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Isn’t sustainability about more than materials and
energy savings?
While the house is sustainable in terms of environment,
it is also sustainable in terms of its intellectual rigour
and in what the house offers the occupants and street
context. The ideas are strictly derived from the site,
orientation and the client. They’re good driving principles
for all architecture, whether it’s a house or a skyscraper.
If you do that, you have the vested interests of that
particular site and the client at heart. And you end up
with a more sustainable home.
Were there many challenges here that caused
you anxiety?
Trying to build a single-story home on land that has
a 1.7 metre fall from one side to the other was tough.
We’ve managed that because we cascaded and tiered
main programs in plan to follow that topography.
It’s one of those rare projects where things just went
smoothly and wish there were more like that.
What are some of the more rewarding characteristics
of glazing here?
The interesting part about this house is the way that glass
interacts with the other materials. Essentially we have
brick, glass and timber. They are a combination of
organic and man-made materials. Glass is a very
ephemeral, beautiful, shiny material, particularly in the
front entry, the main entry and also in the living room.
The idea is that because it’s west facing, whenever the
sun hits it, it’s going to respond in different ways
throughout the year. It’s also going to have some sort
of theatre in terms of how it responds to the trees and
people walking past. Glass was specifically chosen for
that, and to contrast and add a bit of a tension to the
other materials.