The Building Designers Association of Victoria (BDAV) showcases some of 2015’s highly regarded building projects from Victoria.
Here are some of the standouts that displayed some of the best ways to include liveability features for health, efficiency and comfort.
The People’s Choice Awards is an opportunity for the public to vote for your favourite project entered in the annual BDAV Building Design Awards competition.
The 2015 winning project was the Phoenix Project by Hemingway Building Design. For a full list of this year’s contenders, click here.
Trentham Project
The Trentham Project’s contemporary form and streamlined layout, combined with passive solar design and systems integration, ensures thermal comfort.
Entrant for: Residential Design: New Houses
Designer: Beaumont Concepts
Photographer: Coast Magazine
The clients were clear in their requirements: they wanted compact country living that embraces trusted passive solar design, with sustainable materials and a strong focus on a refined model for environmentally conscious living. This modest house celebrates simplicity. A compact floor plan has been carefully resolved around two modules that balance lightweight prefabricated construction with thermal comfort, while achieving an 8 star energy rating. The material palette reflects the site and the surrounding context. The compact modular dwelling successfully demonstrates that sustainable living can be achieved by balancing the attainment of high energy ratings and affordable building material selections. The contemporary form and streamlined layout combined with a holistic approach to passive solar design and “off the grid” living contributes to aspirations of sustainability by ensuring thermal comfort all year round for the 8 star rated home. Liveable and light-filled interiors coupled with low maintenance sustainably sourced materials ensure the home is thermally efficient year round.
Coastal Exposure
Timber provides the strength and longevity of material required to withstand the harsh elements at this Port Fairy project.
Entrant for: Residential Design: New Houses
Designer: Designers By Nature
Photographer: Rowena Naylor Photography
The brief was to design a home suitable for a semi-retired couple wanting to relocate from Melbourne that allows the house to swell over holiday periods for extended family visits. They wanted a low-maintenance house that sits within its environs yet tough enough to weather the harsh climate. Priorities were to make absolute use of vistas to the southern ocean, and shelter for outdoor living space. The successful outcome integrates the home with its surrounds and affords its owners a perfect haven from the elements while offering spectacular views of the southern ocean. Using courtyards and lightweight cladding that has a proven history of longevity, the home is extremely robust while having aesthetic appeal. Strong form in the suspended guest wing gives a sense of drama on approach. The design focuses on solar gain, thermal mass and view sharing from within, and privacy from the outside.
Anderson Residence
The extension was designed to overlap and step in height so the building can respond and sit comfortably within its landscape.
Entrant for: Residential Design: Alterations & Additions
Designer: EME Design Pty Ltd
Photographer: EME Design
A contemporary, comfortable, eco-friendly house was required to harmonise with its surroundings. Bushfire safety was a big concern as was water security, as the property is not connected to mains water. Due to its remoteness, the client wanted to work from home and have a sizeable productive garden and kitchen to grow and preserve produce. Set in a stunning location, accommodation for up to 11 guests was desired, plus an autonomous area to run as a B&B. After an illustrious career as a professional cyclist, the client required space to store over 20 bikes and showcase memorabilia and trophies. The result is an eco exemplar of what is possible in a bushfire area. Inspired by the iconic corrugated Australian farm shed, the pragmatic poetry of the charcoal volume reveals modernist panoramic vistas of the bush and hills beyond. As the building steps down with the slope, it wraps the existing brick structure in the greys of the surrounding eucalypts, folding into the soaring eaves of a contemporary skillion to harmonise with its beach house neighbours.
Box Hill South Residence
A pergola was installed around the living/kitchen/dining area to allow for shading of the windows on hot days.
Entrant for: Residential Design: Alterations & Additions
Designer: Gruen Eco Design
Photographer: Photos by Loren
The clients’ goal was to upgrade their existing brick veneer house and make it suitable for the young growing family. They wanted three bedrooms, an artist studio and a bathroom. A new modern and highly energy efficient extension, which had to be hidden away behind the existing dwelling, had to also include a big open kitchen/living/dining area. Their main focus was on improving the energy efficiency of the existing part of the house and reusing and recycling as much as possible to create a truly sustainable family home on a budget. The finished 8.1 star design comprises a modern and simple extension tucked away at the rear of the block. It is a sensible renovation approach for the existing part of the house, maintaining and enhancing existing period features. Demolished building materials and kitchen cabinets have been recycled and reused in the new part of the house. The new double-storey staircase and void allow stunning views into the garden, and create an inviting connection between the existing and the new.
Glen Iris Residence
The tapered roof angles enclose the minimal volume required for the additions, ensuring a spacious but unobtrusive second storey that doesn’t dominate the rear garden.
Entrant for: Residential Design: Alterations & Additions
Designer: Maxa Design Pty Ltd
Photographer: Chris Neylon Photographer
The clients loved the character of their existing home, so as much of it as possible was to be retained in the renovation. They had a modest budget, and wanted a unique contemporary form that respectfully contrasts the character of the existing home, with hints at the owner’s Austrian heritage. One of the clients was a former professional chef and they both love entertaining so they desired spacious family, kitchen, living, dining and alfresco areas. This is a sensitive exemplar of how to significantly extend a typical brick veneer suburban house. The original portions were renovated and structural materials were recycled as new furniture. Within a strict budget, the floor area was increased by 65% to a spacious 240sqm family home that now achieves 6 star energy performance. The useful and cherished aspects of the existing home were retained as original zones flowing into generous new accommodation with interesting spatial characteristics. The unique and considerate design reflects the clients’ personalities and caters for their lifestyle.