Want a 365 day holiday house? Design for your climate

Over summer, as you are taking a holiday or break, I want you to notice the weather and the activities it lets you do.

What do I mean by that?

OK, when in Hawaii earlier this year I was reminded just how much my kids love swimming pools. They can splash, jump, bomb, float and slide all day. Their joy is palpable.

So, am I going to save for a pool at my place and do a resort-style reno??

Heck NO!

It’s one thing to visit a resort but quite another to try to replicate it in “real life”. You can build hotels and pools and make pina coladas anywhere. But the one thing that Hawaii has that can’t be replicated is its climate.

You cannot fake the weather.

Here’s the gold nugget - Tropical paradises like Hawaii are great holiday destinations not because of the pools as such, but because pool activity is really well suited to being comfortable in a hot and humid climate. My kids don’t know that, we don't think about it, but it just works when all the ingredients of climate, amenity and design are combined.

This climactic juggle is one of the many things architects study to deliver what gets summed up as “good design”.

To say it another way, no amount of money or technology can make my home town of Melbourne a 31 degree tropical paradise. A pool in Melbourne is ONLY used for a quarter of the year. But there are other things I can do to make my house and garden fun and welcoming.

Climate matters a lot for houses and how you spend your money. Consider, for example, the doors to an outdoor deck. I would argue that big multi-folding glazed doors can work in Sydney, Brisbane and perhaps Perth, but they are not a good solution for indoor-outdoor living in Melbourne or Adelaide. And sorry Hobart, but forget it. Down south we don’t get the consistent clement weather that allows you to just “open up” the house like that.

And even in Sydney and Brisbane you will probably want to retreat sometimes to very well insulated zone of the house that can be efficiently air-conditioned. Air conditioning doesn’t just address temperature, but humidity as well. After a certain point no amount of natural ventilation can give relief from this double whammy.

Wherever you are in Australia remember that fitting a flyscreen to a multi-fold is always a compromise and a fiddle and a faff. We have insects! (Hawaii has a remarkable absence of bugs.)

“Resort style” houses, so sexy in magazines, suit resort style climates. A savvy designer can weave between style and performance to produce a design in that special overlap zone between the aesthetics of lifestyle, the reality of your climate, and the function and comfort we need in buildings themselves.

It’s all about understanding thermal principles – here’s a different holiday primer…

Imagine you’ve just traveled to Morocco (it’s on my to-do list!) and fallen in love with the thick Moorish masonry, narrow passages, colourful tiled surfaces and flat roofs of Fez or Marasesch. Where you live in Australia will determine how you seek to capture that in your renovation or build!

Masonry is not your friend in a sub-tropical Brisbane climate, and could also get you in trouble in Sydney and Perth if you aren’t careful. Contrary to what you may have heard, brick and masonry do not insulate you from the heat or cold. Rather, they provide thermal mass, meaning they store up the heat of the day and radiate it off in the cool of the night. The catch is that after two days of heat…you’re staying hot. And after two days of cold…you’re staying cold. Then the only option is pumping in artificial heating and cooling that costs both money and the environment.

Insulation, whether its batts, wool, foam or straw bales, is all about trapping a layer of still air to stop heat or cold moving between the inside and outside of your building. Getting insulation, thermal mass and window size and placement all correct at the same time is the secret sauce to minimising the financial and environmental costs of heating and cooling your home. And maximising your comfort.

So think about the weather this summer.

If you want to bring home the good vibes and get your house aligned with your climate, Architect GP offers a Sustainable Design Workshop.

Get an architect in your home and discuss practical steps on how to improve your home’s comfort, to meet your lifestyle goals and live your environmental values. Check it out.