VISION 48 — LIGHT HOUSE
Madeleine Blanchfield discusses the challenges and her
answers in search of the great Australian dream:
Why enter the competition?
We got an email inviting architects
to enter and at the eleventh hour I decided it was worth
doing because it’s a genre that I’m really interested in.
I think project housing hasn’t had a shakeup for quite
a while. We do bespoke houses, so it felt like something
we could potentially contribute to.
VISION
MADELEINE BLANCHFIELD
Suburbia has been somewhat neglected by architects.
Was this a chance for you to offer a meaningful
alternative to the standard masonry and tile box?
I think so. We learned a lot by doing single houses,
that can be applied to the multiple housing market.
Project housing often doesn’t get that level of attention
from architects because it’s quite expensive to have an
architect working on a house. We thought if we could
transfer some of our knowledge to project homes,
it was worth doing.
What are some of the qualities of this house that
separate it from its neighbours?
Fundamental to our design and to all our house designs
is orientation, correct sun-shading and thermal mass.
The real issue with putting a design on any site, as project
homes normally do, is not being able to adjust and face
north with living areas that open to the sun.
How do you address that?
Our design is in two pieces which can be combined
in different ways depending on the orientation of the
site. So it’s always got northerly aspect, it’s always got
the correct eaves, and living areas always open onto
the garden.