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THE BEST 19 BUSHFIRE RESISTANT HOUSE DESIGN IDEAS FOR 2025

The best 19 bushfire-resistant house design ideas for 2025. The top bushfire-defiant home design ideas and examples. Save your home from bushfires by building a fire-resistant house.

By Mau, an architecture enthusiast and property marketer at eDigital.

THE BEST 19 BUSHFIRE-RESISTANT HOUSE DESIGN IDEAS AND EXAMPLES FOR 2025

Before you get into the below bushfire-resistant house design ideas, let me tell you a story.

Back in Nov 2019, I was in the paradise of the Noosa National Park at the famous Tea Tree beach where surfers and bikini-dressed fitness models hang out for the perfect Instagram photo.

It was the perfect day to listen to great music, play football on the beach and enjoy the crystal clear ocean water in Noosa, Queensland, Australia.

But…things change right in the afternoon.

From the beach, I could see a bushfire on the other side of the Noosa River.

I did not think too much about it until the late afternoon when I was waiting for the public bus to take me back home but I was told all public transport got cancelled for the day and heard official emergency “Leave now!” announcements on the news.

The bushfires were moving fast toward the area I was living in.

Hundreds of locals (especially from Tewantin) and I had to sleep that night in the nearby Noosa Leisure Centre.

The local council – with the taxpayers’ money – was able to afford to give support for free: takeaway pizza, foams, sheets, blankets, chargers, etc to reduce the stress and the worries from the situation.

I slept well around all sorts of people: elderly, kids, single mothers, retirees and some sick people who needed extra assistance, provided by paramedics and some great volunteers.

For me, it was just one random night.

I did not own a property there, I did not really have belongings.

Eva, one of my best virtual assistants was already re-organising my agenda for the next day.

I was just hoping the bushfires were not going to reach the space I was renting: an off-the-grid set up inside a beautiful property with a small forest, dam, creek and veggie gardens.

I made it home the next morning, lucky the bushfires were contained.

The risk and fear are still there, you can feel it once the bushfire season arrives every year.

I am not living there any longer, probably I might never come back to live there again.

The only thing I felt like doing that week was writing this article.

I hope the tips shared below can help you in some sort of way.

Disclaimer: I am not an architect, I am not a bushfire expert. I am not a bushfire-resistant house developer. Do your own research and always consult your local bushfire construction experts.

THE BEST 19 BUSHFIRE-RESISTANT HOUSE DESIGN IDEAS AND EXAMPLES FOR 2025

You can review below different house design alternatives and ways for bushfire-resistant house building for bushfire-prone areas. It is now time for you to re-think different bushfire-resistant home design ideas.

Find below some of the best bushfire-resistant house design ideas and examples. We hope the below images provide hope and inspiration not only for remote marketers living in the Australian bush but anyone who wants to build a bushfire-resistant house.

19. NEWHAM HOME BUSHFIRE RESISTANT

Location: Victoria, Australia

Design: Shelter Space.

Did you see what it is happening in LA during Jan 2024? Yeah, that’s right, bushfires in Los Angeles, destroying expensive mansions and celebrity homes lost in fire. Houses in Studio, City, Pacific Palisades and Hollywood Hills the most affected.

It is now time to start thinking differently where and how to build housing.

18. KALLISTA HOUSE BUSHFIRE RESISTANT

Location: Victoria, Australia

Inspired by the shape of a fallen log on Allan and Ann’s Dandenong Ranges property, the house’s curves are clad in corrugated iron for its flexibility and BAL compliance. As a bonus, falling leaves and branches simply slide off, a plus in this bushfire-prone setting.

The curved roof and walls, clad in corrugated iron for its flexibility and BAL compliance, and supported by steel sub-floor framing, elegantly frame the compact 8m by 25m single-floor plan. The rounded structure is as functional as it is visually striking. Falling leaves and branches simply slide onto the ground rather than accumulating on the roof – a critical consideration in a bushfire zone.

Building Materials: Steel sub-floor framing and curved timber laminated veneer lumber (LVL) roof and floor truss rib cage to the length of the building from Lube Engineering/Timber Imagineering. Corrugated iron cladding from Mack Bros on all external surfaces. The floor is engineered board by Wild River Timber.

17. KINGLAKE BUSHFIRE PROOF HOUSE

Location: Victoria, Australia

Joost Bakker, the house designer behind BuildByJoost buildings, has made the plans and specifications for a bushfire-proof house that he built in Kinglake, Victoria, Australia freely available via the Bushfire Building Council of Australia.

