Optimised Aspect – House 15/75 by Allied Office

Replacing an existing and ill-fitting home on the same site, House 15/75 was the result of extensive consultative studies as to the best proposal, from a sustainable, aesthetic and environmental perspective. Allied Office responds to the optimum orientation of the site, while ensuring a sense of privacy and enclosure are created for its young family.

Home to a family of four, House 15/75 nestles into inner Sydney’s Randwick and replaces an existing home. While the tendency and preference has always been to retain the existing, and maintain and reduce the embodied energy in place, this exception saw a thorough and extensive evaluation into whether this option was viable. With little heritage character to maintain, and a home that didn’t respond to the surrounding context or embrace orientation for solar gain or comfort, the decision was then made to demolish and rebuild thoughtfully. Allied Office draws on an in-depth understanding of the surrounding context and conditions in conjuring the new home, which now crisply engages with its environs.

Allied Office draws on an in-depth understanding of the surrounding context and conditions in conjuring the new home, which now crisply engages with its environs.

In response to the unique site and the existing neighbours flanking either side of the home, the proposal seeks to optimise privacy and direct views accordingly, both into and out of the home. Built by Grosser Constructions, House 15/75 takes a non-traditional approach in how it engages with its site. Instead of presenting a form aligned with the streetscape with a symmetrically proportioned face, the home instead twists and angles itself based on how the home and its openings need to function. Focusing on a considered connection to the landscape, openings allow for cross ventilation internally and a level of natural comfort within the home, while ensuring natural light enters and illuminates the spaces across the seasons.

In preserving as much of the original home as was practically possible, the materials from the existing structure were salvaged and recycled, while the existing sandstone footings were reused as the basement walls of the new home. Integrated water catchment tanks allow for a reuse internally, as does the energy captured from the photovoltaic panels that blanket the roof. Comprised of three main materials, the home and its structure work to actively reduce the running costs and absorb additional energy over time. The result sees double-brick used for its undulating texture, thermal mass and warmth, while thermally modified timber adds an element of softness and the 25-millimetre-thick aluminium sheets add a sharpened focus that, through the process of laser cutting, references a Federation-era styled motif element.

In response to the unique site and the existing neighbours flanking either side of the home, the proposal seeks to optimise privacy and direct views accordingly, both into and out of the home.

By starting from the ground up, and through its consciously considered approach, Allied Office’s House 15/75 emerges as the reformed version of its previous self, taking lessons from the previous home and reinstating solutions with purpose.