Karri Fire House

NP-A2 - Design/Architectural Work A constructed residential building RESEARCH STATEMENT (1991 characters) Research Background Since 2009, in response to global warming and increasing threat from bushfire, Australian jurisdictions now mandate that housing in bushfire prone areas is built to Australian Standard AS3959. However, the perceived cost of building to AS3959, particular in high risk areas, has stalled development across the country. The Karri Fire House (KFH) challenges these assumptions by presenting a model for affordable construction in high to extreme bushfire risk areas. Research Contribution Designed for a professional fire fighter as a permanent residence, the KFH is built to ‘BAL-40’, the second highest level of the standard’s six construction levels. Affordability is achieved by designing features so that they share a cross-purpose between bushfire safety and energy efficiency such as fire proof, high thermal mass concrete block walls. Using industrial design processes, the bushfire shutter system is adapted from semi-commercial glazing systems. Employing a prefabricated primary structure of galvanized steel, the project was able to built by the owners without requiring highly skilled labour. A post-construction cost assessment found 3% of the total build cost was attributed to AS3959 dedicated features, which is significantly lower than published predictions of 10-15%. Research Significance The Karri Fire House was awarded a commendation for Steel Innovation at the 2015 Australian Institute of Architects Awards (WA Chapter). In 2016 the Victorian State Government Architect’s Office invited the authors to present the project at two ‘6 X 6’ events to fire affected communities in Victoria (June and July 2016) and of the six-invited architectural practices Weir & Feher were the only non-Victoria participants. In Sept 2016 Dr Weir was invited to present the KFH at a “Best Practice” symposium at the annual Australian Bushfire Building Conference (Springwood, NSW Sept 2016), and to present a CPD talk to the Tasmanian Chapter of the AIA (October 2016)