Casa Acton
By Archier
Casa Acton questions the purpose of architecture and its relationship with the natural world.
The project grew out of ongoing conversations within our studio: the balance between architecture as a technical practice and the creation of meaningful spaces; the issues of building on remote sites; the affordability of housing; the importance of sustainability; and the relationship between aesthetics and utility. They all came together when one of our directors, Josh and his partner Millie wanted to build their first home.
Millie’s father proposed the idea of building a house on land he owned that eventually they could move when Josh and Millie found a site of their own, which set the wheels in motion for the design of a modular, moveable dwelling.
“This was the moment when it all suddenly made sense. We’d been previously renting a 40-square-metre cottage, so we knew we could live somewhere small. Combined with a lot of ideas we’d been exploring in different projects and among ourselves as a studio, this suggestion from Millie’s dad gave us the confidence to embark on building something ourselves in stages, without having to already own the land.”
Josh FitzGerald
We knew that for Josh to carry out the construction himself – he is not a builder – the design needed to be simple. But simple didn’t need to mean limited; our studio is built on the belief that constraints inspire the strongest and most resolved design outcomes. We worked with SIPS (structural insulated panel systems), a product relatively new to Australia that provided a more straightforward and efficient alternative to traditional framing. SIPS not only offer a simpler construction method, they’re also thermally efficient and environmentally sustainable. Working with the standard dimensions of the panels and keeping the building footprint small proved cost-effective, while we embraced the raw materiality of the unfinished SIPS panels.
While the building is lightweight to ensure it is easily moved, it does not feel insubstantial, due to sandstone flooring, painstakingly laid over many months, that provide a tactile surface underfoot, significant thermal mass and a primal sense of permanence.
Though the cabin is modest, it feels spacious thanks to a 7.5-metre-wide, floor to ceiling window. Strategically oriented due north, it visually extends the sense of space into a landscaped garden and the surrounding bushland. The exterior of the house further connects with the setting through locally and sustainably sourced raw timber board-and-batten cladding, which references the old apple sheds that exist throughout the area.
Location: Hobart, TAS
Builder: Josh FitzGerald, Scott Ashton, Lin Ashton
Construction: SIPS
Size: 53m2
Completed: 2019
Photography: Adam Gibson
Awards: Commendation / Residential Architecture / Houses (New) / Tasmanian Architecture Awards
Products used in
Casa Acton
Professionals used in
Casa Acton
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About the
Professional
Archier creates engaging architectural spaces and bespoke products, with an emphasis on honest, responsive design and efficient construction.
ARCHIER is an architectural practice with studios in Hobart and Melbourne. We work across residential and commercial sectors and have a particular interest in the relationship between architecture and landscape. We are a privately owned company and have four principals. One of our four directors is also Landscape Architect and this gives us a unique skill-set to work seamlessly across the two domains of Architecture and Landscape.
We work across a range of scales; for a range of clients. Our work encompasses residential, commercial and government architecture; public and private landscape projects; as well as the design and manufacture of furniture and lighting products
Our innovative designs are focused on material honesty, thermal performance and constructability, as we strive for affordable and responsive architecture that contributes to the public domain.
We are interested in projects that span architecture, urban design and landscape and embrace the mantra that design is delivery. Our practice utilises BIM extensively to automate and streamline our design work-flow and we are increasingly leveraging BIM to not only aid and support the delivery and construction of our work; we are also using it directly with Off Site Manufacturers to automate the production of timber based floor, wall and roof elements directly from the coordinated design model.
Our directors have over 25 years of combined industry experience and were drawn together to create an inclusive practice that is truly outcome orientated. We have won awards across a range of disciplines connected to the built environment that recognise our design excellence and innovation, along with our commitment to sustainable buildings and the environment.
As a practice, we have worked on large scale commercial projects with a construction value in excess of $100M through Joint Venture arrangements with Hayball Architects and we have lead multidisciplinary teams for complex commercial projects over $5M in value.
We relish the opportunity to work collaboratively with clients and large project teams to incorporate specialist knowledge and expertise into our work. We are data driven and focused on quality project outcomes. We have proven project experience leading complex projects in sensitive environments and have been recognised for our contextual approach to design.
We have also been awarded for our approach to sustainability and always seek not only to optimise the thermal performance of our buildings, but also to consider the life cycle cost of our material choices.