Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: Peaceful Canberra Home Welcomes the Winter Sun
This eco-smart design delivers far more than a family of four imagined it would
Before deciding to knock down their old, not very liveable house, in favour of building a new home, the owners of this stunning Canberra home had the needs of their young family in mind. They wanted a modern, family home where they could entertain, play and grow; a home that allowed them to spend time together but also seek privacy when needed.
“Sustainability and affordability were other key drivers, as well as a desire to maintain and enhance the beauty of the site,” says architect Adam Dettrick, who designed their new abode.
The block offered beautiful, peaceful views across rolling country towards a distant nature reserve, so it’s little wonder the family wanted to make the most of it. A diagonally sloped site presented the biggest challenge of the project for Dettrick, but that was overcome with some clever split-level design strategies.
“We had a tight budget, too, but often a tight budget brings out the best in client, architect and builder, and it certainly did in this project.”
“Sustainability and affordability were other key drivers, as well as a desire to maintain and enhance the beauty of the site,” says architect Adam Dettrick, who designed their new abode.
The block offered beautiful, peaceful views across rolling country towards a distant nature reserve, so it’s little wonder the family wanted to make the most of it. A diagonally sloped site presented the biggest challenge of the project for Dettrick, but that was overcome with some clever split-level design strategies.
“We had a tight budget, too, but often a tight budget brings out the best in client, architect and builder, and it certainly did in this project.”
The hallway is not completely closed off, ensuring a dialogue is maintained between each zone. The core of the home was designed to accommodate different uses of spaces as the family grows.
The walls and roof extend beyond the living areas at each end of the house to shelter a portion of the outdoor area and offer privacy to both occupants and neighbours.
The living areas open to the north at the rear. At the front they twist dramatically to the south-east, catching beautiful views over the street and across rolling country towards the Cuumbuen Nature Reserve in the distance.
“I love the way the living areas look north to harness the winter sun and address an elegant eucalypt at the rear,” Dettrick says.
The living areas open to the outside via large sliding stacker doors from AWS Vantage. These doors are thermally broken aluminium, with low-e double glazing to optimise energy efficiency and comfort.
Good passive design principles underpin this 6.7-star energy-efficient home. Appropriate levels of glazing are used to provide natural light without unwanted heat gain/heat loss caused by over glazing.
High levels of sustainability are a feature of all Adam Dettrick Architects projects, and Dettrick says this particular project has a focus on getting the passive design principles right to ensure energy efficiency and liability in the most economical way possible.
“The house is heavily insulated, well orientated and designed to offer great natural ventilation,” he says.
“The house is heavily insulated, well orientated and designed to offer great natural ventilation,” he says.
Unsurprisingly, the clients love their new home. “I always enjoy hearing how clients discover things about their house that they weren’t expecting or hadn’t thought would be so uplifting, like a particular view, or how much winter sun they get in their living room,” Dettrick says. “Even though we talk about many of these features in the design phase, experiencing with the real thing is often much more powerful than trying to imagine it.”
Internally, the kitchen and wall unit are Laminex Charcoal, with Quantum Quartz Bianco Venato Quartz benchtops. There are no handles on the cabinets in the kitchen to keep the look streamlined, the doors are push-to-open just like elsewhere in the house.
All the bedrooms have raked ceilings to allow north-facing highlight windows to bring in the sun. The highlight windows also combine with lower-level windows on the opposite wall to encourage natural air flow.
The bedroom wing includes a master bedroom with ensuite, together with second and third bedrooms, a main bathroom, and a multi-purpose music room/study/guest room.
The bedroom wing includes a master bedroom with ensuite, together with second and third bedrooms, a main bathroom, and a multi-purpose music room/study/guest room.
The ensuite benefits from the sculptural qualities of the Fienza Bahama stone bath and basin. Tiles are from RocksOn in Sydney.
As in the rest of the house, the bathroom cabinets are designed to be as simple as possible with no handles to clutter the clean lines. The Blum Tip-On ‘push-to-open’ system is used throughout for drawers and doors.
Wall-hung toilet: Caroma Cube
Wall-hung toilet: Caroma Cube
Dettrick dealt with the sloping site by using split-level decks to connect the living spaces with the rear. The lower deck was set just high enough to connect with a new terraced lawn area.
“The result was a flat lawn for the kids to play in, and two good-sized decks connecting with the house and looking over the lawn,” Dettrick says.
“The result was a flat lawn for the kids to play in, and two good-sized decks connecting with the house and looking over the lawn,” Dettrick says.
The steps are designed to be a semi-public space, where the daily comings and goings of the family are visible to engage the house and its occupants with the street life in the local area. The balcony also connects the house with the street, Dettrick says, but with privacy preserved by its Colorbond balustrade.
Exterior materials are utilitarian, chosen for their robustness, economy and beauty.
Dettrick says the house has been designed to have a “long life and loose fit” with flexible, adaptable and multi-use spaces suited to the family’s changing living patterns and size.
Who lives here: A young family of four
Location: Narrabundah, an inner suburb of Canberra
Size: 190 square metres; 3 bedrooms plus guest/music room and 2 bathrooms
To start with, the architect split the house into separate sleeping and living zones and linked them together with a shared hallway.