Libby is the one who decided that building a ‘green unit’ was never going to happen unless we stopped talking about the idea and started planning to realise the dream.
The first item on her to-do list was to talk to David and find out if he was interested in joining us for this project. The topic had come up in conversations when David was doing some renovations on our current house. Libby would joke about him getting involved when she finally won first division in Tattslotto. When David indicated he was interested and available, Libby started searching for a suitable block of land in spite of lacking a winning Tatts ticket. For months, she scoured the newspapers and websites, looking for a site that met her stringent requirements and was affordable. Libby became very knowledgeable about local real estate and was an enthusiastic bidder at several likely properties. It wasn’t easy, but her persistence paid off with obtaining the block that will be the basis for our project.
She brings a keen eye for the numbers to the ongoing project development, given her background in accounting. However, her main interest is in helping to design a functional, comfortable, attractive dwelling that will meet our needs for the foreseeable future. Of course, she is also looking forward to including many cutting edge sustainability ideas that will showcase an alternative to the standard urban house design.
Howard has been working on energy conservation and sustainable living practices for many years, through his two careers of chemical engineering and teaching. Helping students to understand the importance of living in a sustainable way has focused his attention on doing more than talking about the principles. Helping to create a home that uses the latest ideas is the best way to learn what is available and gain experience that can be shared with his students and the wider school community.
As an engineer, this is also an opportunity for Howard to get involved in understanding the technology associated with reducing a home’s carbon footprint. Rather than tinkering around the edges and making improvements to an existing house (eg early adopter of solar panels when they were considered to be a ‘greenie toy’), he is looking forward to the opportunity to start from first principles and help to design good ideas into the fabric of the house.
David is a craftsman and builder who is committed to creating dwellings that are as attractive as they are efficient. During his career, he has used a wide variety of sustainable building practices in his projects. However, rarely has he had the opportunity to create a home starting from a blank sheet of paper and for clients who are eager to explore what is possible in sustainable architecture.
David will be using his creative flair and construction experience to develop three unique homes. Each one will share a common vision of simple, sustainable design principles executed in a way that enhances the local environment.
David specialises in the art of building sustainably and sustainably building art.