Affordable housing for the Noosa Biosphere as a Learning Laboratory. Bettina Walter, Chair, Noosa Biosphere Social Board for the Housing Forum, NRRA, Noosa Bowls Club, 22.April. 2010

1. Lets create an
alternative Vision !
Bettina Walter,
Chair, Noosa Biosphere Social Board
Housing Forum, NRRA, Noosa Bowls Club, 22.April. 2010
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.

2. collage made from various
developer prospectus

3. Painting a different picture:
RESEARCH
Learn from thought leaders
globally

4. Oogst 100 concept (Tjep Design Agency)
http://oogst.org/oogst/Oogst.org/Oogst_100.html
A self-sufficient farm for 100 people. The residents are all farmers. In the
central greenhouse, all necessary crops are grown, the surrounding fields
are for livestock.
The central windmill provides all the necessary energy, there is a water-well
under the windmill. But clean water is mainly collected condensed water
from the greenhouse.
The theory is that communities of between 100 and 150 people are the most
optimal and harmonious. Therefore, the concept never grows beyond
100 people but it can be multiplied to form a society without shopping
centres, banks, roads, cars or airplanes.
Oogst 100 concept (Tjep Design Agency)
http://oogst.org/oogst/Oogst.org/Oogst_100.html

5. Oogst 100 concept (Tjep Design Agency)
http://oogst.org/oogst/Oogst.org/Oogst_100.html

6. Oogst 100 concept (Tjep Design Agency)
http://oogst.org/oogst/Oogst.org/Oogst_100.html

7. Copenhagen, Brøndby - image: Yann Arthus Bertrand

8. Inspiration: Bill Dunster

9. Nottingham university Housing project
solar panels for a 3rd
of the price on the open
market
“We are not really trying very hard to reduce cost and accelerate
transition”
Bill Dunster ZEDFactory
Example photovoltaic systems – prices are being kept artificially
high – petrol chemical industry wringing the last profits out of
fossil fuels and are busying themselves to corner the market on
renewables – Dunster went straight to supplier in China – got his
own container load – all carbon expense will be recouped in
3.5 years
image source http://www.zedfacto

10. Low cost / high performance buildings
• Simplicity is key
• Dry construction
• Get the buildings off the rack – modification and variety are
cosmetic
• Build housing manufacturing plant in your city
• Self-help regardless of government!
• Start at the bottom
• Simple components
• With international commonality
• Solutions will become affordable
• Kit houses
• Instructions on prevailing winds
• Cross ventilations in clusters
• mixed use
• Added value
• Exciting aesthetic
Example China:
Low salaries
Prepacked 400m x 400m housing block
Incl Solar panel manufacturing plant with jobs
People pay for these added renewable systems in time with the money
they would have spent on fossil fuels image source http://www.zedfacto

11. Flood protection: example flood dyke in
Thames Gateway
First self funded flood defense wall
Incorporate flood defence into new housing development
Very low cost housing system funds dyke construction
image source http://www.zedfacto

12. Painting a different picture:
RESEARCH
Learn from thought leaders
locally

13. Crystal Waters

14. Bellbunya Community (edit)

15. What can we do?

16. Biosphere Learning Lab
Individual eco buildings are great to
demonstrate sustainable building designs.
We need a whole cluster of buildings to
learn and demonstrate sustainable,
affordable communities.

17. Biosphere Learning Lab
Start with one project.
Lets have a vision of a POSITIVE future…
and then ‘sell it’ really well.
to sell it really well we need to
Make it as affordable and inclusive as
possible.

