Dear magazine readers,

We officially announce, that we added new category called Sustainable living. Our magazine wants to contribute to the fight against global problems and show ways to live more eco, more sustainable.

Let us introduce the Drew House project, located on the Queensland coast of Australia. It was designed by Australian studio Simon Laws Anthill Constructions and completed in 2010. The house is made of several ‘pods’ which are all connected through a covered outdoor living and dining area. Sleeping pods along with a bath house were built in Brisbane, close to construction services and transported the 500km to site fully completed. The home features naturally oiled Australian timbers, and several other low-finish materials in an attempt to create a home which has a neutral impact on the environment.

The wooden doors open right up letting you take a bath or shower while you enjoy the view.

Rainwater tanks are used to harvest grey water, while electricity and warm water are provided for through the use of solar panels. The long narrow design of the house lends itself to passive design principles, reducing the homes dependence on an active heating/cooling system.

The Drew house is a holiday retreat for Australian photographic artist, Marian Drew, and her brother Derek. In their youths the family took camping trips to the same area near Seventeen Seventy, a town just south of Gladstone and the most northerly surf break on the east Australian coast at the start of the Great Barrier Reef.

The house aims to create a kind of luxury campsite nestled amongst the knarled Bloodwoods and ancient Palms of the pristine ridge top site with forms that also reflect the strong iconography of the sugar mills that were also a large part of the family’s history. Living and sleeping pods along with a bathhouse were built in Brisbane, close to construction services, and transported the 500km to site fully completed.

Separated sleeping and living areas allow the privacy of holidaying family groups and also more easily integrate into the existing landscape, which has been minimally disturbed. Covered walkways connect the various pods to the large outdoor living and dining area for shared meals and gatherings. This ribbed parabolic roof structure uses Aramax metal sheeting to free span the two identical, but reversed, hardwood timber truss frames.

Natural oiled Australian hardwood timbers and other minimally finished, simple materials have been combined to create indoor/outdoor spaces for maximum enjoyment of the unique bushland setting and mild sub-tropical climate.

Rainwater tanks, solar hot water and electrical panels, an energy efficient passive design and a community water recycling system, for everything but drinking and bathing, make the house largely self sufficient. The shower door glass features one of Marian’s works and the custom printed outdoor seating fabrics use images of tree trunks photographed on the site.  – Simon Laws Anthill Constructions wrote.