5) Description of housing product/service offering: Odyssey House creates and sustains environments for positive change for those whose lives are affected by drugs and alcohol. These people are ‘live in’ residents who undergo a programme that endeavours to change living habits and re-skill people to move back into the community. As part of Odyssey’s commitment to providing real opportunities to rebuild families and establish sustainable patterns of living, Odyssey prioritised the creation of six new family units to enable families to live together in a family environment.

The importance of engaging children in treatment programs with their parents was recognised by Odyssey and as a result, it is the only drug and alcohol therapeutic community that enables parents to seek therapy with their children. At the Odyssey Therapeutic Community there is a special children’s centre which serves as a pre-school and crèche during the day, and also provides an after school program for the school aged children, who attend the local primary schools.

Up until now, families within the Odyssey program have been living within the main residential facility. The reality of this arrangement is that most families have little opportunity to practice what it means to live together as a family with shared responsibility and ownership of their own living, cooking, washing and sleeping areas.

This challenge to design and construct the family units as a therapeutic community was undertaken by our Architectural practice.

The brief called for the design of a series of three six- bed houses to accommodate two families and two three- bedroom houses each housing one family. The principle design concept behind the family units was to create a unique experience to take people out of their normal world, shed their old ways and create a marker symbolising their change in direction.

The design and planning of the individual units was fundamental in promoting resident interaction. They were designed to allow for gradation and control of social interaction as well as informal interaction. Strong gradation of control of spaces from the most private to the most communal is in line with the aims of a therapeutic community. The resulting building and site plans reinforced the sense of the individual, their relationship and responsibility within their immediate family group, the larger group and the Odyssey community.

At a smaller scale, universal access to all buildings was a significant objective in the design process. Due to the number and nature of the family groups living in the units, it was important to allow access for all, including wheel chair access and design for children. Details of light switches, taps and door handles are designed to be accessible. WC and shower arrangements are adaptable only requiring the addition of handrails for individual use. Plywood fixing plates have been installed in the walls to allow secure fixing of handrails as needed. Attention has been placed on even natural lighting, thus reducing the effects of glare for vision impaired and generally providing a more comfortable visual environment.

The main beneficiaries of the project include the residents themselves, future families occupying the units and the wider community in general.

Current residents work on the project as part of the commitment to the community or are a part of their wider journey of self-discovery. They can work both for their required committed hours or as volunteer in their own time. They gain with the self-satisfaction and enormous pleasure of creating something. In particular, the medium of mud brick shows the hand built nature of the building that residents are able to shape their environment, even if in a little way.

Future families who will live in the family units will benefit from the energy and care previous residents have applied to the construction of the units. It is anticipated that future family residents will also respect the commitment and appreciate the atmosphere and qualities of the building because of the self-build nature and the types of material and finishes which have been absorbed and will re-radiate the care lavished on the buildings through the personal energy used to refine simple building materials.

The wider community will also benefit by the results. Community resources have been used in a positive way creating more for the cash input in building terms, making the money go further. Training craftsmen to return to the community produces a skilled worker while at the same time reducing reliance on government support. Increasing confidence in families returning to the community and reassuring them care is always available produces quality environments for people to grow. The Odyssey programme supports people back into the community and it is possible for graduates to return at any time to receive additional support.

6) Description of innovation: One of the driving innovations behind the project is the self-build programme. The benefits of self-build projects are well known, as are the benefits of the principles of therapeutic communities. The Odyssey House family units project incorporates:

- The use of locally available materials: Materials have been chosen that are from a sustainable source, or are recycled out of a ‘waste’ product from another manufacturing process. Mud bricks were chosen as the main wall construction material being able to be made on site with the Odyssey labour, giving all the advantages of a material with extremely low environmental impact. The mud bricks were able to give a hand made and hand crafted quality to the building that was though to soften the building and give the families living in them a positive energy. While mud bricks are conventionally thought of as old technology, when installed in a properly detailed building, they are durable and easily repaired if damaged. Made from materials on site, mud bricks have a very low embodied energy.

- The use of environmentally sustainable materials, which requires discipline in the application: From our experience we prefer at the outset to design simple building relying minimally on active technology intensive solutions and utilising simple methods of environmental sustainability. As a response, external cladding, structural timbers and windows and frames utilised a combination of plantation pine, Australian hardwood, cypress pine and radially sawn timber – all readily available from the environment. The design of the curving roof was envisaged as a shingle or a shake roof, utilising Australian hardwood roof shakes, copper, or asphalt roof sheeting – all of which would have blended well with the surrounding bush environment. In construction, asphalt shingles were selected, as they were the most cost effective – made of a by-product of crude oil refinement that is recyclable at the end of its service life. Copper was chosen for the roof guttering because of its workability and proven durability.

