Resilient Architecture

from est Magazine Issue #38 | Evolve

Resilient Architecture | Architects EAT

The word ‘resilient’ has such a broad interpretation. For some architects, this word suggests permanence, a sense of longevity that removes a design from the latest fad or fashion. Others refer to the materials used, plantation-grown sustainable timbers or using materials that respond to the local climate.

The devastating bushfires Australia has experienced, both in 2009 with ‘Black Saturday’ and more recently, over last summer across the continent, certainly make you pause and think about resilient architecture. The onset of COVID-19 has also made architects more conscious of factoring in working more from home. “It’s important to look at creating homes that last, rather than seeing temporary solutions,” says architect Albert Mo, director of Architects EAT.

PHOTOGRAPHY Derek Swalwell, Yaseera Moosa, Dave Kulesza | WORDS Stephen Crafti

Clare Cousins Architects

**Project Long House | Location Gardiners Creek, Blackburn, Victoria**
Photography Tess Kelly

Architect Clare Cousins was also part of the Architects Assist program, responding to people who had lost their homes during the 2009 Victorian bushfires. Then, still a relatively new practice (established four years prior), Cousins put forward free concepts to those in need, with a relatively modest price tag attached should the owner/s wish to take it further and build. Referred to as the ‘Hinge House’, Cousins’ scheme centred on an elongated floor plan with a crank at the core that could be adjusted to respond to the site, the orientation, and/ or the topography. “Our design was essentially a series of modules as the family expanded,” Clare says, whose scheme was for a COLORBOND house, but was eventually adapted to be brick at the client’s request.

When the original design for Architects Assist was picked up by clients in the Yarra Valley, Cousins also offered to document the plans for the subsequent builder to achieve. “The recent bushfires make you even more acutely aware of designing resilient architecture. In the case of fire, there should be fire shutters on windows, integrated external watering systems and looking closely at the structural system, preventing fire from entering under a house,” Clare says.

Resilient Architecture | Clare Cousins Architects

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