Product Description

Special feature: Prefab & modular special

House profiles

• Eco-effective collaboration
  This young Perth couple worked with architect Sid Thoo to build an energy-efficient family home designed to lower their carbon footprint.
• Dreams in action
  A pavilion-style home and office in Cairns makes good use of recycled materials, passive solar design and landscaping to achieve a sustainable tropical lifestyle.
• Sideways step
  A small addition to the side of an Adelaide house brings in northern light and has dramatically changed the way the owners live in the home.
• Riverside retreat
  This elevated granny flat on the Myall River in New South Wales used a hybrid prefab system for a fast, cost-effective build on a constrained site.
• Signed, sealed and delivered
  Off-site modular construction provided a stress-free solution for this off-grid home on a spectacular site in the Snowy Mountains, New South Wales.
• Urban modular
  Four stacked prefabricated modules form a spacious family home on a tight site in Melbourne’s inner suburbs.
• Downsizing done well
  Prefabricated panels with a focus on condensation control were the right answer for a retiring couple’s new home in South Hobart.
• Kitted out
  A young family opted for a ‘kit of parts’ prefab construction approach to create a lovely, affordable custom designed house on the Victorian coast.
• Inspired by tramping
  A love of the New Zealand bush and walkers’ huts was behind the design of this family’s small prefabricated home in southern Coromandel.

Ideas & advice

• Just add space: Sustainable, prefab options for backyard offices and studios
  What do you need to consider for a ‘quick and easy’ prefab backyard office or studio that also ticks the energy efficiency and sustainability boxes?
• Beating bushfire: Retrofitting for safer homes in fire-prone areas
  Architect and bushfire design expert Nigel Bell outlines what owners of existing homes in fire-prone areas can do to retrofit for bushfire resilience.
• A creative adventure with an old film set
  In On the drawing board, a pair of designers explain how a creative alignment with clients led to a playful design for some pre-loved buildings.
• Design Workshop: A fire-resilient island sanctuary
  Kangaroo Island resident Mia Bertetto is planning a sustainable, fire-resilient home on a bush block with great sea views. Architect and bushfire expert Ian Weir gives her some advice.
• Building a low carbon future: The Builders Declare movement and the path to carbon zero homes
  Jeremy Spencer outlines a simple roadmap to making carbon zero homes mainstream, the core aim of the newly formed Builders Declare movement.
• Home-grown flavours: Designing a native food kitchen garden
  Looking to take your backyard vegetable garden up a notch? We look at what’s involved in designing and creating a native food kitchen garden.