18. One idea:
Biosphere Housing Initiative
demonstrating BEST practice in affordable,
sustainable housing
not just in ONE building, but a whole cluster

20. An alternative vision
Wind
Turbine
Chicken coop
Dwelling Private
back yard
Dwelling Private
back yard
DwellingPrivate
backyard
DwellingPrivate
backyard
DwellingPrivate
backyard
Edible garden
Herb garden
Car pool
Natural
imming pool
Water
tank
Water
tank
Water
tank
Water
tank
Water
tank
Work shops
Edible garden
Bake house
Wind
Turbine
Chicken coop
Porches!
Offices !!
Bike shed
Solar panneled up

21. What are the greatest
challenges?

22. How do we allow council to facilitate
grassroot developments without opening
the door for Developer Profiteering?

23. Add flexibility to building process
•planning
•usage permissions
•application and other fees
•subdivision regulations
Base flexibility on compliance to agreed
standards or
‘quadruple bottom line sustainability
BENCHMARKS’

24. On Establishing benchmarks:
Peter Singer 'A Fair Deal on Climate Change
Establish the total amount of greenhouse gases that we can allow to be
emitted without causing the earth’s average temperature to rise
more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the point
beyond which climate change could become extremely dangerous.
Divide that total by the world’s population, thus calculating what each
person’s share of the total is.
Allocate to each country a greenhouse gas emissions quota equal to
the country’s population, multiplied by the per person share.
Finally, allow countries that need a higher quota to buy it from those
that emit less than their quota.

25. On Establishing benchmarks:
Bill Dunster
Example Energy:Understand the limits of energy that will be available in 50 years
time
• Peak oils/ peak gas now
• Water, food
• We can’t afford loosing agricultural land
• How are we going to set up a system of upgrading our urban / suburban fabric?
• How much renewable energy can we ACTUALLY produce at the most?
• Max 30 %
• How much have we got per head and divide it up equally in an equalitarian
manner
• All architects to design building within those constrains. SET NATIONAL
standards.
Architects can then design systems that can run indefinitely on
renewable energy sources.

26. On Establishing Benchmarks:
2000 Watt Society
2000 Watt per person“
The 2000-watt society (2,000-Watt Society) is a vision, originated by the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich at the end of 1998, in
which each person in the developed world would cut their over-all
rate of energy use to an average of no more than 2,000 watts (i.e.
17,520 kilowatt-hours per year of all energy use, not only electrical) by
the year 2050, without lowering their standard of living. (source:
wikipedia)

27. FIRST: CREATE these grass root benchmarks
THEN: INVOLVE profiteering developers
To participate under these grass roots
benchmarks
(we need their capacity and expertise to
implement large scale)
The role of the developer

28. Next Actions

29. 1. Council Audit
A working group (Biosphere Social Board?) to conduct an Audit of all
Building and Planning Requirements.
• Zoning
• Sustainability standards
• Building regulations and codes
• Subdivision regulations
• ‘Land Banking issues”
• Make Land release to purchase - processes transparent
Which items support ‘sustainable community driven growth’
Which items impede?
How can we leverage ‘economy of scale’ to benefit our communities
instead of developers?

30. 2. Ask some experts! Invite speakers
Make connections with
• Transition town folks
• Crystal Waters
• Association for Sustainable Communities

31. 3. Create Benchmarks
In collaboration with grassroots experts and the housing task force.

32. www.noosabiosphere.org.au
Thanks to
Matt Lawton, Mike Shone, Alexander Kohl, Karyn Maher, Ralph Schneider
for lending ears, help and consultancy.

33. References
http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/projects/450
http://www.wohnmodelle.at/index.php?id=12,10,0,0,1,0
Transition Town movement (find reference)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6732157000663373188#
Noosa Environment Day
“The 2,000-Watt Society is not a program of hard life, it’s not starving, it’s not having less comfort or fun. It’s a creative approach to
the future.”
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_kolbert?currentPage=all#ixzz0le5t7MXa
Architecture Foundation (UK): Futureproofing the City: ZEDfactory; Foster + Partners; R/E/D
http://vimeo.com/9120443
Stern report 2006 (climate change and the uk economy):
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sternreview_index.htm
Satish Kumar, Resurgence:
http://www.resurgence.org/education/climate-change/resilience-climate-change.html
Fair deal on climate change. Peter Singer.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/singer24/English
Nice kit homes in vision image:
http://www.arkit.com.au/