Q. When will the Archi-Science books be opening? A. Soon.
Interest in our unique, integrated, architecture and science services is very strong. We have grown to become a dedicated and collaborative team of 17, but, despite our enthusiasm, there are limits to what we can do, especially if we intend to maintain the quality of the services that we pride ourselves in delivering.
For this reason, we’ve had the architectural books closed for quite a while. Last time we opened them and met with prospective clients we were booked up more than a year ahead.
Please note, we are not a government agency with a duty to serve everyone but a small business doing our best to stay sane as we pursue our vision of improving the state of Australian housing. We do a lot of free education and advocacy work to ensure that other designers, builders and members of the public can tap into our cost-effective science-based approach. We don’t keep it a secret — there is loads of info on our website so please tap into that in the meantime.
We will be limiting our Archi-Science work to clients based in the ACT.
We are still taking clients for our SCIENCE-only testing and retrofit advisory services and will travel within the broader (close) Canberra region.
We will announce when our ‘books are open’ to new architectural clients here (at our website journal) and on our Facebook and Instagram accounts. It will be later this month or early October and only for 2-3 weeks.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to respond to enquiries for our integrated architecture and science services all year round. We put a lot of time and effort into collecting information from people to ensure we (you the prospective clients, your project and the Light House team) are a good match. There are a few steps we have to go through (written questionnaire, online meeting, fee proposal preparation, acceptance of fee proposal and proposed start date which may be several months later) and there is no guarantee we can fit everyone.
Once we open the books, Jenny and senior staff review all of the responses — this alone is a BIG job. We then provide some feedback and/or schedule a free initial online meeting so that we can find out more about each other and we can prepare you a well-considered fee proposal. Please note it may take one to four months to just get through all of these meetings (we still have a business to run and current clients to look after).
In the meantime, there are plenty of online resources for you to learn about sustainable housing in Australia. The journal and projects pages on our website are a great place to start.
Other places where you can find information include: the facebook group My Efficient Electric Home; Renew; Sanctuary; Sustainable House Day; Your Home, CSIRO and Undercover Architect. We contribute to all of these terrific resources and we too find them a great source of inspiration. Time spent researching and planning is never wasted.
PRIORITY PROJECTS FOR LIGHT HOUSE — are you a good fit?
The public’s enthusiasm for quality, comfortable, energy efficient homes has also forced us to more clearly outline the sorts of projects we love. If your future project fits one of these descriptions below AND is in the ACT we will be keen to hear from you later in the year. If energy efficiency and space efficiency are not high on your agenda… then we may not be the right match for you.
As you read below please understand that we do not control construction costs and we are not a construction company. However, we have a lot of data on construction costs because we design and tender around 30 Archi-Science projects per year. We also pride ourselves on making sure our clients are very well-informed. We will tell you the things you don’t want to hear but need to know — it’s much better you know now than at the end of design process. Costs have increased massively over the last few years. Sadly, it does not matter what your friend had their place built for 2, 3 or 4 years ago… those prices do not exist anymore (for ANY type of home, not just sustainable homes). Please see these two instagram posts - here and here.
Significant reno/retrofits that work within the existing footprint of a home
Do you really need to extend?
See examples like these — Theodore House, Little Loft House, Fabode, Bamford, Vasey — and understand that in Canberra these projects now require construction budgets of $500k+ (its not cheap but its a lot more affordable than a new home).
These projects require a full architectural process and are quite different to our science-only services.
New builds* that are genuinely space-efficient and prioritise landscape design and connection to outdoors over a bigger footprint
Do you want a productive garden that provides summer shade… or three living areas?
Our 3 bedroom + multi-room family homes are typically 150 - 170 square metres (excluding carports and outdoor areas) and have comprehensive construction contract prices (*including carports and outdoor areas) in the $700 - $900k range.
If you think you must have a 200+m2 home for a family of 4 then we may not be the firm for you (if you are a large or muti-gen family then yes, we get it). We’re actually working on some fabulous family homes that are even smaller than 150m2.
None of our team live in big houses (check those facts here). Since this story, Jenny has down-sized to a 100m2 apartment.
(*on vacant land or blocks where the existing house really doesn’t have potential - we’re very good at helping people judge that.)
Flexible designs
Could your new or existing family home function as two residences? Can you age-in-place? Can you share resources with others? Are you interested in clever higher density living?
Check out this webinar for examples.
We are not developers but we are keen to partner with people who want to do clever co-housing.