KARRI FIRE HOUSE, WA

Designed by husband-and-wife architects Dr Ian Weir and Kylie Feher, the Karri Fire House is located near the West Australian town of Denmark. Here, Dr Weir explains its key features:

“This home was designed for a professional firefighter and his wife, who is the head of the emergency department at the local hospital. They’re an incredible couple. From day one we decided the three-bedroom house should be an exemplar of affordable construction for extreme levels of bushfire attack. I met with the local government surveyor and we did the BAL assessment together. We then collaborated with a fantastic energy assessor to get the house a 6-star rating, which meant calling on the powers of thermal mass. We put in a suspended concrete floor and insulated concrete walls on the south side. When you do a BAL assessment, not every elevation will have the same rating. The rear of the house is BAL 40, but the front is BAL 29. That’s good siting, because even in an extreme bushfire you can escape via the most protected side. The only timber in the house is the front door, which was fine for the BAL 29 rating, and we could use conventional toughened glass at the front. The rest of the materials are

‘From day one, we decided the three-bedroom house should be an exemplar of affordable construction for extreme levels of bushfire attack. It also has a 6-star energy rating.’ non-combustible, and the house is distinguished by its big, beautiful roof overhang. There’s no need for window treatments, because shading and privacy is all provided by the forest. House and land have a wonderfully symbiotic relationship here. The home came in at about $600,000 or $3000/m², which is very competitive. Of that amount, only $12,000 – the cost of the deck and its structure – could be regarded as additional bushfire-specific costs. In 2015, Kylie and I won a commendation in the WA state architecture awards for this house.”