Sustainable House Day, Jackeys Marsh, Tasmania

'Nut Garden'  

I wear three hats - builder / designer
                           musician / composer
                           theatre director / actor / playwright

I alternate between the three and I combine them. Sometimes I wear the three of them together.  They share similarities.  The long build-up of a theatre production from writing and composing to early rehearsals to opening night, is like the process of building from design to foundation to completion, or like a song, from the gem of an idea to its performance and recording.

I’ve always had the building of structures in my life.  My Dad made all the bricks for our first family home.  My family always lived on the outskirts of country towns in Victoria (Port Fairy, Portland, Colac) where the built environment gave way to paddocks and the bush.  Freedom and open spaces to run wild.  It was cubby houses and tree houses and puppet theatres.  Building was part of my ‘play’ and it still is.  The menagerie of reptiles, mammals and birds that I kept in the backyard demonstrated many attempts to house native animals in surroundings where they might feel ‘at home’.  I wanted to keep them wild.  The placement of a hollow log, branches placed to break the symmetry of rectangles, creating hiding places and using glass to trap the heat of the sun and bring the outside in.  These things softened captivity and made it more bearable.  I built homes for animals.  Now I build cages for humans!

I figure human animals have the same needs in housing.   They want to feel secure, but they don’t want to feel trapped or hemmed in.  Ideally the location of the structure, its design and the materials used would be chosen according to the taste or aesthetic sense of its occupants and satisfy their needs for security, privacy, view, openess, warmth, self expression, belonging.

When I was twenty, in 1974, I came to Tasmania during holidays from Latrobe Uni where I was studying literature and music.  I didn’t want to go back.  Tasmania was where I wanted to be.  The following year I bought land in Jackeys Marsh, a place of incredible beauty near Deloraine.  I paid eighty dollars per acre for a seventeen acre lot of  hilly bushland and put my roots down.  ‘Nut Garden’  has been my playground for twenty-four years now  and my architecture has accumulated and developed into a showcase of my ideas and skills.  I take risks at home and learn techniques that I can use in other people’s structures.
It’s when a building is sympathetic to its environment and draws inspiration from its environment that ‘art’ comes back into architecture.  The mimicry of natural forms and shapes draws the eye.  The round window in the square wall creates movement and is like an eye to the outside.  With curves there is grace and movement.  I find them sensuous.  They catch our attention and lead our eyes to other features of the building.
The constraints of labour costs today make building for expression and uniqueness somewhat of a luxury – although owner builders don’t suffer this expense.  Special design and difficulty factors prolong the job, but I think the lasting effect is worth it.  I work with stone and wood and glass.  I bend wood into curves.  I make unusual windows and doors.  I build features, glass domes, onion top cupolas, bay windows and spiral staircases.
Of the three hats that I wear, the builder gets the most enduring reward – the video of the play is never as good as the live show.  Similarly musical performance vanishes with the last note of the last song.

My buildings continue to endure and continue to give me enjoyment.  I enjoy a surprise and I know others do too.

Technical details.

Materials:  
The buildings are a mixture of materials including rock, from the property and from the nearby district.
Mudbricks, made from excavated clays, make up part of  most of the structures. They were made with a cinva ram.
Heavy structural timbers were sourced from nearby trees. A truck load of dry unused railway sleepers ( at $2.50 each) were used to make solid wooden walls 100mm thick. Cedar weather boards have been used on one part of the main house.
Glass, much of it recycled plate glass, is used extensively to trap heat, to capture the views, and to create features such as prisms and a glass geodesic dome made from 40 triangles of laminated 6mm glass, on top of the third level of the house.

Energy:  
Solar energy is harvested with 1300 watts of photovoltaic panels. This is stored in batteries and provides mains power for the two houses on the property. Appliances in the houses have been selected for their low power consumption. In peak solar conditions this is easily enough power for normal household needs. During off peak periods, e.g. prolonged cloudy weather, a back-up generator is used, petrol powered.
Micro hydro electric scheme.The property has abundant ground water which, in winter, becomes a stream capable of powering a pelton wheel and alternator. Heavy copper cables convey the electricity to the houses. Winter is a time of energy surplus for us, as the wheel runs 24/7 and coupled with the solar cells makes more than we can use.
Excess energy in summer, when there is more solar than we can use, or in winter when the water wheel makes an excess, is diverted to hot water heating elements in an insulated tank.
Heating is by solar absorption through many glass windows. Wood from the property is burnt to heat the house and make hot water.
Hot water is also collected from a roof top custom built system in summer and in warmer months.
Workshop power. Most power tools used in the work shop can be powered by the household system for short durations. Heavy duty use requires a petrol powered back-up generator to be used.

Organic food production. Fruit and vegetables are grown where possible, in preference to 'buying in'.

Water. There is abundant water flow from several springs all year round to supply water needs.