Recent News
Design concepts for Trafalgar House in Annandale
Sensitive alterations and a new rear addition to a freestanding house in a heritage conservation area are carefully composed to provide significant additional room for a growing family. Remaining intact, the front primary form will be sympathetically restored and refurbished to enhance its historic character, while the form of the new addition purposely defers to established conditions of the original house in the manner in which it is sub-ordinate to and springs from it – at a macro level and in contemporaneous interpretation of particular elements and details.
The addition incorporates numerous sustainability measures inclusive of high levels of wall, slab, ceiling and roof insulation and thermally-efficient double glazing to achieve a 7-star rating – as well as, low carbon concrete, hydronic in-slab heating, an electric instantaneous hot water system, a PV solar system for renewal energy generation with battery storage, and underground water storage for re-use in the house and landscape. The original front half will also incorporate new roof, ceiling, and floor insulation to greatly improve its energy efficiency and thermal comfort.
Leura House design concepts
Design concepts have been prepared for a new house on a greenfield site comprising of a series of brick pavilions which cascade down a highly complex two-way slope from the highest elevation in Leura. It is carefully sited and anchored to its land in the manner in which it negotiates and relates to existing surrounding levels to provide proximate connections to its encompassing landscape, while simultaneously emerging from its topography to amply capture daylight, air circulation, and commanding views of the Blue Mountains National Park to the north.
It integrates several sustainability measures inclusive of thermally-efficient double glazing, high levels of cavity wall, slab, ceiling and roof insulation to achieve a 7.6 star rating, a 14.5 kWh PV solar system for renewal energy generation with battery storage, 35,000 litres of underground water storage for re-use in the house and landscape, hydronic in-slab heating, energy-efficient radiator heating for private zones, a wood fireplace for the public zone, and future allowance for a supplementary heat recovery system.
Blue Mountains House visualisations underscore an inventive and modest off grid house in Mt Victoria
New visualisations of Blue Mountains House showcase its further design development and have now been uploaded in ‘Projects’.
A composition of pre-finished steel, low carbon fibrecement, and fireproof concrete meet the design performance required of a BAL FZ bushfire attack level, in unison with horizontally-sliding metal mesh screens, fire-rated thermally efficient double glazing, and vertically-retractable motorised screens to enable its envelope to be fully ‘shut down’ when unoccupied. A carefully controlled interior palette of burnished concrete, blackbutt timber boards, brushed stainless steel and galvanised steel reference the hues and tones of its setting while complementing the exterior materials.
It incorporates several off-grid measures including a solar system for power generation, 20,000 litres of underground water storage, under-floor heating, a small wood fire, and a heat recovery system to duct warm fresh air heated by exhaust air as needed.