The Challenges
When Architect and Certified Passive House Designer, Niall O Healaithe of Sunpath Architects, was designing his family’s home in Melbourne’s Albert Park, he faced several site constraints and design challenges to achieve both the liveability and passive house certification he desired.
The property’s limited access and small lot size made it difficult to bring in all the necessary materials and prefabricated elements. Everything had to be carefully manoeuvred on site through the front garden, and later, through the front door opening into the home. Site constraints meant Niall also had to carefully consider construction techniques and building materials to maximise the home’s finished floor area.
Achieving the stringent building standards to meet passive house certification also posed a significant challenge. Airtightness and thermal bridge free construction are crucial for energy efficiency and minimising heat losses and gains. Niall needed a product that could create a continuous layer of insulation around the entire building envelope to avoid the thermal bridging associated with traditional masonry, concrete or framed walls on boundaries.
Bondor’s Equitilt FlameGuard®, a non-combustible and fire-rated walling product, provided the ease of installation, airtightness, and long-life durability Niall needed to meet passive house standards and create a highly energy-efficient home for his family.
The Solution
Drawing inspiration from historic shipbuilding techniques, Niall paired traditional post and beam structural framing with modern, high-performance Bondor building materials to achieve an innovative and aesthetic passive house design.
“The design has been really heavily influenced by maritime architecture of ships and sailboats and harbours,” Niall said, “I love sailing and the sea, hence the choice of location.”
“I wanted to build an ‘ark’ for our family that was close to the sea—connecting us back across the oceans, to my native Ireland—and that would guard us against the worst extremes of climate as it changes.”
He worked closely with skilled builder David Brewer of Feature Properties Vic, who also shares a love of the ocean sailing as well as practical solutions and high-quality construction.
For the structural design of the home, Niall and David used sustainably sourced timber to create a skeletal framework of vertical posts and horizontal beams. They then hung or fitted the walls and roof, including Bondor’s Equitilt FlameGuard® insulated panels, onto this timber frame.
The Bondor panels, with their continuous Mineral Wool core and exterior cladding, seamlessly integrated with the timber structure to create an airtight and insulated building envelope. The slim profile of the timber frame and attached Bondor panels also helped optimise the floor plan.
The panels’ fire-resistant core was also crucial for meeting fire safety regulations along the property boundaries with the neighbouring homes in very close proximity.
“I won’t be able to get in there in the future to clean them and paint them, so the pre-finished COLORBOND® exterior, which is guaranteed for 25 years, means there’s minimal ongoing maintenance required,” Niall said.
“The panel could all just get lifted in off the street by one crane operator and dropped into position and fixed in place by two people on the ground. It really helped in constructing the home in a confined space between neighbouring properties.”
The completed house achieves an eight-star energy rating and is certified Passive House Plus, requiring less than 15 kWh/m²/yr for heating/cooling. It also has consistent indoor temperatures of 21°C year-round, minimal heating/cooling costs, and high energy efficiency.
“The home reads as a language of exposed timber structure with the cladding panels like the hull of a ship,” Niall said, “There are porthole windows, rear and central decks, curved edges and handrails and rich luxurious finishes from the heyday of steam ships.”
Equitilt FlameGuard® is a non-combustible and fire-rated walling product with a non-ozone depleting Mineral Wool core, encased in BlueScope® steel pre-finished in COLORBOND® . The Equitilt FlameGuard® wall system not only has high thermal performance and energy efficiency but is fire-resistant walling panel well suited to long spanning applications which require Non-Combustibility, FRL or FM Approval for insurance purposes.
