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Grove Architects design contemporary house in a heritage conservation area
The very rare opportunity to insert a new building into a Heritage Conservation Area is both a privilege and a responsibility. When the site is a prominent corner location surrounded by a mix of building types including a landmark Neo-Gothic sandstone church, pristine Victorian terrace houses, a small heavily wooded park, and a small cluster of 1960-70s "Sydney School" derivatives, it is a particularly interesting design challenge.
The design employs a contemporary architectural language to identify its own place and time, and embraces the current climate and sustainability imperatives as contemporary lifestyle concerns, accommodating the solutions within the context of the Conservation Area and its objectives.
The new house presents a robust almost windowless black stained timber box on the corner and a secondary light breezy skillion roofed wing flooded with natural light and loaded with solar collectors. Despite its strictly urban context, all rainwater is collected to 24,000 litres of storage to supply all the domestic uses, the solar heated underfloor hydronics, and the gardens.
The programme includes 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a painting studio, a yoga studio, and double garage, all of which offer adaptability and flexibility of use to maximise the functional life span of the building.
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