Two Storey home in the burbs.

The purchase of an existing family home (for demolition) on a corner lot allows for a subdivision and the sale of a spare lot to help finance the build of a new double storey family home positioned to take best advantage of it's northern side.  The existing high fence line is kept allowing full privacy of the living courtyard with a pool in the front yard making full private use of the large intruding front setbacks instead of wasting it in front garden.  This brings all our outdoor open space together in a larger usable area.  The rear of the building has minimum setbacks, enough for a concealed drying area.

Clients wanted the entry to one street whilst the garage is accessed from the side street. The porch walk forms the division between public accessible space to the front door and the corner gardens, fenced off from the private spaces.

The look is regal, quiet but confident understatement. The client has a home office that overlooks the front garden and entry. The house faces the east so smaller windows that are less vulnerable to sun penetration when you don't want it and a pergola for deciduous planting to protect a larger living room window all create a sense of privacy whilst ensuring a better energy use and comfort outcome for the home.

Inside the home opens up to large spaces with living areas on the northern side with large windows to capture winter sun and allow deep entry into the home. 

• Large lounge, with additional large theatre room upstairs overlooking the pool
• Large dining area with kitchen having a hidden scullery and pantry area overlooking the pool
• Master suite with large WIR and ensuite
• 2 large bedrooms with their own bathroom and toilet
• Additional guest suite and study downstairs.
• Alfresco area with balcony above overlooking the pool
• Laundry with large linen cupboards
• Double garage

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Unfortunately the quality of my images has been negatively affected by Autodesk making changes to their rendering system and not for the better.  They've done if a number of times without really improving their product. I am quite distressed by it.  However it has made me finally give up on doing everything in the one package and experiment with other solutions.

In exploring solutions that I hope to be a part of future offerings for Grandesign projects I created these walkthroughs of this home but they are very amateur and poor quality.  I have much to learn.  Walk around and inside  Walk around outside  

This video is a fixed camera showing how the sun does not enter the home in summer, keeping the heat out, but in winter, the sun floods the home during the day bringing in lots of warmth and light.  This is a premium intention in my design philosophy, to create a comfortable home that reduces the need for heating and cooling because the correct orientation and placement of windows ensures the environment works for and with you, even inside the house.  Sun Study

Additional Room for existing double storey home.

 

The existing home required some internal additions of rooms to including a new master suite and two new bedrooms for upstairs and a rendering of the existing brick walls for a new painted facade to give it a fresh face.

Sweet simple two storey home overlooking the forest.

This home on a new subdivision on the edge of a country town very well known as a holiday tourist destination overlooks national forest.  The client brief required separate access to a self contained master suite which may be used as a bed and breakfast during the tourist season but the clients will enjoy the main view with their living area upstairs in an open living dining kitchen space with vaulted ceilings and a balcony.
The upstairs space also exists to the north side to a landing and stairs down to the backyard and a second alfresco area which adjoins the guest suite.

Windows on the north side with an eave will allow winter penetration of sun whilst excluding summer sun however the large window to the east will be an issue.  Beautiful for sun rises over the forest but may need some thick curtains to prevent overheating the home early on a summer day.
This compromise is often necessary when a fantastic outlook is not 'to the north' and you want more glass to a less than ideal 

Another two bedrooms on the ground floor share a bathroom.
There is a garage for one car, space behind for another vehicle and a parking space in front of the garage and to the side to allow a little extra parking.

Child Care Facility

We attempted a renovation on the original timber framed residence around 100 years old but the costs were so high it was worth considering a new build but the clients were keen on recreating something of the old world charm of Australia's settlement past. 

So together we have created a new building that maximizes the available space, satisfies requirements for staff and customer parking, outdoor play areas including a large wide verandah and is of a much larger building with generous spaces within for office admin use, a large kitchen and eating area and two large separate play areas to work for two age groups.  High ceilings, large stacking doors leading from the play areas out to the outdoor play areas make the overall suitability for it's customized use plus the advantages of a high performance energy efficient building make the decision a sound one.  A new build also brings a much reduced ongoing maintenance bill as methodology and materials perform at a much higher standard.  Wall and ceiling insulation reduce heating and cooling bills, modern electrical installation and low power and long lasting LED lighting just add to the overall performance.

The original old home with a small amount of renovation was the original plan however costs to bring it up to current code requirements for a commercial building with energy certification and needs as a childcare facility proved too costly.

Dream by the beach

This project has still not reach a conclusion... unless it has.

An elevated lot with sweeping views across a park to the ocean with an existing awkward collection of different style buildings at different levels presented a significant design challenge.  Should it be demolished and leveled? Should parts of it be retained and engulfed in a new build?

Or should we wipe clean and start again?

The whole property front to back is a sand hill rising from 8 metres at the street to 11.74 at the house and then falling again to 6.5m at the back.  The existing house itself steps down from it's 11.74 front section to 11.21 bedroom wing and then down to 9.21 garage level.

Bit exaggerated. Those hills in the middle were a pick up of gutters to the existing house but you get the idea of the slope.

The client wanted to engage elements of energy efficient design and I have always practiced good principles of Passive Solar Design. The street front facing the ocean was south east, not ideal for lots of glass.  North was at roughly a 45 degree angle to the rear, overlooking the neighbour. Not where you want lots of glass.
PSD engages the orientation of the building, glass and eave to north, minimal protected glass elsewhere.  Here we could have to engage construction techniques to create a more strictly controlled atmosphere within the home including sealing the building.  Harder with renovating an existing building but not impossible.

One good thing was that extensive solar panels would be at the rear of the roof shapes.

The lot was narrow for a large home where you want maximum windows to the ocean view plus access down the side to the rear garage.

The client wanted to incorporate features for possible future wheel chair access which does have an impact in designing a house on a sand hill.

Our first attempt was to demolish the front section, retaining the now unapprovable higher floor level and mesh in with the rear bedroom wing section that never matched the front section anyway and creating a connection to the rear garage

We dropped the garage and settled for a smaller deck

My first idea was a new garage at the front that we could roof as an entertaining open deck.

The existing front house was not at the same angle as the bedroom wing, being off by only around 12 degrees.  Neither were square to the side boundary which was built with a raised wall for privacy.

There were so many awkward elements that it was a real challenge to get old and new to work together coherently

In the end, as the brief developed, including introducing wheelchair access it became apparent that renovating the existing building was not going to produce the best outcome and a wipe of the exiting house buildings, loss of the higher floor level and allowing a new 2 storey home design at the one level would bring a more satisfactory result rather than struggling with the existing 'features'.  We could still retain the double garage at the much lower level to the rear.

So where did we go next?
To Part 2 of this story. 
TBA