With dominating glass windows providing clear vistas into the surrounding trees, this renovation was designed to not only blend into its surroundings, but to also reflect all that nature has to offer.
According to the architect, Barnaby Chiverton, the brief for the Ivanhoe house was to add an extension to the rear of the building which included a living/dining/ kitchen area and a bedroom with a walk-in robe and ensuite.
While the client had a strong interest in merchant builders homes and modernist Danish architecture, one of the building's stand-out requirements was that it needed to be sustainable, which Chiverton says, came from the clients' desire to connect closely to the land.
"We sought to create a modern, simple house that stepped down the site in close connection to the land," he says.
The key engineering challenge for Chiverton was to connect the building with the landscape on a sloping site.
"We did this by terracing the building down the hill," he says.
In terms of the parts of the house that have been made to stand out, Chiverton says that the key products used included American oak floors with an oil finish along with Accoya timber stained black, cedar windows.
And in order to keep the house temperature-friendly, Chiverton says that the, "Orientation of the house was a big factor along with positioning of windows and associated shading systems such as pergolas and bi-fold screens."
As for the sustainability features, "Over insulation, water tanks, solar hot water, solar PV panels, kitchen garden next to kitchen, dimmable LED throughout, evaporative cooling, hydronic heating were also added to the house," he says.
