At the bottom of Waterworks Valley are two unpretentious new buildings.

Being fibre-grey rectangular blocks, from the outside they are anything but your stereotypical, swanky eco-mansions that seem to abound these days. But step inside and you can feel that these are no ordinary homes.

And if you cared to peel away the wall linings and follow the pipes you will see why these homes are so delightfully comfortable and have such a light footprint.

Daniel and Kylie have been part of the Waterworks Community since it’s inception. Their home (and twin neighbour’s home) features high levels of insulation, expert passive design to take advantage of what little sun is available at the site, roof water harvesting for toilet flushing and much more.

If you want to see more of this sustainable, sensible architecture click HERE, where their home is featured in the national Sanctuary magazine.

These two homes illustrate what inspiring things can happen in the most difficult of circumstances. And this need not mean building a new home – others have shown that the most drafty, impossible 80 year old homes can be made comfortable and sustainable with a little bit of ingenuity.

In 2009 our community ran an Open Day so that we could share our experiences in developing sustainable homes in our neighbourhood. If there is enthusiasm we may just do it again.