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Vision Magazine
What is the key difference between this house
and many of its neighbours?
It’s a high performance house that makes the most
of its southerly aspect yet doesn’t ignore the north.
Its thermal envelope is a credible part of that design
solution rather than being forced or arbitrary. My
bottom line for this house is the importance of
re-use, so that this isn’t just an answer for a twostorey, beach house but the principles that work
equally well for an existing skyscraper in Sydney.
Adaptive re-use asks us to consider how we can rethink the possibilities with special products such as
those Viridian offers to re-imagine environmentally
responsible solutions.
How much of this project is the result of
pre-conceived ideas versus interpreting the
client’s aims?
A lot of the design response flows from the
three main principles that are primarily based on
research. My architectural practice responds across
three tiers of residential, multi-unit residential and
health-care. These smaller projects are a chance
to test ideas and so with Little Austinmer I looked
at how that existing massing could be reduced
and the relationship to the environment could be
strengthened within that existing envelope and
structure. One of my first objectives here was to
create a passive house in terms of extreme R-Values
in the walls, a very thermally efficient glazing
system and really tight air infiltration limits.
Is the interior more important than the exterior?
I prefer seamlessness wherever possible.
The Butterfly House