Narara Ecovillage

Narara Ecovillage is a 64 hectare property located on the Central Coast of NSW. For over a hundred years the site was used as an agricultural research station, the site is dotted with buildings, sheds and greenhouses many of which will be retained, restored and repurposed over time.

The village will collect, store and treat all its water on site. It already has a 45ML dam and the catchment is pristine Strickland State forest preserve so the water source is pure. A system of reed beds and natural filtration will cleanse stormwater as it flows down and through the site using a series of permaculture  swales.

All new buildings will need to conform to the Village Building Standard. It is still in development but will likely contain a minimum requirement for 7 Star NatHERS rating, considerably higher than the national 6 Stars and the NSW 5 (ish) Stars.

On site electricity production will be encouraged through the Building Standard and funding has been secured to assist with creating a microgrid across the site. This offers the exciting possibility that when teamed with battery storage the village has the potential to be truly self-sustaining for energy.

The first stage of the ecovillage will have 60 individual dwellings along with 18 affordable cluster housing units. That’s where Envirotecture come in!

The cluster housing site is 6,000m2 of an east facing hillside, stunning views and a gully to the north. The challenge is to balance the needs of solar access for all, some existing site constraints and the need to achieve a construction price that ensures they are truly affordable.

Amending an already approved DA, the building locations remain similar but the massing has morphed taking a second storey and putting on the ground in some cases and as a split level in others.

We have reduced the self-shading of the buildings to take winter solar access from 3.5 hours to 6.5 hours; that’s an 85% increase in free heating!

The materials will be robust and low maintenance, appropriate for their natural setting, a combination of magnesium oxide board and the locally manufactured Weathertex

Thermal mass will be provided through concrete slab on ground with some phase change materials in the upper level units to compensate for the light weight timber floor structure.

Highly insulated building fabric along with good quality windows and glazing round out the passive design response. Through simplification of detailing and repetition where possible we are hoping to take the dollars saved to invest them in double glazing and thermally improved frames. The project aims to demonstrate that high performance buildings can be built to a budget.

Each unit gets it’s own outdoor area although they will all blend into the wider landscape blurring many of the usual divisions between neighbours, fences are proposed. While each resident will no doubt create their own version of paradise, the wider landscape design is being elegantly crafted by the team at Thompson Berrill Landscape Design.

The project is in great hands with the very experienced John Talbot as project director. John was the director at the Findhorn Ecovillage Project in Scotland for over 20 years and is one of the worlds leading experts in ecovillages. We are honoured to be working with him, a rewarding experience in many ways already.

A central spine links 10 of the units, a road for occasional access but mainly a space that brings people together, a space optimally dimensioned for cricket.

Cross site connections draw people towards the community buildings that form the heart of the village, these pathways were identified during the original master plan and remain at the heart of the site-wide strategy today.

The major civil works will commence early next year, reforming the roads and removing some of the outbuildings that have outlived their useful lives. Once this is complete it is anticipated that the lot owners will begin construction on their homes and the cluster housing will also get underway.

The ecovillage holds regular open days at the site, details can be found here.