Beyond BAL: High vegetation risk and bushfire resilient homes

As part of ongoing work to support communities rebuilding after bushfire, Renew is showcasing homes that exemplify resilient design elements and building practices that extend the understanding of best practice beyond the complicated and variable (BAL) Bushfire Attack Level rating system.

In the Beyond BAL event series, we're speaking to the people who designed, built, or live in these homes. Join us to hear how you can make your home or future build as resilient as possible this fire season. 

In this session we'll be exploring bushfire resilient homes that are in areas of high vegetation, with a presentation about each home and then a panel discussion to follow. There will be plenty of time for questions from the audience. 

Featuring:

Ian Weir, Ian Weir Architects

Ian will be discussing Apex Point House, a bushfire resilient, exposed steel house structure that faces into the prevailing southerly windows of the Tasman Peninsula, near Port Arthur. It sits on top of a rise with fire-risky, low-level native vegetation below. With dual qualifications in landscape and architecture Ian was especially conscious of minimising disturbance to the biodiverse vegetation.

Morgan Jenkins, Mt Coot-tha House

Morgan will be discussing Mt Coot-tha House, an elegant home in Brisbane, Queensland built into the slope of land with simple roof form. The BAL-40 bushfire hazard is addressed with robust non-combustible building materials rather than tree or vegetation removal.

Uta Green, Green Design Architects

The panel will be discuss Uta's Eaglehawk Nest, a modest walkers lodge in coastal Tasmanian, it was built from recycled and local materials and has both excellent sustainability and bushfire credentials for its location. The removal or preservation of vegetation was a key consideration of the project.

Nigel Bell, ECOdesign Architects

Nigel is a the principle architect of ECOdesign Architects and an expert in bushfire resilient design. He has worked extensively with Renew as part of the Green Rebuild Toolkit, and is the project lead on the Beyond BAL project.

Chris Ferreira, The Forever Project

Chris is Director of The Forever Project in WA. He will be discussing Firewise garden design and landscaping considerations.

Tickets:

• This is an online only event, which will be held via Zoom.
  
• This is event is part of Beyond BAL event series. If you want to join us for all four sessions you can sign up to our series pass using this link.
• All tickets are completely free.
• Renew depends on the generosity of our community to continue its valuable work. We would welcome your donation here: renew.org.au/donate or via the additional donation option when choosing your tickets.

Pictured here is Eaglehawk Nest by Green Design Architects Architects, photograph by Joe Shemesh.