The Green Building Show 2012: HP House by Peter Pierce

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Light Home Magazine has a series of podcasts featured on their online 'Green Building Show'.
In 2012, 5 of our best building designers and architects presented their homes to the show.
See the link to the podcasts below.


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As part of The Green Building Show EP 6 on 1/11/2012- Peter Pierce of MMP Architects provides and interview on the HP House

Here is a transcript of the interview:

Green Building Show Episode 6: 11/10/2012

We kick off our Tropical Housing Series with an interview with Peter Pierce, the designer of an award winning and sustainable tree house in Cairns.

CARLOS: Okay. Well, I’m here today with Peter Pierce of MMP Architects in Cairns. This is a firm that’s taken out this year’s Australian Institute of Architects House of the Year Award down in Queensland. Thanks for being with us, Peter.

PETER: You’re welcome.

CARLOS: Well, with regard to this award, the judges have said your entry, the HP Tree House, is a low-budget home with a simple, elegant, and unpretentious form. It has a minimum impact on the site, uses sustainable strategies, and is low-maintenance. So I guess we know what the judges think. Can you tell us why you thought it won, and really stood out against the other finalists?

PETER: I guess it was a simple and elegant solution for the site. We set out to create something that would have low impact, was comfortable to live in in all conditions, and with minimal use of electricity.

CARLOS: Okay. And when the judges said you used sustainable strategies, can you elaborate on what those sustainable strategies actually were?

PETER: Okay. Well, we tried to use sustainable materials as much as was possible on this site, including a lot of sustainable timber resources for the floor and framing, and some roof framing. Although we used some steel out of necessity, the steel is left in a natural galvanized state, so it needs no maintenance.

CARLOS: What part did lightweight materials play in creating a home that’s both aesthetically appealing and cost-effective and sustainable?

PETER: Okay. Well, we used lightweight materials surely at the home, including the use of fiber cement sheet in a number of areas. It’s a very stable and durable long-term material with very good sustainability credentials.

CARLOS: And I guess can you just elaborate a little bit more here as to what makes this home sustainable?

PETER: It’s essentially designed to be occupied in pretty much all weather conditions and also even without – there’s no heating installed for winter, which is not necessary generally here in Cairns. And in the summer it’s cooled by a system of breezeways and opening windows that control cross-ventilation. There’s minimal sun penetration, which is very important here in the far north. Most of the year we’re trying to keep heat out, not to keep heat in. And it’s very effective for that. We’ve used mostly LED lighting throughout, with minimum power consumption, and we have this affordable power system on the roof to minimize our energy that we take off the grid.

CARLOS: And how did you minimize the impact on the block?

PETER: The only earth works we’ve done was to park vehicles up past the building, and minimal other than that for this promotion. The building sits above the natural slope, and we’ve left the natural contour and as much of the natural vegetation in place as possible.

CARLOS: Fantastic. Well, congratulations on your win, and thanks for your time, Peter.

PETER: Thanks, Carlos.