DESIGN matters Bushfire resilient design
Bushfire resilient design
Andreas Sederof details his experience of the updated Australian Standards
for bushfire resilient design in Victoria with a recent rural new build.
Words Andreas Sederof
After the devastating 2009 bushfires in
Victoria, the state government introduced
a six-category Bushfire Attack Level (BAL)
zoning scheme. The scheme is accompanied
by Australian Standard requirements for
building design and materials performance,
ranging from ember protection at the low
levels to fire-rated construction at the highest.
Each new residential building, alteration
and addition in Victoria has to meet these
regulations. The rest of the country has now
adopted these Standards. It’s important to talk
to your building designer or architect to ensure
the latest regulations are incorporated when
designing your home.
Andreas Sederof from Sunpower Design
has recently designed a home in Musk, regional
Victoria, to comply with these new standards.
It will be profiled in Sanctuary 15, but here’s a
preview of his experiences:
It’s important to design new and renovated
country properties with the latest bushfire
prevention measures, but at the same
time we can incorporate best practice
environmentally sustainable design.
These two objectives can have a symbiotic
relationship.
Before you design your home, a site
assessment will need to be undertaken to
ascertain your property’s Bushfire Attack
Level (BAL). This will determine the
construction and material requirements
that must be incorporated in the design
and build. The BAL assessment takes into
account a range of factors, including the Fire
Danger Index, land slope, and surrounding
vegetation type and proximity to the
building. The highest risk sites are assessed
88 SANCTUARY
at a BAL level of FZ (Flame Zone), while the
lowest are BAL-LOW. Most properties will
fall under this latter level.
In my experience, the designer needs
to balance design freedom and the most
suitable materials against the bushfire
risk category of the site. It’s important to
stress that “passive” bushfire protection
mechanisms, such as mandated construction
methods and material selection, have
priority over “active systems” like roof
sprinklers and pumps. History has
repeatedly demonstrated that active systems
can fail in an emergency due to inadequate
water supply, insufficient maintenance and
power failures. These systems require you
to be present to activate them, which is of no
benefit if you decide to leave early or the day
before.
When you’re designing a home for bushfire
resistance, the ability to withstand the
temperature (radiant heat) of the fire and
ember resistance are the most important
factors to consider. Minimising bushfire
fuel around the home is also critical. Most
house fires start sometime after the fire
front passes through. Roof vents and other
roof penetrations require special cowls
and screens to protect the roof space from
smouldering embers. The best way to ensure
that cinder penetration does not become
a problem is to incorporate high levels of
draught proofing into the design of the
building. This is also a feature of energy
efficient homes, designed to prevent air
leaks and heat loss.
It’s also important to consider the
most vulnerable external surfaces of a
building. The selection of appropriate
external cladding materials can vary from
highly fire resistant materials like AAC
block work through to corrugated iron and
in some cases very dense bushfire resistant
hardwoods. Many of these dense hardwoods
can be used quite successfully provided they
are balanced to the site’s BAL. Windows
and glazed doors, due to their relatively
low thermal properties, are approximately
five to six times more vulnerable to radiant
heat when compared with other external
construction materials. Windows are also
vulnerable to airborne debris launched
during a firestorm. A solution for this is
to place metal shutters over the windows,
either sliding or hinged. Aluminium clad,
double glazed and thermally broken window
frames are available on the market that easily
meet BAL 29 requirements and perform well
thermally in both summer and winter. [Ed
note, see the boxed text on the opposite page
for more information about windows.]
I recently designed a home in Musk,
Victoria, with a BAL rating of 40. The design
solution includes tilt panel concrete walls
facing the aspects that have to cope with
the most severe wind and heat conditions,
in this instance from the north to the south
west. The aluminium framed double-glazed
windows and the tiled concrete deck with
steel pergolas work both aesthetically
and architecturally, while decreasing the
opportunity for cinder penetration. An on-
ground concrete slab is essential to prevent
flying embers from getting underneath
the building; it also serves to maintain low
internal temperatures – very desirable on
extremely hot bushfire days. Roof structures
should ideally be pitched metal with no box
Before you design your home,
a site assessment will need to
be undertaken to ascertain
your property’s Bushfire
Attack Level (BAL)
gutters, allowing leaf debris to be blown off
readily. Leafless gutters and downpipes with
leaf diverters are a good idea. Provision of
adequate water storage is another example
of sustainable self sufficiency and bushfire
protection measures working hand in hand.
Let’s face it: the lower the fire risk achieved
by design and careful site maintenance, the
safer you and your building will be.
Andreas Sederof is a building designer and a
director of Sunpower Design, a Melbourne-based
consultancy and design practice specialising in
integrated solutions for energy efficiency and
sustainable building design.
www.sunpowerdesign.com.au
More information:
www.buildingcommission.com.au
The Building Commission publishes
information about the BAL ratings as well
as a PDF guide for homeowners looking
to retrofit their homes for better protection
from bushfires.
www.builditbackgreen.org/bushfires
Created by Green Cross Australia, the Build
It Back Green website is designed to help
Victorian communities recovering from the
Black Saturday bushfires rebuild their homes
in an affordable and sustainable manner.
www.wewillrebuild.vic.gov.au
Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and
Recovery Authority
DESIGN matters
Getting glazing right for
bushfire-prone builds
In much of Australia, summer means high
bushfire risk. Windows can be a weak
point in the ability of the building envelope
to withstand bushfire, so when you’re
building in a fire-prone area, it’s important
to consider framing materials, glazing type
and other window treatments carefully to
maximise your house’s chance of making
it through if that terrible day arrives. For
windows, the new Australian Standard
requirements range from installing thicker
toughened glass to bushfire shutters or
bushfire-approved window frames.
In Sanctuary 12, we profiled a house
in bushfire-prone Neerim East, Victoria.
Although the build predated the BAL
scheme, the owners’ choice of 6mm
toughened, double-glazed windows gives
the house a head-start in terms of fire
resistance. Remember to choose your
window frame material carefully too.
Aluminium or steel frames meet most
Bushfire resilient design
D
The bushfire resistant house built
in Musk by Sunpower Design.
It has a BAL site rating of 40.
requirements for bushfire protection
(but may not provide your desired thermal
performance). It’s still possible to have
timber window frames even in fairly
high fire-risk areas; there is a small list of
Australian hardwoods that will meet higher
BAL requirements, including Blackbutt
and Spotted Gum.
Windows are available in the market
for BAL 40 in timber (Paarhammer),
aluminium clad timber (Miglas) and
aluminium (Trend) and there are also
bushfire shutters available on the market
for BAL-FZ — Anna Cumming
More information:
– ReNew magazine windows buyers’
guide: www.renew.org.au/buyers-guide
– Window Energy Rating: www.wers.net
– www.paarhammer.com.au
– www.miglas.com.au
– www.trendwindows.com.au
– www.wildfireprotection.com.au
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