MACKSVILLE Resilient Communities participants and facilitators attended their June meeting at an outstanding example of a sustainable community.

Architect Reiner Schimminger, the designer of City of Hope, a project of four sustainably-conscious two-storey houses, located off Harbour Drive in Coffs Harbour, opened his doors to the Mid North Coast groups of OzGREEN’s Resilient Communities program recently.

The focus topic for the group this month is water, which Reiner covered in detail, but with the opportunity of sharing Reiner’s knowledge and experience designing, building and living in the City of Hope, the group also asked questions about power and growing food.

Dale Newling, Volunteer Community Facilitator, OzGREEN Resilient Communities Macksville, told News Of The Area, “It was awesome to join 20-plus of my fellow OzGREEN North Coast and Resilient Communities Volunteer Community Facilitators and participants on an urban ecovillage site visit on Saturday last, to City of Hope in Coffs Harbour and have a conversation with architect and builder Reiner Schimminger of Schimminger Architects about sustainable living.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to observe progressive measures of sustainability and community in a built environment.

“I came away with lots of ideas, inspiration and renewed radical hope,” says Dale.

Construction of the four houses began in 2016, completing the last in 2019, with Reiner moving into his home in 2018.

The project won the Sustainability Awards’ Best of the Best Award and Landscape and Biophilia Award in 2019.

Reiner, a passionate environmentalist and climate change campaigner, sought a tangible example of his philosophy and skills.

The City of Hope project does just that in a fascinating build of four homes with roof-top gardens.

The aim of the City of Hope was to create the foundation for a sustainable future, within the density of our communities.

Density living, applicable to towns, not off-the-grid style.

To achieve comfort, safety, health and wellbeing, not only for ourselves but the entire web of life around us, is the philosophy.

“There are two key criteria: not to take up any more green space and no CO2 emissions, no combustion of anything,” said Reiner.

With the Coffs Coast experiencing a long season of heavy rain, the water system at City of Hope has been put to the test and has functioned well.

“Water is precious,” said Reiner, “water can also be dangerous.”

So, you build a house that doesn’t leak and manage your surface water and use your ground water.

“Nothing (no water) leaves the site uncontrolled.”

There are gratings and a biofiltration system, as well as the water going through the pond and then out into the stormwater system.

“Water that falls onto the surface of the roof garden goes into a gutter, then into an irrigation water tank which pumps it around all the plants in a recirculating system.”

The houses are connected to town water if supplies get low.

“It reminds us that water is precious – don’t waste it,” says Reiner.

“Urban food production here is done by growing on trellises fixed to the side of the building.

“Growing food is much harder than we think – and we have to learn our parents’ traditional storage methods…we need to do more preserving.”

When considering a project like this, Reiner says it has to start with a conversation, asking yourself ‘what is practical?’, ‘what is reasonable?’ and ‘what can you afford?’.

Asking yourself questions about the way you live, consume, connect and care.

City of Hope challenges preconceptions about what a house should look like.

The four homes, nestled in a hillside garden setting, are a stunning sight to behold.

From the top down, the project enables a considered approach to climate change and architecture “aiming at the most advanced measures of sustainability in the built environment possible today”.

The project is a work in progress fed by new opportunities and lived experience of the four homeowners.

If you would like to sign up to the Nambucca Valley Resilient Communities Program, register at this link www.ozgreen.org/rc2022.

Groups are running in Macksville, Bowraville and Scotts Head.

By Andrea FERRARI