Aperture House (s)

by SSD Studio

The Aperture House(s) by SSD Studio are a pair of mirrored two storey townhouses built to replace an existing dwelling for intergenerational living located in Bondi Beach, NSW.

The unique houses are an innovative and sustainable housing model for the future that uses land and materials more economically while still providing spacious and light filled homes for an elderly couple and a young family.

The Aperture Houses by SSD Studio have been designed to have a generous street frontage with a striking yet simple aesthetic that draws inspiration from the Federation house and apartment typology so typical to the area, with a material palette that reflects the urban beachside setting.

Fundamentally sustainable building is about doing more with less. The Aperture House(s) are built on a smaller footprint, yet are still able to provide a sense of space and delight for the owners with privacy and connection to the rear garden. The layout of the design has optimised both the passive thermal comfort and natural ventilation to reduce active heating and cooling costs and has considered materials for both the embodied energy as well as their durability.

Designing a paired terrace house ( dual occupancy ) on a long narrow, NE – SW facing site meant that achieving good access to daylight for both homes was difficult. The design employed skylights and voids to bring daylight into the centre of the dwellings.

Initially the ground floor external walls were intended to be in face masonry to improve the thermal mass and dematerialisation of the project, with the first floor being clad in Accoya timber that was left to weather naturally.

The face block and Accoya cladding proved to be cost prohibitive so the masonry walls were changed to lightweights and the cladding changed to permatimber, an Engineered Cladding. Accoya was still used for the rear, north facing sliding screens and front fence.

The Aperture House(s) by SSD Studio are a pair of environmentally sustainable residential dwellings that offer cost effective design solutions whilst maintaining aesthetically pleasing architectural elements.

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