Functional Housing Pushing the Limits of Design

1. How does the project contribute to contemporary design practice?
This design tries to push the boundary of the concept of ‘traditional house’ while provide all the essence and amenities for normal daily life with highest quality. It also looks at the long term benefit rather than a short term cost saving.

2. Project philosophy and methodology
The use of natural light are carefully considered and manipulated. Every single room in the house is naturally lit and light well. The solar energy is well controlled for the benefit of the environment.

For our future and protect of our environment, we must stop urban sprawl. However, could we still maintain the quality of life and space raise the challenge to us? This project is born in this context and gives the answer from the designer to the challenge. This house demonstrates that the quality of space can be achieved even on this tight and irregular urban site.

The space volume and its transitions are given prime consideration maximum the contact to the nature. The design used the concept of ‘outdoor rooms’ which have strong link to the interior space to create a dialogue between the two so that they enhance each other. This idea is strongly influenced by the traditional Chinese courtyard house as well as the fusion of tropical architecture.

Once the outside spaces are treated as ‘rooms’, their dimensions become smaller or comparable those of the internal spaces and therefore, great space saving achieved. The concept of ‘backyard’ replaced with functional courts for kitchen and washing which are placed strategically at both ends of the house to bring the natural light into the house.

This project only uses the ‘conventional’ material and construction method, as well as a simple colour. The emphasis is the quality of the space rather than distracted by elaborated details.

3. Use of sustainable resources and principles
Australian weather allows the building enjoy more interaction between internal and external spaces. However, the energy saving is still one of my prime concern throughout the whole design and construction process. The building is well oriented in relation to the solar energy concern. It is well shaded in summer. There is no direct sun light inside the house. The only tree in the courtyard is strategically placed so that it protects the main bedroom from west sun in the summer. However, in the winter, 2/3 of the main rooms will have full sun on the thermal mass slab. The concrete slab is fully insulated underneath to stop heat loss in the winter. Double blind for the house and performance enhanced the glass are used to keep the heat out in summer and lock the heat inside in the winter.

4. Cost effectiveness
This house is not a cheap one in terms of the capital cost; however, it intends to have a long term benefit, especially in ESD terms. First, it has double insulation to the walls and roofs. It has thermal mass floor and performance enhanced glass. However, all the extra initial cost aims to boast the ESD performance of the building in the long run. Secondly, the design of the building is to emphasis on the quality of the architecture space seamless details which requires a strong structure system to support the idea.