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Project Overview

A new family home in the western suburbs of Victoria, the proposed design strives to create a house

Project Commissioner

Project Creator

MODO Architecture

Team

Michael Ong (Design & Project Architect)
JCK & Associate Consulting Engineers
RSTM homes (builders)

Project Brief

The client’s brief was to design a home which played an active role in their everyday life, rather than a static shell. Our aim was to develop a design which engages with the rituals and the growth of this young family; blending the external and internal spaces to create movement and life in the environment.

Formally, the house is made up for a timber box which sits gently above a low masonry clad ground level. Within the ground level are all the 'shared' spaces, that is, the living room, kitchen, dining and study. The floor plan is carefully position to allow maximum natural light throughout the house. This is achieved by bringing the garden into the the centre of the of house to form a central courtyard. While, above within the timber clad box houses all the 'private' areas of the house, each bedroom is orientated to capture the Melbourne city skyline.

Project Need

Located on the elbow of the street, the site is sandwiched between two suburban houses and common practice when it comes to locating a suburban house on a site, is to start at the centre of the plot and enlarge the footprint until the space required is met. Typically remaining on the side of the site is a two narrow strips of unusable landscape and a standard suburban backyard. The backyard’s intention is to give the occupants a sense of connectivity to the outside, however because of poor orientation and spatial planning, the garden is often under valued, resulting in a passive relationship with the interior.

In HANS-house, instead of standing next to the backyard, the form cradles and pulls the landscape in and to the centre of the house. Giving the landscape a stronger presence in the overall design of this home.

The backyard shares the rear of the site with the living room, the two spaces are divided by a large glass sliding door and a deep timber clad reveal. The depth of the timber reveal creates a handy seat for large family gatherings encouraging a natural flow between the two spaces.

Design Challenge

The best aspect of designing a home is your task as an architect is to design a place which the family can feel comfortable to be at home. Which when we think about this, a home is a place which we are emotionally connected to, its a growing and changing relationship which one family has with a building. We wanted to create a design which encourage this bond and this affection.

We look to design a house which not only met the required function of the clients brief, but a house which celebrated and highlighted the family's everyday rituals. The clients would take off their shoe as they entered their house, and have done so all their life. Though it may not seem much, we wanted to express this, so at the entry, the masonry wall enters the house to form a seat, offering the inhabitants a seat to remove their shoe. The external blockwork on the floor is reminder that this is a transition zone/ritual they make before arriving home.

By building a physical representation that is unique to this family, we hope to offer a bond between this family and this house.

Sustainability

Passive solar design is employed throughout the entire design, the large sliding doors to the north facing living rooms are framed in a deep timber reveal. The reveal doubles as a solar eave, providing the glass shelter from the hot summer sun, while in allowing the heat from the sun to hit the window in winter. The living room also contains a thick thermal curtain, which when pulled across isolates the room to capture all the solar heat.

Its very important to protect you west facing windows, the intense western sun can quickly heat up a room and force inhabitants to use AC to help regulate the temperature. In this project, we strategically located the majority of the western facade and windows behind a existing peppercorn tree, the shade from the tree reduces the heat load on the facade and helps protect the windows. It also gives each window a beautiful view of the tree's foliage.

Materials were carefully detailed to achieve the best result and minimum wastage. The windows and form of the timber box, was determined by the boards width, common construction method is the opposite, which results in a lot of waste.

Architecture - Residential - Constructed

Presented by:

This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow. The project must be constructed.

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