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Design
concept
Historical
or theoretical precedents
Why choose
clay bricks?
How it all
goes together
What
makes this house special?
Could
you buy one of these now?
What are
the implications for the future of housing?
Environmental
Features
About
the Architects
Website
Links
Design
concept
The Clay House uses the twin concepts of a courtyard plan and the
inherent mass of clay brick products to create an intimate and private
house. The driving concept behind this design is that it can fit
into a small block, and has high level of thermal comfort that doesn’t
rely on artificial cooling and heating.
The architectural design is an open plan centred around a “solarium”,
an indoor-outdoor space that acts as both the living area and courtyard.
This space has a multilayered glass roof with operable louvres to
control the level of light. By controlling the level of direct sunlight,
the thermal mass of brickwork can be heated or cooled accordingly.
All the rooms of the house open onto this sky-lit space, which in
turn opens onto a verandah facing the garden. The adjustable roof
and folding doors on all sides of the solarium allow the occupants
to adapt this room to varying degrees of openness and different
uses.
The square form of the courtyard can be expanded on two, three or
four sides, so that the exhibition Clay House is only one of many
versions that could be built.
Historical
or theoretical precedents
There is a long history of brick construction as the most secure
form of home, dating back to Roman
times.
Two notable designs in modern history include Mies van der Rohe’s
scheme for a brick
country house in 1924 that emphasised the planar nature of the
construction with walls extending into the landscape. This emphasised
the relationship of indoors and outdoors and the way brick can be
used for both.
Joern
Utzon, the architect for the Sydney Opera House,
designed a number of housing
schemes in Denmark in the 1950s, which were based around a private
courtyard that faced out to the sun and light and opened onto public
space.
Environa Studio has taken these two ideas of the solid wall that
links indoor and outdoor, and the use of the well protected courtyard
for private living, in the development of this House of the Future.
The Clay Brick and Paver Association provides an interesting history
on the use of brick throughout the ages, at http://www.claybrick.com.au/story.html
Why choose
clay bricks?
Clay bricks and tiles offer four advantages that make them ideal.
Firstly, bricks and tiles are solid and long-lasting. Secondly,
they provide an ideal walling material for a courtyard house as
they offer great security at the perimeter and excellent sound insulation.
Thirdly, on the interior they provide thermal mass which means they
can store the warmth of the winter sun. And finally, in summer when
the house is opened up at night, this massing is cooled by breezes
: the bricks can store coolth (a real word!) to offset the heat
of the day.
A conventional cavity brick wall will perform better thermally than
most other forms of construction, and the Clay House, with its insulated
cavity and tile external skin, will outperform even traditional
cavity brick.
How it all goes
together:
The design will be preassembled in six individual modules. Each
of these modules will be constructed using prefabricated brick panels.
The panels will be joined together to form the external cavity walls
and the internal walls. The pre-assembled modules have been designed
for easy transportation and craning onto site.
What makes this house special?
The
Clay House of the Future does not look like a typical brick house.
The courtyard design provides a cross-ventilating, light-infused
house with privacy and acoustic insulation from neighbouring houses.
The structure of the Clay House is a series of modular panels, 1200
wide, that bolt together to make the internal walls. This holds
up the roof structure, which is insulated and can be landscaped.
The external face of the brick walls are insulated and then clad
with a ventilated terracotta
tile that is waterproof, can “breathe”, and offers
security and thermal protection to the interior. This is often called
“reverse brick veneer” since the bricks are on the inside,
and the outside is an insulated veneer of clay tiles.
Internally, there is a wide choice of tiles including a full colour
range, white, greys and black. One wall shows a double size brick
module made from 300x300 bricks which have been diamond ground for
accuracy and laid in a stack bond pattern.
The roof over the living area is constructed of two layers of glass
with operable louvres sandwiched in between. The louvres can be
adjusted to control light and shade to the courtyard living space.
The external layer of glass has photo- voltaic cells embedded into
it to generate renewable electricity that can be fed back into the
power grid.
Could you
buy one of these now?
The Clay House is a prefabricated module and although no prefabricated
brick houses are presently available, this house and the solarium
can be customised to suit any block and constructed in the traditional
way. But who knows what will be possible in the future?
One of the design features that the architects believe will become
increasingly popular is adaptable mobile furniture. As houses become
smaller in area (to compensate for smaller sites, environmental
concerns and increasing costs), flexibly designed furniture allows
rooms to be used for different purposes throughout the day and in
varying seasons. In the Clay House, a mobile kitchen can be wheeled
into the solarium or verandah to become a BBQ, a table becomes a
workbench or even a bed, and a bed can be used as a couch or day
bed.
What are the
implications for the future of housing?
Australians love their suburban housing, but the recent past reveals
some problem, referred to as the 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 phenomenon. The average
block is half the size of 50 years ago, but houses are twice as
big. As a result, many new houses are two storey, with associated
overshadowing and privacy problems, but have less occupants than
before, down to an average of two in the cities. This is unsustainable.
Versatility in the Clay House plan allows a smaller area for a 3-bedroom
house that can fit on a site less than 300 sq metres, whilst still
offering car parking and a garden of at least 100 sq metres. This
means we can fit 3 houses, all with privacy and outdoor areas, in
an area where 50 years ago we had just one. In addition, it will
have much greater thermal comfort without artificial heating and
cooling.
Environmental
features
• Clay bricks provide thermal mass which saves heating and
cooling costs. Thermal mass moderates the effects of “diurnal
range” or daily changes in temperature, so the house retains
heat in winter and is shielded against summer heat by “coolth”;
• Bricks and terracotta tiles can be recycled, and manufactured
in part from recycled waste;
• Clay bricks and terracotta tiles are robust and extremely
durable as demonstrated by their long service life in many traditional
buildings. This means there is less waste as materials and finishes
don’t need to be replaced;
• Natural cross-ventilation breezes and sunlight are maximised
by designing the house around a central “solarium” courtyard;
• Operable louvres in the roof over the solarium can be opened
to heat the thermal mass of the house in winter, completely closed
to keep out the harsh summer sun or partly opened to allow light,
but not sun, to enter;
• Photovoltaic cells on the external roof harness solar energy
which is used to provide renewable electricity to the house;
• Rainwater is collected in vertical holding tanks between
the internal walls, or in horizontal tanks under the house. Stored
water can be cleaned and used as fresh water, and provides a large
“thermal well” for hydronic heating and cooling panels
to provide additional heating and cooling;
• The house can be completely unbolted and moved to another
site for reuse, or separated and recycled
About the
Architects – Environa
Studio
Environa Studio specialises in environmental architecture and has
designed individual and multiple housing projects, commercial buildings
and urban design schemes, all with a strong emphasis on sustainability
and energy issues.
Headed by Tone Wheeler and Jan O’Connor the practice has won
numerous awards and competitions. Award winning projects include
a completely self-sufficient house for Edward de Bono on an island
in the Whitsundays, and houses and studios
for noted artist Marr Grounds on the south coast of NSW. Tone is
a member of the RAIA National Environment Committee, and has been
on faculty of 3 universities.
Website links
www.claybrick.com.au
www.brickbydesign.com
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