Cameron Rosen, Australian Living’s director, has expanded online in his quest to promote eco-friendly houses.
The result is Your Future Home, a website dedicated to helping prospective home-builders understand the benefits of sustainability when building a home and advice on how to achieve this.
The website outlines five key principles it believes are essential to the eco-friendly home: Design, Thermal Comfort, Material Choice, Water, Energy and Permaculture, and The Resident. There are detailed guides for each principle, from how to incorporate the natural slope of the land in the design phase through specific analyises of concrete and gyprock to how the habits and behaviour of the home’s inhabitants will affect it’s sustainability. Each section is thoroughly explained and fleshed-out by useful resources including glossaries of commonly used terms and downloadable checklists to help track your progress, making it simple and easy to follow.
Your Future Home also includes a virtual tour of the Australian Living Eco-challenge home in Rose Bay, Sydney, where you can explore room-by-room how different techniques have been used and see how they fit with the various principles advocated. For anyone still on the fence about whether or not eco-friendly homes are the way to go, this luminous, modern property incorporating natural materials, clever ventilation and ingenious design solutions is sure to tip the scales.
Particularly encouraging is the support and collaboration from established construction companies; As Rosen says “one of the main innovations has been the bringing together of Boral, One Steel, and roofing and wall system company, Ritek, to develop a special concrete-mix to fill the walls and suit our requirements”.
With links to other sustainable housing initiatives around the world, videos and event listings Your Future Home is a comprehensive resource for those looking to build an eco-friendly home or simply interested in the movement.