Sustainable Building: Why double brick is nuts in Perth

Challenging convention in the double-brick market of Perth.

Editor Amanda Falconer interviews architect Rex Randell for a Green Undressed segment in the Light Home sustainable design podcast series. You can listen to the full interview here.

“The Perth person’s affection for building in double brick is funny – they’ll actually walk in and tap the walls of a home to check it’s brick, and will remark if it’s timber,” he says.

“People in Perth really have an aversion to building truly sustainable homes, as they’ve been conditioned by clever marketing into thinking that double brick homes are better to live in.”

“Brick really retains the cold when it’s cool and the heat when it’s hot, which doesn’t suit the Western Australian climate at all,” he says.

“It really has quite poor insulation value, which may be fine in the summer, but as soon as it gets cool in the winter, the internal walls turn to ice.”

More than brick and mortar

“To try and get people thinking outside of the square, we used double brick downstairs with lightweight timber framing upstairs.”

“As hot air rises the timber frame upstairs breathes and store heat if called for, but can also cooled in a short period of time,” he says.

“The clients looked at the plan and didn’t want to change anything,” says Randell. “I’ve actually never had that happen before!”

Why timber is better

“Timber frame is much better than double brick as it allows for the building to breathe and to maintain a more constant temperature,” he says.

“To compare brick with any other material is like comparing a plastic bottle with a thermos flask. The plastic bottle builds up heat quickly just like brickwork exposed to the sun, whereas the timber frame is like a thermos providing better storage of cold and heat.”*

“Perth has an aversion to building truly sustainable homes, but they need to know that lightweight construction completely suits the Perth climate.”