Before the construction of Bakker’s Kinglake house started, its building system was successfully burn-tested by the CSIRO under extreme conditions. The roof is covered in soil, making it highly fire-resistant. The off-grid house is built entirely with recycled or recyclable materials, including a 100% recycled concrete slab and a steel frame made with crushed recycled brick and insulated with straw bales. Completed in 2015, the construction cost about AUD$600k

“We should build slightly smaller houses and spend more money making them resilient. When you make a house bushfire-resilient, you are also making it a better house and it uses less energy when you live in it”

Joost Bakker 

Building bushfire-resilient houses obviously demands a move away from traditional aesthetics, such as timber decks, but they don’t have to be concrete bunkers.

16. BIOCERAMIC DOMES

Geoship domes are built with all-ceramic composite panels, struts, and hubs.

The lightweight ceramic parts are fused together on-site with ceramic mortar.

The dome is repaired and resurfaced with the same highly crystalline ceramic material. Geodesic is the geometry of life. It’s found everywhere from molecules to virus capsids, to the gravitational field itself. Bioceramic is nature’s composite.

The same chemical bonding occurs in bones, seashells, and even the ancient pyramids of Giza. According to the official website, the dome is fireproof due to its outstanding 80% heat reflectivity. The material does not burn or emit any toxic fumes during a fire.

15. DOME SHELL HOME 

A Dome shell home is constructed entirely from non-combustible materials.

There are absolutely no combustible materials in its structure.

The structure of those domes consists of one hundred millimetres thick structural concrete with another layer of lightweight insulating concrete over the top meaning that a Domeshell could virtually withstand a blast furnace.

If you want to remain confident that the house you are living in will not burn, then you seriously need to consider a dome shell home.

“You only really need a robust design if your house is perched right up against the bush and it’s going to receive direct flame contact and [the compliance standards] will give you the specs on how you build a non-concrete box type house that actually can withstand flame”

CSIRO’s bushfire expert Dr Justin Leonard

14. DURIMBUL BUSHFIRE RESISTANT HOUSE

Location: Wye River, Victoria, Australia

On Christmas day 2015, an out-of-control bush fire swept through Wye River, 116 homes were lost in the fire. This project replaced one of these homes. The site is located on a steeply sloping block, obliquely facing Bass Straight. Perched high on the hillside, the house sits where the tree canopy once stood, anxiously awaiting the regrowth of the surrounding bushland.

The buildings form loosely references the skillion-roofed beach shacks built during the ’60s-’70s. The rational footprints, expressed with simple construction methods and common materials produce a modest, humble quality to the village. This project aims to continue that legacy. Upon approach, the building presents an impenetrable skin, yet once inside the building gradually opens itself up, revealing the stunning view toward the ocean and the village beyond, seen through a foreground of mature trees that the clients fought to save.

Keep safe from bushfires
I want to inspire
But don’t cut down the trees
It is my plea.
Because tree clearing
No one will cheer it.

Don’t build in bushfire zones
Just let them alone.

Find your spot
Not too remote
close to your mates
It is destiny and fate.

 

And before you move in

study the wind patterns

it matters

so you can easily live

with no fire attackers

Mau

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13. ELEMENTAL HOUSE

Location: High Camp, Victoria, Australia

Design: Ben Callery Architects.

Benefit: The external timber is spotted gum, an Australian hardwood that is so durable it complies with bushfire rating requirements. The windows are the maximum allowable size with the high wind loads, and they needed to be 1.31 feet above the ground on the eastern facade, due to the risk of bushfire.

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12. CLAM-SHAPED CABIN

Location: North West Sydney, NSW, Australia

Architect Mark Fullgar chose corrugated steel, aluminium window frames, and strengthened glass—cost-effective, non-combustible materials, given the cabin’s location in a rural fire zone Northwest of Sydney, NSW, Australia

Top story: Why good people – sometimes – do bad things.

11. MT MACEDON HOUSE – BUSHFIRE RESISTANT HOUSE

Location: Macedon Ranges, Victoria, Australia

An affordable fire-resistance architect-design house depending on the size and location may cost between AUD$250.000 to AUD$500.000, according to the information we have gathered on the internet.

More to explore: The top 25 most popular Australians on TikTok

A BUSHFIRE SEEN FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION – AUG 2021

Home owners in the bush are using some of the top 10 nature hashtags on Instagram

10. AIREYS RAMP HOUSE – BUSHFIRE RESISTANT TIMBER HOUSE – IRONS MACDUFF

Location: Aireys Inlet, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

WHAT IS BAL?

A BAL (Bushfire Attack Level) is a means of measuring a building’s potential exposure to ember attack, radiant heat and direct flame contact, in a bushfire event. It is a basis for establishing the requirements for construction to improve the protection of building elements from attack by bushfires.

If your property is in a designated bushfire-prone area, a site assessment is required to be carried out for all building permit applications for both new homes and renovations to existing homes, regardless of whether or not vegetation is present on or adjacent to the site. The reason for this is that the relevant building surveyor (RBS) issuing the building permit will need to be satisfied that the correct level of construction has been applied to the building as per the new Standard. Measuring the distance from vegetation that may pose a threat is most important and the Standard requires that
measurements are taken horizontally from vegetation to the external wall of the proposed building, or for parts of the building that do not have external walls (including carports, verandas, decks, landings, steps and ramps), to the supporting posts or columns.

