Ridgy Didge–PassivHaus Rigour Meets Beachcomber Style

James Goodlet and Claire Thomas were all set to build a compact but quite complex tree change abode on their sloping, bushy block in Victoria’s Anglesea when a stressful fortnight prompted a change of heart.

It was 2021, and the PassiveHaus-accredited building designer (James) and studio manager (Claire) behind Altereco Design had left their inner-city office and home to create a coastal combo exemplifying their longstanding focus on health, comfort, functionality, and sustainability. James recalls his initial design as fun but complex in a way that would have required more time and money to realise than they really wanted to spend. After a tough time at work navigating COVID cost hikes and supply chain mayhem, Claire pressed pause.

“We were living in a little sheep shack in Freshwater Creek at the time,” she recalls. “It was a really basic building, but it was kind of beautiful, surrounded by trees and sheep and birds. I remember getting home on Friday night and having a beer and saying to James, ‘This is all I need. I just need something simple that appreciates its surroundings’.”

James designed Plan B over the weekend: a simple rectangular box on stilts, orientated to the southern boundary of the steep corner site, with a long north-facing veranda, a deep low-pitched roof, and an undercroft accessed from the side street. The latter accommodates a garage/workshop and adaptable home office for Altereco, which flexes easily for houseguests and could, one day, earn its keep on Airbnb. Elevation, large areas of glazing to the north and south, external decks and ramps, and a beautiful wrap-around indigenous garden all connect inhabitants to stunning messmate stringybarks, creating a beguiling treehouse vibe.

Harry House (named for the couple’s ridiculously cute pooch) combines passive house energy efficiency, air quality, and building health with the uncomplicated charm of the area’s classic 1960s Beachcombers, whose stilts still work so well to capture sweeping coastal views on the area’s hilly terrain. “We liked the idea because it perched us up in this tree canopy,” James explains. The new design unexpectedly attracted what he describes as “the most supportive accolade I’ve ever had from a town planner.”

“It was a bit of a nod to the beach houses of old,” Claire says. “Our town planner commented on that and said, ‘It’s refreshing to see something of this aesthetic’. He thought it was a really clever response.” He was right.

This economical, hardworking two-bedroom home features all the well-sealed, mechanically ventilated, double- and tripled-glazed comfort and calm you’d expect with a designer-client dedicated to the PassivHaus planning and assessment protocols. But the large, blackbutt framed, high-performance glazing that gives the modest 120-square-metre interior its sense of spaciousness and stunning garden views meant kissing certification goodbye.

“It’s a really simple building, it’s a small footprint, there’s nothing opulent about it, but it’s more than enough.”

“We failed on one criteria,” James says. “But it meets the criteria of PassivHaus low energy.” The end-goal was never a certificate, however – just ‘ridgy didge’ sustainability, comfort and resilience created with local tradespeople and Australian rather than European suppliers. So Claire and James ploughed money saved on accreditation into a Tesla battery, delivering net-zero year-round. Regrets? Not so much.

“For a new build we insist on using the PassivHaus tool to calculate building performance and optimise it,” James says. “We feel like we get better responses from it than just the NatHERS [Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme] software. Altereco designs beyond minimum standards. But we’re not wedded to PassivHaus certifications. It was more meaningful to us to put that money into a battery.”

Externally, the house is clad in cost-effective fibre cement boards hung vertically and painted white – a robust option that helps meet Anglesea’s stringent BAL 29 bushfire rating. Accents of blackbutt and limestone tiles carry through into the interior, as do warm timber batten ceilings which lend compression to the entry and living room. Elegant curves and contrasting colour of blue-painted pantry joinery also adds subtle zoning.

Materials economically repurposed from Altereco’s old Melbourne office abound, from track lighting inserted between ceiling battens to drawers used in the couple’s walk-in robe, cupboards deployed in the laundry, and recycled hardwood screens used for stairs and handrails. Ensuring nothing was wasted here mattered deeply to the pair.

“When clients ask for an extra room for resale value, my heart sinks,” Claire says. “It’s a really simple building, it’s a small footprint, there’s nothing opulent about it, but it’s more than enough.”

For James, burgeoning interest in PassivHaus principles is heartening, and he says builders rather than designers are now leading the charge. But he cautions the industry that for human and building health, “a balanced ventilation system is mandatory in our minds.”

“We’re going into a phase of construction where buildings are more and more airtight,” James says. “Insulation levels are far superior than they used to be. And the combination … is a massive problem with trapping moisture or vapour within a building. If we don’t either design to remove that, or eliminate it, we are asking for a lot of trouble. Because that insulation and that timber framing inside are all fibres that mould loves to grow on when you provide moisture and heat. And that is the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve.”

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