- Energy efficient buildings that are easily understood: In the design of the family units, passive solar issues were considered in order to maximise energy efficiency. Models of climate change in this part of the world indicate that we will experience hotter weather with more severe subtropical storms. While catering for today’s climate, the designs should be readily adaptable to accommodate change if required.

As much as possible, the family units have been orientated on the east-west axis to reduce the impact of the hot summer sun and improve the penetration of winter sun. We have incorporated large eaves protection, additional built- in thermal insulation and ventilation for the roof and more thermal mass to combat the effect of the short-term extremes in daily temperatures. The use of the mud bricks and the concrete slab generates a high proportion of thermal mass in the buildings that will enable the temperature to remain thermally stable throughout the year.

Good and controllable cross ventilation has been allowed for in the buildings providing efficient and fresh airflow through the building. Wide eaves and verandas are designed to protect the windows and walls from the severe elements of rain and sun. The verandas and decks allow for sitting out in the mild weather in the sun or protection from the rain. The inside of the building is best used for the hottest and coldest times. We expect that heating will be used for the winter months in the living areas.

These features are provided at little or no extra cost and provide a building that will better cope with predicted changes.

- Storage and reuse of rainwater: CSIRO are predicting more extreme dry days and extremes of independent events i.e. More powerful and short term storms. Water usage and storage is a major discussion point now as we head into further drought. As well as the mandatory low flush toilet systems and efficient showers to reduce the use of water, we have considered how to adjust for the predicted CSIRO outcomes.

A large simple roof with wide eaves will accommodate the high intensity storm events, protecting the building from rain. In these extreme events the gutter system may not cope with the rain and the civil works have been designed to direct overland drainage away from the building in the case the surface storm water drains are overloaded. For the rainwater collection, we decided to have a central tank system located in an unrestricted area allowing future expansion. Water stored is intended for use in the horticulture programmes on the site.

In addition to the collection of rainwater, the design addressed the issue of domestic hot water. While domestic solar hot water systems are available, their return is marginal in this climate. With the use patterns of the building, it was determined to go with gas storage water heaters. Gas as a fuel, has low greenhouse emissions approximately 70% less than an equivalent electric off peak boosted storage system with the advantage that it can be heated at any time. While it was desirable to use a gas boosted solar system, we considered the use patterns for hot water would result in a long payback period.

- The use of a community project as a training forum to help people back into the workforce

- Each part of the project is simple and well understood

The force of this project is to combine all the parts together in a positive synergetic process. The unique design and layout of the building is a feature and symbol of the process of a therapeutic community.

7) Benefits to clients: Many of the residents of Odyssey house are on a journey of self-discovery. Rarely is this journey easy or the pathway clear. It is perhaps the ultimate test of character for all of us – summoning the courage to honestly examine our behaviour and then choosing to change. For this reason, it is hard not to respect the endeavours of the Odyssey clients as they ask difficult questions of themselves and inevitably grow as they answer them.

In providing an environment conducive to personal growth and self-discovery, a community contribution programme was introduced. As part of their first eight weeks of being a community member, Odyssey residents are obliged to contribute to the community by way of community work. After this time, and guidance counselling, the resident is assigned a job that is beneficial to the resident and the community for the length of their stay – a way of ‘giving back’ to the community. Some of their responsibilities may include: Property and grounds maintenance, child minding, cooking and duties in the business office - all tasks aimed at providing the residents with the confidence and self- esteem to enable them to re-enter society.

As an extension to this community contribution programme, a ‘self-build’ initiative was implemented in addition to the property and grounds maintenance with extra input of volunteer labour in their spare time. It was anticipated that the self- build would introduce a durable and tangible expression and legacy for the residents to future residents.

This afforded the idiosyncratic forms of the building that reflected and reinforced the accepting and individual nature of residents within the programme, with shapes that would emphasise the inherent character of the construction materials. It was anticipated that the self-build system could draw additional funds for the project from community job re-training and education programmes. In total, the self-build system was expected to create savings in the construction costs and benefit the residents and community with self-reliance and self esteem.

The self-build process consisted of two stages:

Stage One – Mud brick making. Mud bricks were made onsite by resident and volunteer labour. A total of 40,000 mud bricks were made, enough for the entire project. It was found that it was more efficient to make all the bricks at the same time rather than house by house. It meant that the bricks would be ready to suit the construction programme.

