My Blueprint for Sustainable City Living

A free step-by-step guide to
sustainable house design and off-grid living in the city

The Impossible House team aims to:

  1. Provide a step-by-step guide for anyone wanting to renovate sustainably
  2. Demonstrate that a sustainable home can be inner city cool and doesn’t have to look like a hippy log cabin
  3. Document all the costs, my mistakes and successes – I’ll make the mistakes so you don’t have to!
  4. Minimise costs – I want sustainable living to be accessible by everyone

Hello!

My name is Laura Ryan and this is my soon to be sustainable house. I’m trying to find a way to live (affordably) off-grid in the middle of the city. I’m looking to finish the build in 2022 and it’s been a tough journey so far. Please use this site as a reference tool for your own sustainable house design.

An image of LAura ryan and a computer-generated artist's interpretation drawing of the garden wall section of The ImPossible House

What we’re doing

The ImPossible House is turning an old workers’ cottage in Sydney’s inner west into a fully off-grid sustainable house, documenting the whole project so anyone can copy it. Download my factsheet for a quick summary.

Why we’re doing it

Because we’re in a climate emergency (yes really! – the climate scientists have told us so) and if we all don’t start to reduce our carbon footprint, we’ll have to deal with things like more frequent and fierce bushfires.

How we’re doing it

We’re using a combination of Passivehaus building principles, off-grid waste, water, and solar solutions with sustainable interior design. Together, they make the ImPossible House.

Hot Topics

  • Added new Media Page for all our interviews, articles and videos.
  • We were interviewed and featured on Domain.
  • We are calling for EOI to design a residential water recycling system. Details here.
  • And while you’re here….please sign our letter asking Inner West Council to consider letting me install solar panels on my front roof.

As Seen On

Logo of the Domain.com.au website
Logo of The Fifth Estate
Sustainable House Day logo

Who We Are

Photo of Denby Dowling

Denby Dowling

Interior Designer
Photo of Dr Laura Ryan

Dr Laura Ryan

Owner & Sponsor
Photo of Paul Adams

Paul Adams

Architect
Photo of Kelvin Mui

Kelvin Mui

User Experience / Web Consultant
Photo of Susan Burchill

Susan Burchill

Writer / Producer
Photo of Roland Lawrence

Roland Lawrence

Solar Off-Grid Specialist