Retrofitting for Resilience: Protection from embers and radiant heat

The devastating fires throughout the Summer of 2019/2020 made it clear that Australian homes need to be ready for future climate disasters. As part of our Green Rebuild Toolkit project, this year we’re focusing on retrofitting exisiting homes to be more resilient in the face of bushfire. Over four online sessions throughout November we will provide the information that you need to get your home best prepared for fire season. You’ll learn how to make easy changes that you can implement quickly, as well as longer term design improvements to plan for. You’ll hear from fire experts, architects, builders, designers, and homeowners who have first hand experience. Each session will feature a panel discussion and a Q&A hosted by Renew CEO Fiona Gray, so bring along your questions.

Session 2: Protection from embers and radiant heat

In this session we’ll be covering the most important aspects of bushfire resilience in homes — embers and radiant heat. You’ll learn from architects Julie de Jong, Ian Weir and Eldon Bottcher about the best way to protect your home from the elements, and how to make simple improvements to maximise your homes likelihood of survival when faced with fire. We’ll also explore design improvements that you can implement over the longer term.

Featuring:

Julie de Jong

Julie de Jong is a registered architect and a Director of H+H Architects, which is the largest regional architectural practice in Western Australia, and has offices in Albany, Kalgoorlie, and Bunbury. Julie is a BPAD Level 1 Bushfire Assessor, and her involvement in the bushfire planning area was prompted by a strong interest in designing buildings and places that respond effectively to bushfire risks and the provisions of AS3959. H+H Architects are strongly committed to achieving sustainability outcomes on all their projects, and are actively involved in incorporating ESD principles.

Ian Weir

Dr Ian Weir is a consulting research architect at Queensland University of Technology specialising in bushfire responsive architecture. He is a registered architect in WA, QLD and Tasmania and has a number of built and under-construction projects in high to extreme bushfire risk areas. Ian holds a PhD in Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and lectures in QUT’s School of Design. He is an expert advisor with the Bushfire Building Council of Australia and represents the BBCA on Standards Australia’s AS3959 Technical Committee. Dr Weir has advised and designed homes for Black Saturday survivors, and more recently the survivors of the 2015 Wye River – Separation Creek fires (Vic). Dr Weir is a vocal advocate for resilient building design as a means of reconciling bushfire safety with biodiversity conservation.

Eldon Bottcher

Eldon Bottcher is a registered Architect in Queensland and has been the Director of Director Eldon Bottcher Architect Pty Ltd since 1978, as well as a bushfire assessment and planning consultant for over 20 years. Eldon currently sits on numerous fire and architecture related national networks and institutions including representing the Bushfire Building Council of Australia's expert committee for Australian Standard 3959 (construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas). Eldon is a FPA Australia certified practitioner (BPAD Level 3) and has spent his life deepening his knowledge in the field. Eldon is also an active Rural Fire Volunteer who has served at the highest ranks available to a volunteer.

Fiona Gray (Moderator)

Dr Fiona Gray is the CEO of Renew. Fiona has more than 25 years’ experience as a registered practising architect, urban ecologies researcher and local government leader. Her previous roles include Executive Manager of City Design at the City of Ballarat and the Founder and Director of Civic Collective, an urban research and design consulting agency. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Centre for Regional and Rural Futures at Deakin University and an expert advisor to the Heritage Advisory Committee for National Trust of Australia (Victoria).

Tickets:

• This is event is part of Renew's Retrofitting for Resilience series. You can buy tickets to the series here, or an Annual Pass to all extended Sustainable House Day events here.
• This event is free for Full Members of Renew. Join up for access to all our events at https://renewportal.org.au
• There are a limited number of free tickets to the event for those experiencing financial hardship.
• This event is part of our Retrofitting for Resilience event series. You can purchase a series ticket here or an annual pass to all extended Sustainable House Day events here. 
• 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 ticket.

This project received grant funding from the Australian Government. 

This event is also supported by NatHERS, Design for Place, Your Home, Light House Architecture & Science, and Sonnen