Given difficulty of access we decided on lightweight timber prefabricated construction.
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The brief was for a small dwelling on a back section with difficult access below the existing house. Originally a stream valley the site seemed idyllic with many mature native trees. but the stream had been piped along with council sewage and stormwater infrastructure and filled in which made it difficult and expensive to prepare a suitable building platform. Given difficulty of access we decided on lightweight timber prefabricated construction.
The design concept utilises small building volumes to allow tuning on site to existing topography, sun aspect, trees and services.
The primary volume is a 30m² space for living & services (kitchen,dining,living and bathroom/laundry) orientated north-west to maximize afternoon sun. A smaller volume houses the bedroom separated by a link that provides additional storage and allows independent orientation, acoustic and visual privacy.
We celebrated the qualities of natural plywood and organic click-raft geometries to craft a poetic lightweight timber structure offset against black stained wall panels, bright chromatic colour panels, polycarbonate and glass walls. The twist in plan between volumes extends the sense of space essential in such a small house, as do the click-raft ceiling, the layered timber lattices and red coloured panels in the kitchen.
The project utilises digital documentation and computer numerically controlled fabrication technology to enable high quality control of dimensions and tolerances as well as efficient production of off-site components to reduce construction timeframes. Sub-assemblies, wall and floor cassettes were all fabricated at the Makers Factory and carried in by hand for on-site assembly.