WestWyck News

WestWyck hosted a visit by the Friends of Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne in May and the following article appeared in the Friends’ Newsletter:

Sustainable Housing at WestWyck, Brunswick. 

Sustainability means many things to many people, but the essence is to minimise material usage, impact on the environment and make the most out of what you’ve got. In essence, reduce, recycle, reuse. The sustainable housing EcoVillage established by Mike Hill and Lorna Pitt at Westwyck in Brunswick, was an eye-opener for many of those who made the trip into town.

Remembering our school days 

As we walked into the showcase apartment home of Mike and Lorna, there are many items to remind us fondly of our school days. The kitchen bench spent a great deal of its former life in the art room. The filing cupboard looked distinctly like a map drawer and the side ‘table’ was an old school desk, complete with inkwell. The more you looked around the spacious, light filled building, the more you discovered. The hand basin in the bathroom was from the science room. The building itself was originally the Drill Hall for the Brunswick West Primary School, now converted to a warehouse-style home with mezzanine flooring for upstairs accommodation. The beautiful leadlight windows are still intact and designed to pivot to change the level of lighting in the room. The flooring salvaged from old classrooms; the steel supporting the mezzanine originated from the old shelter shed. The real magic of the project is not in the artefacts, but outside, under your feet and on the roof. Mike and Lorna bought the old primary school more than 10 years ago with the view to establishing a sustainable urban design that enabled its’ residences to ‘connect’ with their immediate neighbours and the community around them. During the latter part of last century, Melbourne’s urban design was based on a two-car garage with a high fence, separating the inhabitants from their surroundings. Westwyck has turned this concept on its head, by providing public spaces within the EcoVillage including veggie beds and fruit trees, a BBQ area, common washing lines, a bike shed and limited carparking to encourage the use of public transport. The first stage of the project has been completed with seven apartments and five townhouses constructed and fully occupied. The key areas considered by Mike and Lorna in making the project as sustainable as possible are: energy, materials and water.

Energy: 

To minimise the energy consumption of each of the residences, Mike and Lorna installed photovoltaic solar panels on all the buildings with gas boosting to provide hot water. Wherever possible, energy efficient lighting has been used, but for many the use of natural light is maximised through north-facing windows and light wells. All the windows are double-glazed. Energy is also conserved by utilising the hotwater system for hydronic heating.

Materials: 

The biggest downside to any construction site lamented Mike, is the removal of waste materials. While many of the materials were salvaged and stored (hidden from view behind black passionfruit vines), there was inevitably a lot of trucks taking rubbish away from the site. Conversely, trucks would bring in ‘new’ materials for the townhouses and apartments. When Mike and Lorna say ‘new’ more often than not it was material salvaged from another project. All the cupboards were made from hoop pine, floorboards were salvaged from demolished buildings, the upper stories of the townhouses utilised the ‘short bits’ from timber milling and the new carpark is constructed from eco-concrete – a slurry of slag, fly ash and other bits and pieces mashed together. The paints used were rated as low VOCs (volatile organic compounds) - the chemical cocktail that gives paint that hideous ‘new paint’ smell.

Water: 

The main goal of the Westwyck project is to lower the dependence on mains potable water to around 20 – 30 litres per day, (compared to the 155 litres per day recommended by the water authorities); to increase rain water harvesting from the roofs and to reduce stormwater runoff into the council drainage system. To achieve that two 11,000 litre rainwater tanks have been installed and designed to blend in with the garden setting. All the water used in the homes is fully recycled. Greywater, originating from the bathroom and laundry is captured, treated, filtered and treated with UV before returning to the cisterns and laundry. The water treated in this fashion has been graded Class A, but is not used for drinking. Blackwater from the toilets and kitchen sinks is also treated on site. This waste water is fed into two large vermiculture pits under the north end and at both sides of the carpark. The solids settle and are treated by the worms while the liquid is fed into evapo-transpiration beds for treatment. There are three transpiration beds. One is a thriving garden bed at the eastern end of the site. This contains woolly ti-tree and a variety of local native reeds and aromatic plants, including river mint. At either side of the car park are narrow transpiration beds planted down with Kanookas or Water Gums and reeds. The original reeds planted grew like triphids, but unfortunately were not particularly tolerant in the drier months and were quickly replaced.

Design:

When Mike and Lorna first took the project on, the grounds were buried in school yard asphalt and bitumen with little opportunity for water to permeate. This has since been removed and replaced with a system of swale drains to facilitate drainage of stormwater into the water treatment systems. Mike and Lorna have reduced the amount of stormwater to 3% of the original levels calculated by council. From our visit to the site it is clear that sustainability is the key objective. However, you don’t find over-enthusiastic environmentalists living here, but a collection of residents who not only have embraced the concept but actually like the design of their homes. The small courtyard gardens for each of the townhouses provide a little privacy behind salvaged rock slabs from Avoca. The drainage system is well concealed by plants. There is little to suggest to the casual visitor that the project is focussed around sustainability principles, but the end result is a credit to Mike and Lorna’s dedication and eye for detail and design.