15 Lennox Street

If one does not buy a new car when it needs a wash, one does not need to demolish a solid, grand, old house if it needs a new lease of life. It would have been the easy option for the architect and client to demolish this house and restart. However the original fireplaces, wood panelling, beautiful ornate ceilings and rich textures of the old house charmed them both, convincing them to retain it.

So the addition of a storey, a family room wing and a garage was fashioned in a discrete manner. The house now flows freely into the surrounding gardens. The breakfast room, placed at the centre, is a Rubik’s Cube of shutters and windows, allowing infinite possibilities of openness and closeness.

Hidden in a cul-de-sac, this house is not designed to be seen but to be lived in and watch the world and nature go by.

Sustainability

Longevity and permanency are achieved through the design and the reuse of existing materials. Recycled timber and bricks lower the embodied energy of the building, making the design both contemporary and enduring, ensuring it will stand the test of time and stave off any future desire to demolish and rebuild.

Innovative sustainable design elements:

High performance glazing used in conjunction with shutters and projecting eaves, allow for solar gain in winter and to block out the summer sun. Energy is produced through solar panels and the pool utilises solar heating. 10,000L of water is retained on site through the implementation of concealed rainwater tanks.

Environmental footprint of the building is minimised by:

Through implementing photovoltaic cells and utilising good building design that responds in controlling solar access, the heating and cooling loads on the building are significantly reduced, thus lowering the carbon footprint. By using recycled materials and retaining the existing house the embodied energy is also reduced.