A House for All Seasons
By Poly Studio
A House for All Seasons is a contemporary house designed for the evolving needs of a young family within the context of a heritage streetscape in inner-city Melbourne. The design of the form and facades of the house was carefully calibrated to the grain, scale and materiality of neighbouring dwellings. Innovative, efficient spatial planning provides a generosity of amenity within a compact footprint.
The project targeted best-practice in sustainability through the adoption of passive solar design principles, energy efficiency, durable materials, reduction in water-use and drought-tolerant native/edible vegetation. It has been designed and built according to the principles of the Passive House standard – one of the most rigorous energy efficiency standards in the world – with the aim of providing year-round thermal comfort with minimal requirement for mechanical heating and cooling.
The design and planning of the house continues our exploration of spatial organisation that is legible but flexible and layered, incorporating devices such as partition curtains and permeable screening to create spaces that are intimate but also bleed into adjoining spaces. The use of polished concrete, blackbutt plywood and a mix of feature colours contributes to a warm and engaging interior.
A House for All Seasons provides a template for sustainable new housing, designed to accommodate contemporary living patterns both now and into the future.
year: 2019
builder: Franz Developments
photos: Tatjana Plitt
Professionals used in
A House for All Seasons
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Poly Studio
About the
Professional
Poly Studio is passionate about designing contemporary and sustainable buildings that utilise clever design to provide the most amenity from the least resources. Led by Daniel Wolkenberg, the studio has considerable experience working on a broad range of projects large and small, including residential, multi-residential and mixed-use typologies.
We believe that the best design solutions emerge from an intensive and open process of collaboration with our clients. Our approach embraces the emergence of unique and responsive solutions from the design process itself in a positive feedback loop that exceeds what may have been imagined at the outset.
Our design approach seeks to embed each building into its specific time and place, responding with sensitivity to the unique constraints and opportunities of each site. We view sustainability as both a necessary ethical imperative but also integral to the challenge of making each building ‘fit for purpose’, both now and into the future. We look for the synergies within the overlay of budget, sustainability and performance to achieve the best performance for the least cost.
Poly Studio is registered with the Architects Registration Board of Victoria. We are members of the Australian Institute of Architects, Architeam and the Australian Passive House Association.
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