House Designs
Alterations and additions to an existing home If you are considering an extension, try to limit structural alterations of your existing home where possible. Building your addition away from your home and linking it with a smaller structure such as this glazed access path is one way to do this. Traditionally the link is lower in height than the home under renovation and the new structure, so it fits neatly under the existing gutters, meaning there’s no need to make changes to the exiting roof. In the floor plan of this home, the link can be clearly differentiated from the existing home and the new additions to the rear. Try to restrict the changes you make to the existing home to cosmetic changes, such as a new bathroom and kitchen or painting. In other words, try to work with what you have and don’t structurally touch what’s there if you don’t have to.
Chair essentials Just two comfortable chairs covered in beautiful fabric (like this navy and blue chevron) can bring a porch to life, particularly at the entry to the house, while also not dominating the area. Add a side table for a cup of tea, a good novel, some candles and a beautiful potted plant and you have a wonderfully inviting spot to watch the world go by.
Lara says that a home small enough to fit on a trailer bed will always have a relatively low environmental footprint, especially if it uses recycled local timbers and off-grid systems. Andrew has begun to plant a lush sub-tropical garden around the house, which most likely means they will set their roots in this spot for a while before moving on again.
Lara says there are already many fun stories about life in their first tiny house. One of her favourite was the time they spent living in it at the Woodford Folk Festival. “While everyone else was camping in muddy tents we were set up in pretty luxurious conditions with a shower, cooking facilities, comfy bedding and all the while in the heart of the action,” she says.
When the couch is moved, the tyres are visible. The house is classified as a caravan, which removes some of the hurdles of living off-grid – for example paying for town services that you may not use, which a caravan isn’t required to do – and also gives the homeowners the flexibility to move the house within or between properties.
Having the deck as an additional living space added onto their home, has made the tiny house lifestyle even more enjoyable for the pair. The couch pictured here fits perfectly over the exposed tyres of the house’s trailer. Andrew is planning to add a breakfast bar to this external side of the window, to provide an optional external dining space.
The modular deck off the side of the house was a key element to help expand the space, and is one of the couple’s favourite features. If the couple want to change their destination, it takes about two hours to pack up this deck and it’s an additional component of the house that is transported in a separate trailer. The house and deck are all organised around a 90-centimetre grid, which dictates the placement of exposed LVL frames, kitchen cabinets, doors and windows.
Being both the designers and builders of their tiny house, Lara says it was an interesting process and they each juggled many roles. “We were acting as client, architect, builder, project manager, and apprentice carpenters,” she says. “Sometimes these roles were at cross purposes and the internal – and external – arguments that resulted were an interesting part of the project.” Reconciling these competing interests among the three of them – Lara, Andrew and builder, Greg – gave them all some understanding about how to consider one problem from multiple angles.
Lara and Andrew admit that there were many design challenges along the way of designing their tiny house: “Fitting a fully functioning house within the confines of a 7.5 x 2.4 metre area is difficult enough. Add to the mix the complications and competing interests of weight distribution, transport, off-grid systems, and Australia’s appetite for huge homes and you start to get an idea of just how challenging it was,” explains Andrew.
The shower is a good size and the glass screen opens inwards or outwards to keep the space more functional. The tiled wall in the shower uses the same design as the black tiles seen beneath the windows in the kitchen. A second window in the bathroom is located in the shower – an ideal spot to keep a house plant alive. The toilet being a composting system, creates nutrient-rich soil and requires no water to operate. “Now that we have the Nature Loo toilet set up we are big fans, it works great and there is no issue at all with smell,” says Lara.
The design of the home lends itself to off-grid living, as it processes all its own grey water for use in the garden, has a composting toilet, and is wired for solar power (although it is currently running on mains power). Solar panels are next on the couple’s wish-list. The grey water runs off through a hose towards the lush green garden at the back of the home.
If you happen to need an extra bowl or spoon once you’ve already sat down to eat, all you need do is reach over to one of the cutlery drawers in the kitchen. When the table is not in use, these dining chairs can sit outside on the deck, but they are actually borrowed from a friend of Lara’s while the pair continue to research the best option for their space.
Lara’s mother, Annie Nobel, often stops by for a cup of tea. The duo entertain a fair bit in the tiny house as there is more than enough room. This living room setup at the main side entrance to the home can comfortably fit guests and visitors. Lara says the most guests they’ve had at their home at the one time (with the deck and garden area as well) was thirty! Framed artwork: Lara Nobel
Environmental considerations were also at the forefront of the designers’ minds. Recycled Australian hardwoods were chosen to help bring warmth and history to the new, transportable tiny house. “[The timbers] have lived a life before this house, as bearers and joists in old Queensland cottages,” says Lara. “Old nail holes tell their story.” The hardwood is also featured on the doors and windows, the decking boards, kitchen benchtop and shelves, all of which contrast nicely with the white interior.
