Australian Passive Solar Home

Architects are professionals in building design, and some are also experts in energy-efficient house design.

But I struggled with gaining an architect for our house. In short, so many architects wanted to sell me a ‘package’ – not only would they design the house, but they’d also do the energy rating, the drawings, the required engineering and submit the design to the local regulatory authority. All at a cost, of course – and one that I thought quite exorbitant. (I also found that they didn’t like it if I asked them to break the cost down into its component parts.)

In the end I took the following approach. For our house I used three different architects, and each contributed something the others had not.

My main architect was an expert in energy-efficient house design in my climate. He did the initial NatHERS modelling (this was before I’d done the training course). Another architect was a generalist – and he looked at aspects such as how the house would fit with the site, size of the rooms and things like that. Both these architects I paid on an hourly basis. The third architect was a longstanding friend who made a major improvement to the interior design. (And I didn’t pay him anything!)

If you are creating your own house, I think it vital that you have a professional architect cast their eye over the design. But here’s no need to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a ‘package’ – instead hire on an hourly basis.

Be wary of architects who advertise their approach with vague motherhood statements. For example: “We are committed to space and structure, and provide high level input into design and construction. Your dream is our reality.” What have they actually said? Not much!

Compare that to: “We use cost-effective passive solar design principles that make use of sunshine, shading, insulation and thermal mass. Consult with us when you’re first thinking about what you want your new home to achieve and together, we can make it happen – and within your budget.” Much better!