Victoria
The project reconceptualizes the Victorian terrace typology in response to the existing urban context. Sited on a narrow 4.6m wide plot, the ground is elevated to form a roof garden which reduces urban heat island effect and provide new space to support local ecology in an urban context.
Below the freeform timber roof is a hall like room with a kitchen, dining room, and entrance veranda reminiscent of the neighbourhood’s large factory lofts and Victorian church halls. The highly textured concrete internal wall provides thermal mass and improves the acoustic of the dining room. The ground floor is spatially organised around a circular snug with a central void which brings natural daylight and ventilation to the depth of the House.
The East and West façades are designed as a trellis for climbing plants with a generous entrance balcony acting as natural surveillance to the laneway and neighbouring public car park.
Award for Sustainable Architecture
Northcote House by LLDS is a provocative addition to the Westgarth context, drawing in key views and offering glimpses of an extraordinarily crafted internal environment. The three-level terrace house transforms a previously unused carpark on a service lane with its street address composed of exposed skeletal roof eaves floating between the two boundary walls, with hints of the undulating surfaces of the roof garden above.
Loaded with native planting, the roof acts as a thermal blanket with strategically placed skylights punctuating the ceiling ribs to bring light through the open stairwell to the library at ground level.
The jury was impressed with the explorations that David and Paul have been able to execute as the clients, architects, owner builders, and researchers for this meticulously crafted and holistically considered home. Materials were considered for their longevity, thermal performance, and honesty, with very few finishing surfaces evident. The house further expresses sustainability ambitions and outcomes by integrating design for deconstruction and advanced manufacturing processes and Passivhaus principals seamlessly to create highly crafted spaces and solutions.
Northcote House demonstrates a refreshing approach to local, low-embodied energy materials and an ongoing commitment to testing how the integration of sustainable building systems can enhance the lived experience.
The house is an experiment for us to live differently in the city. It borrows amenities from the context; the kitchen is deliberately small to make use of the neighbouring grocery stores and eateries; the facade is a vertical garden allowing our neighbours climbers to take over.
It gives back to the neighbourhood providing natural surveillance to the laneway and the brown roof supports local ecology and increases water retention onsite (with 3,200L water tank), producing less pressure on the existing storm water system. It fulfills our aspiration (as both architect and a client) to live within a minimal footprint.
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
