This simple, energy efficient home was once part of a school, writes Jacinta Cleary.
When it comes to building houses, Abbie Heathcote has tried almost everything.
In the 1960s, Abbie, a painter of landscapes, was drawn to the bush at Kangaroo Ground on Melbourne’s northern outskirts, building a mudbrick home.
In the 1980s she built an inspired home near Castlemaine in Central Victoria. Everything was done by hand and building materials salvaged from the tip, the bush and the roadside including tree trunks, stone, mudbricks, rocks, cow dung and sand dug from the riverside. This was undeniably an artist’s home, with a roof garden and an indoor dry creek bed. It took almost five years to build.
It was a different story with Abbie’s current home in Castlemaine, with the project taking only 13 weeks to complete. She had a head start with this dwelling, as it is made from a single portable classroom.
Just 20 kilometres away in Kyneton is BRB Modular’s ‘graveyard’, home to hundreds of demountable ex-classrooms. Abbie found a classroom slightly larger than most, meaning she could include two bedrooms, small as they are, so that her daughter can stay from time to time. The home has similar proportions to an inner city apartment, with an open plan living and kitchen area and a small bathroom/laundry. The main difference is that this 60 square metre ‘box’ has a 24 square metre deck added to it, with views that will only get better once the newly-planted trees grow up.
Anyone who went to school in portable classrooms might remember that they were incredibly cold, at least in the midst of a southern winter. Heating the rooms was hopeless because they are essentially steel or timber shells. To counter this, Abbie has added wall, floor and ceiling insulation, with the wall and ceiling insulation made out of recycled plastic bags. During an early morning visit after an overnight frost there’s no heating on but the full sun coming through the windows is enough to keep warm. Abbie says the house can stay warm until 9pm.
Read the full article in ReNew 112This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 at 2:27 pm