Image Credit : Matt C
Project Overview
Terracotta house is an exemplar of a typical suburban family home done well. The owners are a young family. They wanted to redevelop the site of their family home so that they could continue to live in the neighbourhood with great schools, parks, and other amenities at a stone’s throw. They wanted a house that suited their personality and served their future needs as children grow up and family needs evolve.
Wide site frontage offered the opportunity to create more street interaction and a balanced finishes palette interspersed with large windows of habitable spaces providing distant views and connection to the street.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Lead Architect: Gaurav Rajadhyax
Interior Designer: Chelsea Yu
Project Brief
James and Chelsea are a professional couple with a young child and a dog. James runs a domestic building company while Chelsea is a budding interior designer. They have lived in Mount Waverley for a few years and love the leafy character and convenience of the nearby primary school, shops, and parks. They wanted to continue living in the area but wanted the house to sustain their changing needs of expanding their business and growing family. Their brief was to design a house that met their spatial requirements but also felt delightful to live in and work from. They wanted a house that feels timeless and perfect for quaint times as well as in entertainment mode. The house also had to exemplify the capabilities of James’ building company to his future clients.
Project Innovation/Need
Terracotta House is an exemplar of great design in a suburban context!
The hero of this house is the vibrant terracotta cladding balanced with black timber and metal cladding. The interior finishes palette is composed of sturdy and durable yet aesthetically pleasing materials such as natural hardwood timber and stone. Earthy render finishes balanced with the sharpness of powder-coated metal features.
Design Challenge
Adopting a young family's day-to-day living requirements and future adaptability efficiently is a challenge as is. The team at R ARCHITECTURE also had the challenge of designing the house to exemplify the capabilities of James’ building company to his future clients, not to mention within a budget.
Sustainability
The design of Terracotta House incorporates various sustainability strategies. With most of the living spaces facing east and north, the house takes the most advantage of the site's orientation thereby applying this effective passive house design principle. Large double-glazed windows facing mainly north and east with sun-shading features incorporated in the design provide plenty of daylight access to living spaces while controlling internal temperatures. It features natural cladding materials such as terracotta and timber which have long lifespans and are easy to maintain. They are also recyclable at the end of life, which further reduces the house's environmental footprint. Rainwater harvesting and solar electricity reduce dependency on fossil fuel energy and provide greener energy solutions to the occupants.
Architecture - Residential - Constructed
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.
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