This house in The Hills District of Sydney was designed for a retired couple and built as a secondary dwelling on the couple’s son and daughter-in-law’s property. A simple design with one bedroom, Fundamental House features two connected pavilions – one for living and one for sleeping – and a skillion roof that slopes gently up from front to back.
Architects Sandbox Studio worked with the owners to choose a site for the building in a place that had minimal impact and clearing of trees, and used passive design principles (north orientation, high thermal mass, and cross-ventilation).
Bushfire zoning limited the external material choices to brick, steel, stone and glass, and the two wings of the house have a different cladding. The bedroom pavilion (with bathroom and walk-in robe) is solid in recycled bricks, whereas the more open and light living / dining / kitchen pavilion is clad in a contrasting metal sheet.
The living room opens out to the paved terrace and courtyard – a space created between the two pavilions, while the kitchen looks out to a cottage garden and the south entry to the property.
“To make the small-footprint home feel generous, we gave it high ceilings and lots of windows so every part of the house projects towards a view. The separation of the pavilions, fanning out by 30 degrees, helps the courtyard feel expansive but part of the house,” says Luke Carter, Sandbox Studio.
As well as passive design principles, Sandbox Studio installed solar roof panels, rainwater tanks for irrigation and firefighting (37,500 litres total), double-glazed windows and high-performance insulation, and a composting septic tank.
Restricted to 60 square metres by law as it is a secondary dwelling, this house nevertheless provides a comfortable, sustainable and aesthetically-pleasing solution.
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