Thinking Paddock House is a family home designed by Open Creative Studio to meet the specific needs of the clients.

After living in the same house for 35 years, the clients, now empty nesters, decided in 2016 to move to a property where they could spend their remaining years looking across Ralphs Bay as the view of Kunanyi/Mt Wellington changed before their eyes.

Having grown up in the neighbourhood, one of the clients had an emotional connect with the landscape and regional style of buildings. The other client wanted the home to be as efficient as possible without compromising thermal performance, especially in winter. The brief, therefore, sought a design that would not only focus on high building performance but also fit in with the surrounding landscape.

Despite the colder months in Tasmania combined with strong South-Westerly winds, the house maintains a cosy temperature inside by utilising a robust building envelope. The framing in the external walls consists of 140mm timber studs with double the thickness of standard insulation and timber framed double glazed windows from BINQ’s Archetto Series. The roof insulation is also thicker than standard with 290mm high-performance roof batts.

With an 8kw solar power system on the roof powering their hydronic heating system, and passive cross-flow ventilation in summer, the house maintains a comfortable temperature year-round with the owners receiving credits on their power bills. They also have an onsite septic system and only use rainwater harvested off the roof.

The house features materials that reference items the clients found during an initial design meeting on the block. These include dried grass, bark, eucalyptus, cast iron, and mudstone. Internally, salvaged timber from a family barn, recycled timber floorboards, and bagged brick allow the farmhouse aesthetic to flow from outside to inside.

Awards: ArchTeams's People's Choice Award 2021

Photographed by: Max Combi

Architecture & Design Team

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