With almost everything visible from the one living area, it was important to the young architects that clear patterns and aesthetic rhythms were carried throughout their design. They help to organise the space, make it feel ordered and the views tend to feel bigger. “Clear sight lines and long views, good cross-flow of air, high raking ceilings and a strategy of organising the space using the structural grid were important ideas in creating that feel,” says Lara.
On the opposite side of the house, close to the ceiling, is a cosy loft space just big enough to fit a bed for two. Accessed by a sturdy removable ladder, the back wall was painted in dark grey to make the space feel more intimate, yet the tiny louvre window allows natural light and fresh air into the area. Walls painted in ‘Monument‘: Colorbond
A nifty feature the couple added to save on space is the retractable bed, designed and built with the help of the couple’s friend, Nathan Nostaw. The bed is an expensive optional extra, but certainly adds to the modern comforts of day-to-day living in a tiny house. By night, the remote-controlled hoist and track system that’s built into a full-height storage wall lowers the bed down to rest, turning the lounge room into a bedroom. Lara stands in the kitchen, manning the retractable bed via remote
Affordability, increasing floor areas, and environmental impact were the key factors of graduate architects Lara Nobel and Andrew Carter decision to build a contemporary tiny house on wheels. Without compromising on modern comforts, the couple teamed up with builder Greg Thornton, to bring their incredible design to life. Having moved into their home just one month ago, the pair hope to introduce the tiny house movement to more Australians that are budget conscious and dream of owning their own home, or simply want the option of living off-grid.
By avoiding the visual complication of a large, busy kitchen in this open level, the flow and serenity of the upstairs living space are maintained. Furniture is comfortable, elegant and uncluttered, its colour palette limited to the anthracite and indigo used throughout the house. Saporino ‘Vivaldi’ leather sofas: Merlino
Rechichi designed a sleek kitchen that features the ‘layers of white’ theme of the home, teamed with the muted neutrals of natural stone and contrasted with dark-stained walnut timber. A striking 3 x 3.2 metre dual-sliding American walnut veneer door hides shelving and storage. To facilitate the frequent family and client occasions the couple hosts, a large scullery is concealed behind the tinted-glass sliding panels on the left. “It’s where all the ‘heavy’ cooking is done,” says Rechichi. Behind that is a large pantry, storage area and fridges. Carrara splashback: Bernini Stone; Gessi ‘Oxygene’ mixer: Abey
“Given the amazing views, the main living/dining/kitchen were located on the top floor,” says Rechichi. “Frameless glass bi-fold doors completely open up onto the outdoor terrace, providing a seamless distinction between indoor and outdoor.” Bonaldo ‘Miss Filly’ dining chairs in Grigio Topo and Bonaldo ‘Big Table’ in polished oak: Merlino.
Rechichi says it is difficult to convey in photographs the scale and interconnections of the spaces, but this image shows the void over the double-height lower level and the bridge on the left that leads to the top-level living floor.
Except for the master bedroom suite, the bedrooms and guest room, all with ensuites, are located on the first floor, which also has a home theatre, steam room and utilities. Because of limited street parking, Rechichi says a priority was to put as much off-street parking as possible in the basement level. Around eight vehicles can be garaged here and this level also contains storage, a gymnasium and guest quarters with a small terrace, which will eventually accommodate a live-in carer if needed.
Frameless glass doors give protection from the sometimes intense south-westerly winds, without compromising the expansive views of the river and city. The pool and adjacent spa are well-utilised in Perth’s heat, and the sun can be soaked up on a deck on the edge of the terrace.
Generous facilities for entertaining were an essential item in the owners’ brief. With stainless-steel doors, anthracite grey stone benchtops, plenty of storage, minimal lighting, a cocktail bar and cooking facilities to handle a crowd, this sleek outdoor kitchen swings into action for the frequent and large gatherings held by the owners. Although most of the couple’s children have moved out and have children of their own, no weekend goes by without a gathering of the close-knit family. Company clients are also often entertained. Bonaldo Clip barstools in ‘Anthracite Grey’: District
While the materials and colours characterise the home’s design, an outstanding feature is the elegant simplicity of the modern furniture throughout. Magis ‘Chair One’ stackable chairs and the Bonaldo ‘Welded Table’ are sourced from the family’s own companies: District and Merlino.
