Marc Bernstein-Hussmann, director at Melbourne Design Studios and Chartered Architect with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), has designed a unique holiday house named Skin and Shelter.

The brief for the project was to design a residence in the Victorian coastal town of Sorrento that would meet best practice in sustainability whilst providing the clients with a functional family home.

"One of the first things that the client said to me is that they wanted an architectural statement but other than that basically they gave us complete carte blanche, so we could do what we wanted, which was pretty good," said Hussmann.

The idea for the skin and shelter house first came out of sketches and inspiration for the surrounding natural environment Hussmann says.

"It comes out of sketches, waiting to see how that can work or how that protection on one side can make sense as a general form. The other starting point was the idea of it being a beach house was something that was really simple and that is where the shelter bit comes in really so almost that you start off with a tent or a piece of cloth over a skeleton and then you get that structure happening."

Hussmann said that the building was designed by stripping back the elements of architecture as fundamentally providing shelter with the external 'skin' creating a homogenous surface from roof to wall.

"We did a lot of research into how we can realise that skin because obviously the tricky thing is that we designed it as a lightweight construction due to the height constraints, and to build something like that out of concrete would be easy enough but as a lightweight construction to get a continuous, homogenous surface that can be a roof and a wall at the same time, that is actually a really difficult thing to achieve. So we did a lot of research on that and actually found good solutions with the idea being like a nail paint coat that covers the whole house so you get that surface coming through."

In terms of sustainability, the building has been designed with passive solar design principles including double glazing on the windows, exposed concrete floors to create thermal mass and rainwater and grey water tanks.

The structure of the previous 1960's house has also been utilised as a way of reducing waste.

"One of the basic things of course is that part of the structure is an existing structure so we were trying to incorporate this for various reasons and one of those was for sustainability because obviously if you build less new space then that is the biggest step towards a sustainable house that you can do because of the embedded energies and materials."

Hussmann who is originally from Germany says that Australia has come a long way in terms of sustainability technology and the way in which design is approached by architects and builders.

"I first came to Australia ten years ago and at that time in Germany everyone was talking about sustainable design and sustainable building and double glass with ventilation spaces in between and using green house methodology to warm a building and all those things that are now part of Australian building as well."

"But at that time I came to Australia there was no talk of it and I was really, really surprised because I saw this country and there was so much sun and so much heat in the desert and nobody was using it and I was like, why? What is happening? So from there to where it is today I think a lot has changed and now it has become a really big part of architecture in Australia."

Hussmann recognises that the Skin and Shelter house is a product of Australia's innovation when it comes to sustainable design and that the general public are becoming more aware of the advantages of a house which incorporates these principles.

"It's an energy positive house the way we designed it, so it generates more energy than it would use. So obviously these days that is where Australia is at- still not at the forefront of technology, but it is there, and people are more and more conscious about it and I get people coming to the practice and saying they want sustainable design. So I guess technology wise, a lot of the technology is a bit more advanced in Europe, but from a thinking point of view, Australia has caught up a lot."

The Skin and Shelter house remains a design concept at this stage - the project has been put on hold due to the clients changed situation - however Hussmann estimates that it will be only 8-9 months of construction time when the time comes to start building.

Madeline Prince

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