A sustainable Margaret River house design with a small budget and compact site.
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A sustainable Margaret River house design with a small budget and compact site.
A Margaret River owner of this small block knew there was going to be some challenges from the outset. The brief included creating a Margaret River house design with two distinct living spaces on a constrained 360 square meter site. This led her to engage Margaret River architect Threadgold Architecture to bring her vision to life. With a small space to work in, the Margaret River architect required fresh thinking and passion for this Margaret River property. The owner’s desire to capitalize on the rise in airbnb accommodation and create two separate living spaces without an additional story required a fresh approach by the Margaret River architect.
The architectural layout by Margaret River architect Threadgold Architecture responds to the natural beauty of its Margaret River setting. The surrounding landscape provides a natural material palette of rammed limestone, locally sourced hardwood timbers, corrugated steel and weatherboard cladding. A long rammed limestone spine wall extends from the front entry pivot door through the architectural spatial layout. The rammed limestone wall provides a sense of solidity and strength and also provides pragmatic benefits of thermal mass for the passive solar house design.
The central gallery-style hallway with highlight windows in the heart of the home, connects entry and juxtaposed living spaces. The hallway highlight windows generate an ever-changing play of light in the Margaret River house design throughout the day. Cut-outs in the floor plans and raking ceilings ensure that the architectural design conforms to passive solar design principles. Each living space having the potential for solar heat gain during the cooler winter months.
The owner’s brief provided to the Margaret River architect placed significant importance on environmentally sustainable design. Passive solar design principles and energy-efficiency due to the residence’s latitude and location. This margaret river house design cleverly achieves passive solar principles on a difficult north-to-south orientated site. Each juxtaposed living space catches the winter heat gain, when the sun is at its lower azimuth, and eliminates the worst of the summer heat gain. The Margaret River architect also incorporated hallway highlight windows that maximise natural light through the daylight hours and vent stale hot air along the rammed limestone spine through ‘stack effect’ ventilation. The Margaret River architect also strategically located fenestration to maximise cross-ventilation and the adjustable Vergola roof cover to the court ensures that the owner can enjoy indoor-outdoor living throughout the wet season.