With spring on the horizon, a handful of Armidale homeowners are preparing to open up their houses to the public, to show off a range of features that make their homes sustainable and reduce the environmental impact.
Local community group Sustainable Living Armidale Inc. is organising a ten-house (and a school) tour on this weekend September 8 and 9, to showcase what can be done by individuals at a local level.
Similar tours in Armidale have been organised in the past by the Waldorf School, and the school buildings are included in this year’s tour.
SLA invites people to purchase a booklet with map and detailed descriptions of the houses, which will help plan their visits, and give entry to the houses.
All the homeowners (and a renter) are conscious of the environmental aspects of their houses, with a wide spectrum of responses to sustainability issues — some focusing on technical hardware to achieve this, others on the basic design, and often complemented by energy-aware actions such as shutting curtains.
Some are architect designed, some owner-designed, and some show how to maximise the benefits given to an existing structure. The houses range in size from spacious to quite small, on large and small blocks, in age from nearly a hundred years old to just completed, and there’s quite a range in the costs of the building/renovation. Each of the houses shows the personal stamp of the individual owner/s.
This is a self-transporting tour. The Tour Booklet includes a map, and details of the features of each of the houses, with their opening times, plus information about designing for sustainability.
Cost of the booklet is $30/$20 concession, and one booklet will give entry to all the houses for people travelling in a car together. Most of the houses in town can also be reached by bike or on foot, (so booklet can be shared by three or four people who visit together) and the out-of-town houses are in one area.
The Tour Booklet is on sale at the Customer Service Centre at Armidale Dumaresq Council, Rusden Street, and also at Knight’s Store, corner of Marsh and Mann Streets, which is also open all day Saturdays and Sundays.
The SLA website is www.slaati.org.
