The windows have been installed on the rear (west) side of the building. The windows, made and glazed by Viridian, and framed by Paarhammer, are built to be airtight, like the rest of the house. This means sturdy latches and tight seals.
They will endeavor to keep the afternoon sun at bay, but will need some help from the blinds that will be installed in the next few months!
Due to our incredibly small square footage, a garden looked impossible to incorporate. We decided to have garden boxes on the west facing side of the building, utilising the space in the wall.
Having it on the west wall served two purposes:
Firstly, the plants need sunlight to survive, and the afternoon sun will set over Melbourne and during summer they will get full sunlight for about 6 hours a day.
Secondly, whilst the sun brings life for the plants, it also brings unwanted heat to the building, and the inset garden boxes help with absorbing that sun as well as shading the windows from the direct sunlight.
5×4 has had the very exciting news of being picked up by a T.V Show. While we can’t yet confirm the details, the program has chosen 5×4 for its unique, innovative design and will follow the build of the house.
The program is set to air in the second half of 2015, so keep your eyes and ears open!
Our humble 5×4 Project has developed more global momentum this week after being presented at the World Sustainability Conference (WSC) in Barcelona. A case study on the project by R.H. Crawford and T. Hollingsbee was presented, which assessed the Embodied Energy of our building, and how we have optimised its energy performance. The Embodied Energy is the consumption of energy over the lifespan of the building, including construction, materials manufacturing, and of course recurring energy costs – such as appliances etc.
The case study and resulting presentation looked at measures that the 5×4 project had taken to substantially lower the embodied energy of the building, and using environmentally friendly materials and appliances, building consciously for minimum energy consumption, and finally generating green electricity through solar power to cover the remaining energy costs.
Click here to download the complete paper, or visit the WSC website for more about their sustainable ambitions and their next conference in 2017.
Ukko has arrived with the hot tub. The hot tub itself is made from Canadian Western Red Cedar, and the crew from Ukko hoisted it up to the roof in pieces, assembling it once it was up there. Completely handmade, it is just asking for the rooftop deck to be built around it.
Torus Group installed the solar panels on the test site today, in an effort to offset the emissions of the build. This meant our test site would be generating enough power to effectively make the build carbon neutral, fitting in with our project mantra.
With a lot going on, Ralph runs through the busy month of October. The progress is impressive, from a site of foundations to a fully constructed building! One of the many perks of prefabricating wall, floor and roof cassettes!
For more video interviews head to our YouTube channel BarleyStore for the full Construction Diary Interviews playlist.
In just three days we had the whole 5×4 structure up, with everyone working in sequence to make sure it was a smooth process. See the video below of all three days, or head to our YouTube channel BarleyStore for the full 5×4 Hayes Lane Project playlist.
Day two of the prefabricated installation went rapidly. The third and the fourth stories were assembled, the riggers doing a fantastic job to get all the pieces up there by crane safely and in one piece.
On the final day of the assembly the third story and rooftop went up, completing the assembly process. The final piece was the wooden beams that create the ‘roof’ of the rooftop hot-tub.
