PROJECT FEATURE Articles

A Sleek Family Home - Douglas Street House by Ashley Halliday Architecture

Words by Emma-Kate Wilson

Photography by Sam Noonan

Douglas Street House by Ashley Halliday Architecture emerges from the site as a series of minimalist interlocking blocks, combining inspiration from both European modernism Japanese contemporary architecture.

The house was designed as an intimate family home for a professional couple with two young children and an elderly tortoise, with the added request that the home be fit for a 1960s Bond villain. The result is a 300 square metre pavilion surrounded by natural park-like setting, in which architecture and landscape work to connect the family to their environment.

The architects worked with the clients to create a home that combines Japanese and European influences to appear like a house straight out of a 1960s Bond movie, complete with secret zones and connecting spaces.

Ashley Halliday Architecture drew on the site context and climate to create a design that allows for comfortable living. Layered ‘in-between’ spaces blurs the settings of individual rooms in a simple arrangement of interactive, meditative and service areas, configured around a central two-storey void. Spaces around this central point include a cellar, art, media space, garage and traditional tatami pavilion, as well as a traditional Japanese tea room or spare bedroom.

The house pulls in light and cross-ventilation, blending the indoor and outdoor spaces – creating a natural and welcoming setting for the family, their pets, and surrounding wildlife.

The build appears to balance on a series of irregular forms with a lightweight top box clad in colour bond metal, board-form concrete and spine walls and a charred cedar and glass form sleeved in underneath.

Sustainable design principles not only informed material and active equipment selections, but passive shading techniques drove the introduction of the building’s characteristic deep vertical shade-relief elements. The house opens up to allow natural light and ventilation with smart windows that connect the outdoors to internal spaces while maintaining the clients’ and neighbour’s privacy.

The house was designed as an intimate family home for a professional couple with two young children and an elderly tortoise, with the added request that the home be fit for a 1960s Bond villain.

Further sustainable design features also include a tilt-hinge slatted yakisugi awning system, and heavy-insulating polycarbonate wall cladding and double-glazing systems. Efficient hydronic in-slab heating technology and a smart-saver water pump minimise wasting precious resources. The architects also actively ensured that the client was well-informed, proud to be setting an example to their children, friends and family with their contribution towards a sustainable future.

Sustainability was vital to the design; the architects and clients wanted a home that inspired thinking and engagement with sustainable design principles.

The quietness, simplicity and intimacy of the tatami pavilion provide contrast and relief from the austerity and formality of the raw concrete entry façade and the active communal open space living areas. The timber ceiling panels in the entry hall accentuate an in-depth perspective visually framing and guiding through to an expansive light-filled and welcoming living space and garden setting.

Ashley Halliday Architecture drew on the site context and climate to create a design that allows for comfortable living.

Through the thoughtful utilisation of space, light, materials, and contrast, Douglas Street House crafts an experience that changes as one moves throughout the architecture. The result is certainly a design fit for a classic Bond villain – but also a home that prompts engagement with sustainable design principles.