When I was at the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) in my role as Director responsible for Planning for Bushfire Protection (PBP), I often used the Berman House by Harry Seidler as a case study in staff and industry training. Not because it was a prescribed example within the acceptable solutions of Planning for Bushfire Protection or AS3959, but because it so clearly demonstrated the opportunity that performance-based design provides in bushfire-prone areas.
The Berman House shows how architecture can achieve bushfire resilience through design intelligence rather than design compromise. It reminds us that compliance does not need to limit creativity. The best outcomes often emerge when design performance is measured against principles of fire behaviour, acceptance of a risk based and proportionate response and intelligent design, not just prescriptive setbacks or construction types.
In bushfire-prone areas, performance-based design is not about relaxing standards, it’s about elevating them. It demands that we understand risk, harness evidence, and create places that perform under pressure. It’s design that defends life through intelligence, not compliance alone.
Performance-based design is where regulation ends and intelligence begins. The space where creativity, science and resilience meet.
This case study illustrates how a building’s form, materials, and relationship to the landscape can deliver the same protective functions that prescriptive standards aim to achieve but with greater elegance, efficiency, and environmental sensitivity.
Key Protective Elements
Aerodynamic Roof
The flowing roof profile sheds high-speed winds and reduces turbulence at the edges, limiting ember eddies and deposition points.
A clean, non-combustible roof skin with simplified junctions reduces ignition risk at penetrations and parapets.
Elevation and Cantilevered Deck
The main floor plate projects beyond the slope, creating vertical and horizontal separation from surface fuels.
Open, uncluttered sub-floor geometry avoids debris traps and reduces convective and radiant exposure beneath the structure.
Stone and Concrete Massing
The sandstone plinth and concrete elements provide non-combustible shielding and thermal mass, absorbing and deflecting radiant heat on the approach side.
Robust interfaces of stone, steel, and glass simplify detailing and limit ember entry.
The house is built entirely of fireproof materials.
Swimming Pool as Buffer and Water Source
The pool establishes a functional Asset Protection Zone (APZ) extension — a non-vegetated, non-combustible foreground that interrupts flame paths.
It also serves as an on-site static water supply for initial suppression or firefighter use, with potential for pump pickup points.
Roof water is also collected into a central tank under the house.
Glazing and Façade Strategy
Long sightlines with set-back glazing, protected frames, and minimal external ledges reduce ember lodging and direct flame impingement.
Tempered or laminated glass systems combined with metal framing align with BAL-appropriate performance expectations.
Site Planning and Vegetation Management
The house works with the sandstone escarpment as a natural firebreak, maintaining higher fuels outside the defendable envelope.
Low-fuel, well-maintained native plantings preserve amenity and visual quality while protecting egress and defendable space.
Access, Services, and Operations
Clear approach routes and hardstand areas support fire appliance access and overall defendability.
External services are consolidated, shielded, and non-combustible — reducing vulnerability during ember attack and maintaining operability under exposure.
The Berman House demonstrates that bushfire resilience does not have to mean architectural retreat. When guided by performance-based thinking, every design decision can serve dual purposes—aesthetic expression and functional protection.
