E</param>..........................................................................................................</color></fontfamily></bold>
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