Design Brief

The clients are a couple who run their own building company and wanted to create two contemporary inner city townhouses that would display the quality of finish that they, as builders wanted to present to their prospective clients.

The development had a dual purpose of providing short term homes of 3 -5 years, then to be sold so they can move on to their next development.

The simple, fairly open brief asked Form + Function Building Design and Drafting Consultants to design a 3 large bedrooms plus a home office for their building business, maximum use of natural light, large alfresco areas, easy care gardens in a lock up and leave style.

Their own house was to be ultra contemporary in style while the other house, which was to be for one of the client’s mothers was to be slightly less so.

The original site in North Perth overlooked a large parkland area. The axis was east-west with and easterly frontage of 18.32m and a depth of 49.43m giving and overall site area of 905m2. A sewer line ran across the rear of the site and was central to a 3.5m wide easement.

An existing typically Perth styled 1960's cream brick and blue-black roof tile residence sat centrally on the site.

Design Solution

It was decided that a side-by-side development with both homes having a street frontage provided the best option rather than Councils preferred battleaxe style subdivision. This resulted in two 452m2 sites with 9.16m frontages.

After 18 months of negotiations with the Council and appeals to the State Administrative tribunal, unconditional approval for the design was granted.

The site was subdivided to allow for 2 two storey green titled houses.

Each home comprises 3 large bedrooms upstairs with the Master suite at the front with a large Balcony overlooking the extensive parklands opposite.

A large home office is situated near the entry and acts as a space from which the clients run their building business.

Material Considerations

The site being only 9.16m wide presented challenges to ensure sufficient natural light was able to penetrate the homes. To achieve this, large light courts were incorporated, one behind the entry and the other between the Office and Dining to the side of the Kitchen, which floods these areas with north light.

Large glazed areas flow through the Kitchen, Dining and Family areas and out through bi-fold doors to the large Alfresco's, which are fully fitted out with an outdoor kitchen complete with a pizza oven.

 

This article was written with the assistance of Building Designers Australia.