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Courtyard House is located in the leafy suburb of Hawthorn an eastern suburb of Melbourne.
The house is perceived to be completely original from the front, I think anyone who passes by has
no sense of any form of addition which was exactly what we wanted to achieve.
What is deceiving about this property is it's nearly 700 square meter block, so it's
a standard suburban site and by the planning of the courtyard house which is 220 square metres,
it's actually a very generous property with specifically placed outdoor spaces.
We were fortunate enough to have the client approach us based on being shortlisted in the
previous design award. They were impressed by a house that we designed that was very modest but
in their opinion symbolised contemporary Japanese architecture and lifestyle.
The brief from them really came about adapting
that ideology to this site with a focus on outdoor spaces.
The design lends itself to creating an incision into the existing floor plan
or the the mass of the existing house and planning a living space that is north facing
around a central courtyard which reads very holistically once you're within the house.
The house is specifically designed around passive design principles. Primarily orientation, external
sun shading, the entire envelope of the house is very considered in its thermal performance,
so we've got electric heat pump powering, hydronic underfloor slab,
there's nearly six kilowatts of solar on the roof and provision for a solar battery in the future.
The entry of the house is specifically meant to feel very intimate and quiet.
The beautiful ambient light from the skyline and then just that saturation of timber in
that entry creates a beautiful ambience so there's a sensory experience upon arrival.
Once you step into the entrance hallway you quickly look directly to the very back of
the house and see the backdrop of bamboo on the south boundary in the rear courtyard.
The east facing link let's call it was very much planned to become a study slash flexible
yoga space. As you move into the real living space you have a beautiful framed window which is almost
a picture frame again looking to the backdrop of bamboo and also the stones specifically placed in
the garden. In the south facing courtyard then became more of an outlook and a place to sit.
There's also the sliding doors that are immediately adjacent to the kitchen
area so the idea would be that in the right weather the kitchen becomes an outdoor space.
Part of our practices belief is about planning from the inside out.
Although we may not design landscape directly we're always considering
orientation and then vantage points to the outside.
The timber screens were an obvious cue from classical and contemporary Japanese design.
It's the detail that we've developed in the past and previous projects and we felt was
particularly relevant to this project. The idea around the screens is primarily sun shading
but the opportunity to control light and what we really understood from our previous project
where we prototype this screen detail is we never quite understood how beautiful it would
be to actually have the screens closed and the windows open and to actually be able to enjoy
that breeze and cross ventilation while still getting protection from the sun.
The beauty of the screens which is very much a bonus is that during the morning
you get to watch the sun path and map beautiful shadows across the east facing room and then into
the living area. Again it becomes just part of the daily ritual to enjoy those shadows cast and
watch them move and create a very dramatic and quite beautiful morning experience.
There is a heritage overlay over the streetscape, there's a covenant that is specific to this house.
We were required to maintain the entire presence of the house from the streetscape and the existing
house facade was restored and repaired to original condition and all the original led
light windows were salvaged and incorporated into new double glazed windows throughout the house.
For functional reasons we incorporated blackbutt timber as the spaces of choice for the project.
The timber floors internally and all the screens are in blackbutt and then
a very simple palette internally of painted white bricks and a burnished concrete slab.
In moving the house forward and creating continuity in the palette of timber throughout
the project we elected to use Tassie oak as the primary timber species throughout the interior,
it's reflected a contemporary Japanese aesthetic and it was accessible and sustainable
for an Australian project. The beauty of timber is its honest texture and warmth
and tactility. The operation of the screens and again the daily ritual
opening and closing them each day and connecting with it's really beautiful.
A big part of the design brief was the onsen which was incorporated into the main ensuite, so
it was very much an experiential opportunity to have an outlook from the onsen.
We had this concept of a threshold which was
almost like a greenhouse or a garden before the main courtyard revealed.
The onsen is designed around a view to this private garden within screens.
The client's awareness or belief in zen principles certainly underpin the project
and was consistent with our design ideology so really basic principles of simplicity,
asymmetry - these were key undertones to I suppose every aspect of the project.
I'm most proud for the reason that it is a very specific heritage solution. It's unashamedly
moving forward in a very contemporary design but it's also embedding really particular
passive design principles and sustainability. Those sustainable principles are very inherent
in the design and they're also very much part of the ethos of the project.
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