Paul Dolphin is a building designer and founder of PdD Building Design. In his twenties he had a vision of building sustainable, livable houses that has come to fruition living and working in Malua Bay.
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Hailing from the town of Blackburn, England, Paul travelled through Australia in 1999 and realised the country held possibilities for his vision that England did not.
Paul points to England, where four companies hold a monopoly of 95 per cent of new builds, making for a very narrow market and type of building. He knows of only two people who have built their own homes there.
"The reason Grand Designs was so cool...people never did that, so you were seeing something that was amazing,
"I'd been passionate about sustainable design since I was 20 years old - I knew that I could come over here, become a building designer and offer that service," Paul said.
So when his brother, who had settled in Broulee, suggested he move to the South Coast in 2013, he did, "site unseen".
Two years later he founded his company. Paul and two colleagues now work out of an office, on his home site, that he designed. His home 'Dromhus', won a national design award in 2020, awarded by the Building Designers Association of Australia.
Although PdD are known for their sustainable design principles, Paul says their clients are varied.
"Our market is anyone and everyone - sustainable design can be applied to any size of structure - from a tiny home that we've designed up to ...very large family homes
"But even when someone hasn't specifically come to us for that, we are always looking to help people add sustainability," he explains.
Paul very much believes that "sustainability" needs to be re-framed. He says that another way of saying sustainability is "livability" - buildings that are affordable, economic and resilient.
When he was young his building sensibilities leaned towards "deep eco", building with straw bale and the like. But his training and experience as a building surveyor led to a deeper understanding of what makes a building flawed.
"When you get defects in a building, it's more often than not, when you've used the new material and you don't understand how it's going to perform," Paul explained.
Affordable, achievable design for a wide range of people is the aim - plans that can be built by a standard builder, using standard materials resulting in a house that is 80-90% solar passive.
Paul calls it the "middle way of sustainability" and his own buildings are a case in point.
"We used concrete block walls for the thermal mass, so in winter the sun shines through the windows onto those - stores heat, and releases heat at night when the sun goes down.
"Concrete block [was used] because they were the cheapest product we could find, and we knew the builder and the brickie would know how to use them.
"Economically sustainable because they were cheap - socially sustainable because we don't have to worry about defects," Paul said.
Dromhus will be open to the public Saturday, April 20 as part of Sustainable House Day 2024, from 11am - 1pm.
Visit www.sustainablehouseday.com to learn more about sustainable house day
