A new old Australian
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 6.
Right next door to an 1858 hand-hewn sandstone cottage lies this light-on-its-feet home, a prime example of contemporary living that is somehow right at home in its historic surrounds. Old and new are beautifully paired – a wonderful example of different yet complimentary styles.
Architect Stephen Sainsbury says it’s his goal to make ecologically sound buildings that are “luxurious, exciting and beautiful places to live, work and play”. The lightness of the Newtown house is due to the way it cleverly features and coherently blends the prefabricated modular, extendable building structure he designed, called the “EcoShelta” pod system, within the original walls.
The whole house seems to be a living, breathing entity. Owners Jane Johnson and Brian Murphy were attracted to its “private, secure yet completely light and airy space”. It is perfect for entertaining says Jane, “People who visit love the open feel of the house, the way the inside and outside blend and the pool is almost set in the kitchen”.
A welcoming courtyard is at the heart of the L-shaped internal home. Recycled timber and glazed timber folding doors form the downstairs level exterior and open onto the courtyard and a rainwater-fed plunge pool.
With the wide eaves extending more than a metre over the lower level kitchen and living area, the downstairs doors can remain open even when it is raining.
The upstairs main bedroom can be opened to the elements through bi-folding glazed timber doors. Being located on one of the highest points in Newtown, a refreshing cross-breeze often floats through, and light and sky abound.
“In summer, ceiling fans are all we need to regulate the temperature and in winter, the sun comes directly into the bedrooms upstairs and warms them,” Johnson says. “And how many people can see the moon from their bed?”
The plunge pool helps to regulate the climate of the house. The pool is at the bottom of a two and a half storey void. When louvres at the top are opened, warm air transfers some of its heat into the pool so the air flowing into the house is comparatively cool.
If the air outside is dry, it will absorb some moisture from the pool and if the air is humid, some of the moisture will precipitate on to the cool surface of the water.
In-floor, saline phase-change heat store packs maintain a temperature of around 21 degrees through the ability of the saline crystals to absorb or release heat without changing temperature dramatically. Explains Stephen, “The plastic pods which incorporate the saline crystals are placed in the mortar underneath the downstairs floor surface.” Essentially, when it gets hot the crystals “melt” and absorb heat, and when it gets cold they “freeze” and release it.
The building’s strong, lightweight aluminium alloy frame that forms the basis of the EcoShelta pod system “results in the minimal environmental footprint,” says Sainsbury.
