Sanctuary 56 out now: Sustainable House Day special

Sanctuary 56 is our annual Sustainable House Day special, tying in with this year’s event themes with deep dives into building and design, retrofitting, building materials and climate-resilient homes.

Each year, Sustainable House Day is a much-anticipated event on the spring calendar, enabling homeowners and designers to share their knowledge with others keen to build, retrofit or renovate sustainably. This year’s program has been revamped and expanded, and will see four weeks of in-depth webinars leading up to a full day of online panel sessions on Sunday 17 October – plus, of course, you can explore all the open houses at your leisure via the informative virtual tours on the event website.

This issue, we take a closer look at nine of the best homes participating in the event, including an owner-built hemp masonry house on the Central Coast of New South Wales and a 9-Star urban strawbale build in Adelaide that impresses with its clean, modern lines. There’s a pair of Passive Houses just completed at The Cape ecovillage in coastal Victoria, including the snug split-level beauty by EME Design that’s on our cover. A renovation of a classic Queenslander showcases gold-standard flood-resilient design, and a modest Mittagong fibro cottage gets a ‘deep energy retrofit’. Meanwhile in Bendigo, simple design and savvy sourcing of materials allowed one homeowner to achieve her dream sustainable house for just $210,000.

Take a look inside Sanctuary 56

In a new series, ‘Experts explore’, familiar Sustainable House Day faces share their latest knowhow: Andy Marlow writes about achieving good indoor air quality in increasingly airtight homes; Uta Green explains how she used the design of her practice’s new Hobart office as a testing ground; and Perth duo Sid Thoo and Dannielle Robertson explore the value of carefully targeted retrofits for thermal comfort. We also get a glimpse into the building materials of the future when we visit a Sydney apartment exhibiting innovative ‘green ceramic’ building products made from glass and textile waste.

Also in this issue: In our Design Workshop, energy-efficient homes expert Geraldine Petit brainstorms a design for a family retreat in Goolwa, South Australia, to accommodate any number from two to a dozen. Rebecca Gross explores the growing urban homesteading movement, and we bring you a Climate Resilient Homes campaign update, looking at what’s at stake as the National Construction Code is updated in 2022.

Sanctuary 56 is on its way to subscribers and is now on sale in newsagents. You can buy a copy online or subscribe to get every issue delivered. 

We welcome your feedback. Perhaps there’s something else you would you like to see in Sanctuary? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or by email.