Mosman Park house | Robeson Architects

The brief for this young family and grandmother (in the future) was to create a wheel chair accessible, and sustainable home. All areas of the house had to be wheelchair accessible, complying with the gold standard of the liveable housing design guidelines which calls for wider hallways, doorways and circulation spaces generally. This also meant the design needed to address the slope of the site through external ramps and handrails which enables someone to transverse from the front boundary to the rear without going up and down a step. Another future proofing feature was the inclusion of the granny flat on the ground floor with its on kitchenette, ensuite and private entry. This space will be used as a yoga studio until the stage when their grandmother should move in. An extra off street car bay is also provided adjacent to this room with graded access.  

As well as future proofing the house, sustainability and passive design run through the bones of this house, literally. Even the timber used in the wall studs and cabinetry carcasses are FSC certified. Sustainability and passive design are buzzwords in architecture which can often be applied in a tokenistic way. But with a client who was genuine and passionate about applying these design principles we could implement them at all levels and in all details. The building is clad in recycled spotted gum with the intention of silvering off over time. Large slimline water tanks are tucked along the south of the site with a greywater system providing water to gardens and toilets. “Green” concrete was used for the ground floor slab, and solar panels were fitted to the first floor roof with the provision for future battery storage. There is no air-conditioning in the home, meaning louvres and windows are strategically placed to capture the cooling south-westerlies, together with ceiling fans to move the air around.  

Its no secret that Perth has a love affair with brick construction. The ground floor walls are “reverse brick veneer” construction, a wall type which is more suited to Perth’s temperate climate than double cavity brick. The inner wall leaf is made from grey utility bricks, with no applied finish, allowing it to contribute to the thermal mass of the home.  Extensive glazing to the north of the living wing is shaded precisely to allow maximum winter sun penetration and zero summer penetration.  The angled ceiling over this living wing assists further in bringing that desirable light deep into the floor plan.