Project Description

The ‘Live Work Share House,’ was envisaged as a prototype for flexible and adaptable housing. In addition to a five bed house it includes a seven station office space and a one-and-half bed self-contained flat. The investigation of this housing typology was to support sensitive and sustainable densification of the suburbs and the expansion of options for housing and work accommodation within them. The density of the project was coupled with the idea of a mini tropical village immersed in greenery. The building was pulled apart into a series of single room deep pavilions assembled around a central courtyard and separated by ‘micro-courtyards.’ This strategy enabled a high level of amenity to all parts of the project simultaneously providing a green outlook, excellent passive ventilation and yet a high level of privacy. It also enhanced flexible planning with many options for how the projects could be occupied. (ie. the spare bedroom could become part of the office / rumpus another office etc).

Of high importance was an appropriate contextual response and contribution to the street and neighbourhood. While a courtyard plan often comes at the expense of connection to the street, both street frontages were addressed and activated by the studio and the flat respectively, meaning the live, work and share components all have independent and clearly visible entries. The studio entry courtyard and interior can directly engage with the busy reserve it addresses by opening a sliding batten screen. The flat has a playful and dramatic contribution to the street in the form of spiral stair / super scale lantern and associated balcony. 

The highly articulated pavilion form achieves a scale commensurate with that of the humble cottages adjacent and the pitched roofs echo the same. Solid front fences have been eschewed and the generous gardens, enabled by a site cover of only 40%, spill out onto the street verges. At the studio end the garden is enhanced by a large arbour covered in a flowering vine. These gardens have been a great conversation starters with passing locals. 

Sustainable design informed all decisions as per the Sustainability Statement.

The cost of project was kept well below that of architectural builds of a similar complexity by a number of decisions:

• sweat equity. The selection of a forgiving interior finish enabled us as owners to coat all the plywood, cabinetwork fronts and floors. Also the concrete polishing and belt sanding and oiling of the hardwood was taken out of the contract.
• second-hand hardwood from a demolition yard was purchased at the fraction of the price of new hardwood and provided long lengths of large sections (without using old growth forest)
• use flat fibreglass sheet to create extremely cost effective balustrading screening
• slab-on ground construction with out retaining
• the use standard aluminium joinery in combination with timber.
• most timber doors supplied as sashes only installed onsite with rough sawn hardwood stops and heads. Reveals and brush seals installed on site.
• extensive use of Ikea flatpack cabinets and some sanitary fixtures and sinks