Huff'n'Puff Haus

The clients feel a deep sense of connection to this land in remote central Victoria, on Taungurong Country. Here they wanted to build a weekender that would become their permanent home after retirement, a resilient dwelling that could meet the challenges of the future. Their brief was for an off-grid strawbale home that was sustainable and minimised carbon emissions.
In the hands of Talina Edwards and her team, Huff’n’Puff became a deeply considered and hugely satisfying home that delighted the owners (and impressed many judging panels). It is a masterpiece of biophilic design, creating connection with the natural world through all the senses via material choices and inspired design. Meeting the certified Passive House standard was the owner’s guarantee that their home was healthy, comfortable and energy efficient. They generate so much energy via their rooftop PV that Huff’n’Puff qualified for the elite Premium level certification.
Strawbale panels were used rather than traditional strawbale building methods. This offered all the benefits of prefabrication for a remote site. Lime plaster is used for the internal finish and the external cladding is a fire-resistant sheet product.
The long simple form resolves into two wings, with guest accommodation at the west and large, light filled living spaces in the heart of the house. The owners’ suite lies to the east, offering beautiful sunrise views. The living areas are glazed both to the north, for daylight and warming winter sun, and to the south toward the most expansive views. It’s a practical example of how, with Passive House energy modelling at design stage, you can have it all; the heat loss from large south-facing windows was minimised with quality, high-performance joinery and compensated for by additional insulation elsewhere.
For more technical detail, see project #7237 on the PHI Passive House database
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About the
Professional
At Envirotecture we design beautiful, sustainable buildings that work for you, your family or your business.
With over 35 years’ experience in sustainable architecture, we can offer you a full range of building design and consulting services to deliver the best possible built outcome for your build.
Facilitate and future-proof your lifestyle with our cost-effective designs that provide stylish design solutions. See our sustainable design portfolio.
We Design for Comfort
Our designs, using state-of-the-art materials and passive design principles, will keep you cool in summer and warm in winter.
We Design for Style
You want you to enjoy spaces that inspire your soul. We will design your building so that it not only works really well, it looks great too!
We Design for Value
We can give you the biggest bang for your buck. Our sustainable designs are an affordable alternative to traditional design and will significantly reduce your long-term operating costs.
We Design for the Environment
When you chose our sustainable architectural solutions your build will have a direct beneficial impact on the environment by helping to:
- protect the ecosystem
- reduce emissions
- improve air and water quality
- conserve water
- reduce waste
- conserve and restore natural resources
We Design for the Future
Our architectural solutions will help create you a responsive, beautiful, energy efficient home that will continue to work for you and your family as your needs changes.
Sustainable design will also optimize the life cycle of your building and increase your property value.
We use the latest technology to ensure clever, creative design solutions that last the distance.
We Design for Business
You want your commercial building to provide environmental, economic and social benefits to your business.
We can design your building to:
- help reduce your operating costs
- improve workplace environment
- optimize the life cycle of your building
- increase your property value
- improve your employee’s attendance and productivity
We Believe in Giving Back
At Envirotecture we always have a pro bono project, or ‘love job’ on the go.
The current Love Job is for the Read Triplets who are wheelchair bound with muscular dystrophy
Previous love jobs include:
- Wakisa Foundation's shelter for homeless pregnant girls in Kampala, Uganda
- the Laotian School project
We Believe in Sustainable Architecture
We have over 35 years’ experience in sustainable design, and our team are all leaders in their fields.
We each bring different skill sets to the business but we all are inspired by sustainable design because we see the difference it makes on so many levels.
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