Rechichi designed a series of visually connected spaces, defined by their function, that progress towards the inviting views. The impression of spaciousness is amplified by the height of the ceiling, which sits at seven metres. Above the indoor/outdoor entertaining area, the louvred roof is retractable and climate-controlled, with sensors that follow the sun and keep out rain. Casual modular sofas sit beside a 10-seat dining table, cocktail bar and outdoor kitchen, to service poolside entertaining. The airy, double-height room looks straight out to the pool and across to the river and city. It also provides visual connection to the top floor through a massive framed window and glass wall.
The glass doors that divide indoor and outdoor spaces can be seen on the left folded back. The clean, white, polished plaster walls provide a canvas for the light through glass panes and louvres that create constantly changing effects. Polished plaster walls in ‘Ice’: Venetian Plaster
At the ground-floor level, the minimally furnished living room houses a giant screen set in a stone-tiled wall and surrounded with dark-stained American walnut cabinetry. It’s also a place to enjoy both close and distant views from a protected position, as it can be closed off with a bank of frameless bi-fold glass doors extending the width of the room, or left open to the breeze. The floors throughout this level are Ankara limestone tiles.
From the street, the entrance to the house is through a covered walkway past a courtyard. The first impression is of a cool and lofty glass-framed space flooded with light. A few shallow steps lead down to a lounge and television area, and from here, the eye is drawn irresistibly towards the glint of water beyond. Through this lounge is an enormous indoor/outdoor entertaining area with an outdoor kitchen. This leads, eventually, to a luxurious pool, terrace and sundeck.
These elevations show how Rechichi has fitted the building into the contours of the sloping site, and used this to create the dramatically high ceilings in the sections of the house that face the views.
The home is set well back from the river’s edge on an elevated site. It slopes down away from the street towards the river, around eight metres to the rear of the long, rectangular, southwest-facing block. This configuration enabled Rechichi to exploit the slope and create a double-storey height facing the river and the 180-degree river and city views.
Attadale was once a low-density suburb of modest brick and tile Federation and California bungalows. As Perth grew so did Attadale property values, and many large and more opulent homes emerged to tap into the area’s convenience to the city and great views. Perth’s Mediterranean climate is well suited to this airy, light-filled home overlooking the wide reaches of the Swan River.
use of white and how it is transformed by light. “We decided that ‘layers of white’ would be our mantra – a layered definition of spaces, constantly changed by light,” says Rechichi.
Houzz at a Glance Who lives here: A business couple and members of their family Location: Attadale, Perth, WA Size: 1180 sqm; 5 bedrooms, 2 guest suites Project completed: 2014 Architect: Rechichi Architects Suburban Perth is a world away from the the Sicilian island of Lipari, and the Swan River that winds through the city down to Fremantle barely resembles the profound blue of the waters fringing the Aeolian Islands’ volcanic coasts. But capturing the clarity of the light and translating the square, white forms of the architecture into a modern context was the owner’s way of honouring his heritage.
Outdoor lighting Lighting by the front door is a lovely grown-up feature. It welcomes you and guests home on dark evenings and suggests a level of order and security that’s very appealing. It’s also just not the kind of thing you invest in when renting or busily furnishing your first home. This is the preserve of the grown-up pad.
“Making everything read smaller was really important,” says Smith. “That, as much as anything, invited the house into the community.” The layered approach creates a distinct sense of privacy, without anyone really noticing. The long shed has its back to the driveway that runs up the side, while the bedrooms at the back run out to their own little deck and will eventually connect to a fourth shed. You don’t realise it when you get to the house, but you’re being taken on a bit of a meandering path, which provides that much-needed privacy. “By offsetting it we gave them this great big sequence of spaces,” says Smith. “You follow your nose diagonally through the living area to get to the outside space, and then diagonally again through to the bedrooms.”
The house is set half a level up, on a concrete block base that contains a small single-car garage – which is mostly used for surfboards. “Cars are pretty waterproof, anyway,” says Smith of the arrangement. Partly, the concrete block base was practical – it sets the house up well above the storm-surge level – and it makes the view better. But it also meant the interior of the house is just high enough that people walking along the road outside only get an oblique view of the place. There is no front fence, and the house feels open and casual, encouraging visitors to drop by on a fine summer’s evening with a couple of beers. Visitors access the place via a set of stairs off the front lawn, and then across a deck that leads onto another deck, which leads into the living area. There isn’t really a front door.
