04 McGunnigle Shack

by Mishack

Mishack Architects have designed conceptual home inspired by the owners love for mid-century architecture, who fell in love with The Kaufmann House if Palm Springs by architect Richard Neutra.

With a mandate to create a budget conscious house, Mishack have achieved a simple yet stunning design of modular layouts with easy follow through construction and middle market approach to the fixtures, fittings and finished throughout.

Spatially, the layout of the house needed to be able to adapt to the growing needs of a family of five, with a future plan of building over the rear carport to create a separate retreat for the adults, to handover the main house to the growing brood of children.

The shack characterises simple easy flow layouts, with seamless integration of main indoor and outdoor areas to allow easy expansion and enable multiplicity of uses depending on climate, activity or event required for each space at the time.

Architects were also briefed by the clients, that the house needed to have the spirit of a mid-century aesthetic, in order to align with (but not mimic entirely) the love they had for the infamous Kaufmann House and American Diner styled breakfast booths.

Other drivers for the design concept of this house included the desire for an open living space, which would be flooded with natural light and a seamless integration with the main outdoor living area. A central passage was designed to act as a simple access spine delineating and connecting both the private and the communal spaces, with an easy transition.

The northern orientation of the main indoor and outdoor living spaces also allows for much needed natural light to shine through each space. Due to the sites excellent solar north facing orientation, and the longest sides of the house being north and south flanked, a solar passive design was incorporated into the design, which works efficiently in proving the right type of light when needed and keeps the house at the right temperature throughout the different seasons of the year.

At the request of the clients, an atypical double garage at the front of the house was left out of the final design. Instead, a laneway at the side of the house was created to double as landscaping, with only the tyre runs to be paved in order to access the double carport at the rear of the house, which comes with a space to store a small boat.

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