House of Tomorrow
Rethinking the future of Suburbia : Sustainability, Affordability, Community and Safety
What is the house of the future and the suburb it creates?
Every year there are less detached houses built compared to apartments. The Australian Dream of owning your own HOME didn’t really mean your own apartment. The most common place of own home Suburbia has changed dramatically in appearance in the last 40 years. Larger houses, smaller blocks, less garden, yard and nature, Suburbia now resembles Urbia. Whilst the sustainability of new suburbs is worse than it ever was. Despite this it still makes up over 60% of all dwellings built each year. A sustainable future requires sustainable housing.
As the knock down and re-build market gathers pace, now is the time to re think our suburbs before
their original intent is lost forever.
The future aim of suburbia is
- increase sustainability
- increase affordability
- maintain community and safety
Design Response
Siting, Massing and Landscaped Area
The proposal accepts that the block is too large for one dwelling. The introduction of the party wall allows division of the site and more dwellings per m2.
The party wall can be down the middle (as is the case presented) or zig zag east west to create
differnent sized dwellings. Different sized dwellings increases variety and enhances affordability.
The party wall allows to centre the building mass in the middle of the site. The aim is to increase
the side setbacks, 4m in this case. This eliminates the walls of defence that we see in McMansion
Land, re-establishing the openess of the 1970’s suburbs. This side space is now outdoor rooms for
occupation.
Smaller houses, 2 storey, use less land. The land remaining (as much as 60% of the site) can be used
for permaculture, grey and black water recycling, and single carport, separate outdoor courtyards
and the setbacks ensure passive solar design principles can work
Floor Plan
The floor plan is based on the traditional living areas downstairs, bedrooms upstairs. The room to the street is able to be a guest room, with a small bathroom added to the front this
room can be a studio.
Two separate living areas flow around a central service core. This enhances openess but maintains
the need for separate living quarters for families with children.
The kitchen dining room to the rear are part of a double height space with a visual and spatial link
to the upper floor study and hallway. Children can do homework on their computers whilst parents
still have the ability to supervise their activity online.
The double height space allows cross ventilation and the exposed party wall and its thermal mass
act as a heat sink for summer and a heat bank for winter.
Materials, Form and Construction
The single slope roof with various pitches minimises gutters and maximises rainwater collection. The
roof slopes down to the north to reduce overshadowing and angled best for solar cells for power
collection. The roof pitches can change to add variety between the dwellings. The intention is not to have a house divided in to 2 but rather two rowhouses working with each other.
The design uses 3 types of brick construction.
- 230mm party and garden walls. This runs the full length of the block and can zig zag or run
parallel depending on the dwellings required. Face brick this wall enhances the thermal mass of the
dwelling.
- 270mm cavity brick walls. These are exterior ground floor west, east or south facing walls. This
type is ideal for durabilty, and insultation both in summer and winter. The brick creates a humanistic
scale and a warmth.
- 250mm reverse brick veneer wall. These walls are the external first floor west, east and south
walls. The metal cladding and lightweight construction on the outside protects the interior from
summer heat and retains internal heat in winter. The lightweight cladding can be removed to repair services
Community and Safety
The large setbacks to the side combined with the carport create a deep visibility between buildings,
along with the smaller front setback and low walled courtyard this encourages people to use the
front of the house and thus maximise the chance for non planned communal interaction with
neighbours. Chance visits, children being able to see who is home all combine to allow people to
meet each other, through which a sense of community and safety is fostered.
Project Team : Matt Day
Status : Competition
Location : Sydney