The following parts of the building are excluded when determining the distance to vegetation:

• Eaves and roof overhangs
• Rainwater and domestic fuel tanks
• Chimneys, pipes, cooling or heating appliances or other services.
• Unroofed pergolas
• Sunblinds
• Landings, terraces, steps and ramps, not more than 1 m in height

Your state government provides information about  “Bushfire attack level” (BAL) categories and areas at risk. The examination will include assessing:

• Construction type
• Resistance to radiant heat from a fire
• Proximity to outbuildings
• Vegetation issues
• Fire shielding

9. BELLBIRD RETREAT HOUSE – BUSHFIRE RESISTANT ROOF

Location: Killarney, Gold Coast Hinterland, Queensland, Australia

Design: Steendijk Architects

The cost of fire-proof building materials is decreasing. CSRIO-tested window shutters are a good example of this.

ALWAYS check with your local Landcare experts to decide what trees or plants to have around your new home.

For example, Cycas media stands out among our fire-tolerant native species found in seasonally dry tropical areas around the east coast of Queensland, Australia with scattered occurrences also in northern Northern Territory and Western Australia. Cycas media is one of the quickest Aussie native palm trees to refoliate in a scorched area. Cycads can put on new leaves in spectacular fashion after a dry season bushfire. But before you plant, check with your local Landcare experts!

You may want to use the top 10 most popular nature hashtags on TikTok

8. BALL-EASTAWAY HOUSE

Location: Glenorie Sydney NSW

This house design offers a defensive system against forest fires. The roof as a sprinkler system in addition to being the capstone to the vertical lines. The metal coatings are also designed based on the “high risk of fire” in the area, the paints used are also resistant to fire long-range and a network of small sprinklers is installed to soak the outside in case of need.

Australia is the only developed nation to be listed as one of 24 global deforestation fronts in the latest World Wide Fund for Nature report.

Home owners are using some of the top 25 sustainability hashtags on TikTok.

7. KARRI FIRE HOUSE

Location: Denmark, Western Australia

THINGS YOU SHOULD AVOID WHEN DESIGNING FIRE-RESISTANT HOUSES

• Flammable wooden decks, verandas, wooden cladding (aka wooden walls).
• Whiting 8 metres from your house avoid having: trees, fallen dry leaves, woodpiles, shrubs, mulch and combustible outdoor furniture.
• Gutters full of dry leaves.
• Gas bottle release valves facing your house. Keep them away.
• Brushwood fences. Replace them with metal fences.
• One single outdoor water point. Install multiple water points so you can use multiple hoses if required.
• Any type of debris, trash and rubbish away from your house.

FIRE-RESISTANT HOME DESIGNS – NICE TO HAVE

• Sprinkler systems and multiple water points around the house with hoses that get good pressure.
• Thicker windows
• Removing all flammable fences, decks, verandas, etc.
• A shed away from home to keep all flammable liquids. Ideally, do not even store them.
• Gutter guards
• Galvanised sheet cladding and roofing.
• BAL-40 rated decking planks
• Non-combustible steel joists and bearers.

BUSHFIRE-RESISTANT ARCHITECTS AND CONSULTANTS IN AUSTRALIA

• Christine Eriksen
• Eldon Bottcher

Disclaimer: While we strive to ensure our information is accurate, complete and up-to-date, such information does not constitute advice. eDigital does not guarantee and accepts no legal liability whatsoever arising from or in connection to the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any information contained in this article. You should consider seeking appropriate professional advice before making any decisions based on the information in this article.

Architecture critics, I invite you to follow the below professionals:

• Tom Dyckhoff is a British writer, broadcaster and historian of architecture, design and cities.
• Rowan Moore is an architecture critic of the Observer and was named Critic of the Year at the UK Press Awards 2014. He is the author of Slow Burn City and Why We Build.

Sustainable home owners are using some of the best 25 sustainability hashtags on TikTok

Conclusion

The importance of bushfire-resistant house design lies in its ability to protect lives, property, and communities from the devastating impact of wildfires, promoting safety, resilience, and sustainability in fire-prone regions.

Bushfire-resistant house designs can lead to lower insurance premiums, as they demonstrate proactive measures to mitigate fire risks.

​Test the method you choose before you invest in it. I like earth-shelter construction techniques. Earth-sheltered buildings’ advantage for fighting bushfires is that the surrounding soil can provide a buffer against direct contact with flames. They can also insulate the interior against the extreme radiant temperatures experienced in bushfires.

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THE BEST BUSHFIRE-RESISTANT HOUSE DESIGN IDEAS AND EXAMPLES

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