The interior of the house is deliberately pared back and simple – with a view like that, there’s no need for fireworks. “It’s really just honing down a set of similar buildings, which allows us a kind of efficiency in the building of it,” Smith says. “Everything about the spot is so beautiful that we were just trying to fashion a way of living in it. The colour’s all coming from outside.” Building the house around these circulation spaces also meant Smith could define them with subtle changes of material and ceiling height. Anywhere that is a circulation space has a wooden ceiling: inside, that’s a Tasmanian oak ceiling – the same timber as used on the floor.
Outside, the timber continues with a series of slatted cedar pergolas, features the family is slowly saving up for and adding as they go. “Without even realising it, you follow timber,” Smith says of the thinking. As well as that, anywhere that sunlight enters the building, Smith specified timber around the windows to subtly warm things up.
The courtyard deck performs multiple functions. As well as being circulation and outdoor space, it also brings plenty of northern light into the living room – here, you can see how it makes a sheltered, warm spot in the middle of the house.
Other spaces – bedrooms, kitchen, living areas – have white plasterboard ceilings to match the walls. It’s a nice touch: the house expands and contracts both vertically and horizontally, though it also meant that Smith could make use of standard trusses in these areas rather than creating soaring ceiling heights. There are white walls and simple materials including stainless-steel benches in the kitchen. There are three bedrooms but no ensuites: instead, Smith designed a sort of deconstructed bathroom, which includes a large room with a bath and a vanity, a room with a toilet, and a room with a shower. “It’s the same setup as I have at home,” he says of the arrangement, which makes one bathroom go much further for the family without adding substantial cost. “It’s about working out what’s important,” says Smith.
The view from the house is fabulous – from here, the family can see the surf breaks as they roll in. If the surf is up, the family comes home from school and work, drops their bags and changes into wetsuits, heading straight over the road for a surf. “Everyone’s out enjoying it, and that’s what it should be about, really,” says Smith. “I think they’ve got it about right.”
Here’s the plan, which shows clearly how the offset sheds in the house zig zag along the site in layers – a little bit, says Smith, like rolling sets of waves out to sea.
Shed home on the beach
The Glass House
The Glass House. Wood pavers
The Glass House
The Glass House
The Glass House
The Glass House
The Glass House
What could be more romantic than watching the sun sink over green hills or stargazing from inside your own little retreat in the woods? That’s exactly what Lilah Horwitz and Nick Olson thought to themselves when they sketched out their dream cabin on a restaurant napkin while on one of their first dates. Fast-forward a few years, and the newlywed couple finally got to realise their dream with a patch of land on Olson’s family farm in West Virginia – and a lot of creativity. Thanks to Olson’s experience as a trained log builder, the couple were able to do all the work themselves, and with some creative reuse of materials from an old barn on the property, they ended up spending only about US$500 (AU$690) on the project. The couple use it mainly as a warm-weather getaway, where they can write, talk and be together without distractions. “It’s a comfort to know that no matter where we are, we have a small little piece of home to come back to that we’ve created for ourselves,” Horwitz says.
Glass-walled cabin in West Virginia
Rustic cabin nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, NC.
Rustic cabin nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, NC.
Rustic cabin nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, NC.
The cabin is a riff on the Appalachian culture and its architecture. Built as if it rose from the local woods, by local craftsmen with the tradition of seat-of-the-pants resourcefulness. The cabin echoes the Appalachian traditions of small is beautiful, and richness in simplicity. Reclaimed Heart Pine floorin
Another outdoor feature that the couple and visitors are drawn to is ‘The Throne’. It sits at the crest of the hill overlooking the valley and is one of the many constructs on the property envisioned and created by de Raad. “It took more than a day and less than a week to carve,” he says.
The Garden Cafe was built in 2003 and serves slow-cooked food with ingredients hand-picked from the garden terraces below.
Another building called the Herbolaria was constructed in 1997 on the site and is filled with fresh smells, aromatherapy products and herbal infusions for purchase by the public. Teas are blended here, fruit is dried, and produce is packaged for the drive to Santa Cruz.
There’s always something going on at the site. Local eco-builder and artist, Elisandro Sandozal, works on a loft-style cabin for volunteers, creatively constructing built-in features with plaster and glass. Workshops on eco-building are held at the Finca.
Outside, a meditation dome was built. The stairs spiral up the hillside slope, continue up a stone retaining wall and across a singular plank walkway. The lower floor is a laundry and storage space.
Atma is an earth berm and adobe building nestled into the hillside. Steps behind the cabin lead onto a green roof oriented towards views of the mountains.
Hampton Style Home
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