Stage Two – Construction of Unit 5 (Pilot Project)

The self-build process was designed to balance the use of Odyssey employees, external contractors, ‘odyssey@work’ trainees and residents from the residential facility. The building supervisor was appointed to complete the construction works while also remaining the Manager of Employment Programs while the Residential PDM Manager took additional responsibility to oversee the infrastructure works and resident input. As well as the mud brick making, other skills such as painting, plastering, carpentry and joinery were all part of training as well as the more mundane aspects of building site housekeeping.

Residents responded very positively to the concept of self- build. While it is expected that there can be a gap between ideals and action, there was positive and sufficient attendance on a volunteer basis to endorse the project. The input became greater as the results of the building programme became more apparent.

Due to industry demands, regular volunteers were given formal Occupational Health and Safety job training. Six groups of residents were given structured OH&S training in partnership with the Housing Industry Association where trainees completed a 6 hour session and were issued industry standard Red Card Certificates - another step in helping residents with their journey and overall sense of accomplishment.

8) Key operational partnerships: The project was initiated by Odyssey House. The philosophy behind the organisation is to provide a fostering environment to individuals recovering from social and emotional upheaval due to various living circumstances. Odyssey’s logo, the symbol of the ship, is central to the psyche of the organisation. The old-style sail ship represents an odyssey or journey. In Homer’s classic tale, The Odyssey, Odysseus embarks on a long and dangerous voyage. In the same way, Odyssey clients make their own fearsome journey: self-discovery.

In partnership with Odyssey, our Architectural practice was able to design and deliver a proposal that responded to their unique requirements while at the same time being sensitive to the delicate emotional needs of the residents. Contribution has also been made by local community members through the use of traders and suppliers for their service needs. The support is reciprocated in the goods and materials that are donated to Odyssey house.

9) Financial model: The costs of the project are difficult to compare directly because the self-build aspects produce numerous intangible outcomes. Overall, the self-build system was expected to create savings in the construction costs through ‘sweat equity’ and by Odyssey taking over the commercial risk of construction normally born by the builder.

To establish costing and affordability of the units we have used a conventional group house building for comparison. A typical group house building will have an estimated budget cost of $500-$600,000 plus connection to services. A Quantity Surveyor’s cost estimates of the project during the design phases for the Family Units, contractor built was estimated at $550,000 per six bedroom house excluding connection to services and total project at about $3.6million.

The Odyssey Unit 5 is 260sqm, fully accessible, large bedroom areas and generous living spaces. The construction costs including an allowance for the volunteer labour is $376,000 plus connection to services and landscaping. The project has budgeted $200,000 for upgrading all infrastructure required by the Family units including the sewer system servicing the whole of the site and the existing Odyssey house. Based on our experience to date we would expect a total completion cost in the order of $2.4million.

This cost difference partly reflects the risks of a contractor taking on such an unusual design; partly the ordinary contingencies that a builder needs to prudently allow in their budgets; using the training program funding to have double value the training and creating building; and add to that and the benefits of volunteer labour component of the building.

          • Costs as percentage of income: 0

          • Financing: Funding for the construction of the Family units came from a variety of sources, including: - State Government of Victoria - The Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation - The Helen Macpherson Smith Trust - The Brockhoff Trust And numerous other donations from the community.

The ongoing funding of the operation of the Family Units is from State and Federal Governments.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: The pilot stage has been completed and the next stages of the project will commence as funds become available.

          • Number of clients in past year: During construction between 100 and 200 people participated.

          • Percentage of clients that are poor or marginalized: 100

          • Potential demand: The process of acquiring buildings in this way is applicable in many situations. Victoria could benefit by having this family facility reproduced a number of times and there is similar need in other States of Australia. The design outcome is a project specific result utilising the resources available.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: The project is ongoing. There is a master plan not only for the completion of the Family units but for the site as a whole. The success of the family units has excited the local community and they now have the skills and support framework in place to continue future projects as finances allow. Odyssey is large organisation and further success here will lead to repetition.

12) Origin of the initiative: The Family Units project was initiated by Odyssey House, David Crosby CEO and Eric Allen, Director Residential Services who contacted our Architectural practice with the concept to construct family units as a therapeutic community.

Contact Information:
Allen  Kong
Ashoka Fellow
Architect - Director
Allen Kong Architect Pty Ltd
(Architectural Office)
Australia