Client
Tim & Kim Berwick
Location
Lambton, Newcastle
Project
Design & Construct
The dWELL design competition invited industry professionals and tertiary students to design a new style of home with wellness, innovation, affordability and sustainability at its heart.
''We want to set the benchmark for future housing, creating a more liveable City where sustainability and wellbeing are priorities.
dWELL is a $40,000 nationwide home design competition to showcase next-generation urban housing in Australia.
We asked industry professionals and tertiary students to design a new style of home with wellness, innovation, affordability and sustainability at its heart.
The dWELL competition had two categories: one for professional architects and building designers, the other for teams comprising at least one architecture student (or similar relevant discipline)''.
A family’s needs changes with time, so should the home. The design of Ambient House begins with the dweller, catering from one person, to a multi-generational family of 8, through the life cycle of their needs as a unique family. Based on both initial and projected needs, room dimensions are calculated according to capacity requirements whilst also responding to the parameters of the site - the house will seemingly act as one united
dwelling, whilst being able to atomise and seamlessly form multiple autonomous homes for multiple households, if and when required.
Constructed using Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), a excellent insulator that is prefabricated and sustainably produced, we are able to orchestrate the ideal layout on any site. This layout achieves perfect ambient temperatures year round without mechanical ventilation. Couple this with ideal levels of natural light, ventilation and the incorporation of site outlook, and we have the perfect habitable living environment.
We consider holistically the site opportunities and constraints - aspect, undulation, overshadowing, loading of light influencing temperatures, exposure or covering of walls adjacent to one another, prevailing winds.
We consider holistically the site opportunities and constraints - aspect, undulation, overshadowing, loading of light influencing temperatures, exposure or covering of walls adjacent to one another, prevailing winds.
With this information, the exact sizing of the rooms, along with their placement is finessed to achieve the perfect ambient temperatures year round.
Achieving this perfect placement for ideal temperatures results in not only reduction of mechanical ventilation for heating and cooling, but also ideal aspect and roof pitch for the placement of photovoltaic cells, roof areas to drain for rainwater collection utilising gravity falls, sunlight hours to match vegetation for the cultivation of various edible plants, and in turn the ability of these plants to provide shelter from harsh summer sun.
We consider holistically the site opportunities and constraints - aspect, undulation, overshadowing, loading of light influencing temperatures, exposure or covering of walls adjacent to one another, prevailing winds.
With this information, the exact sizing of the rooms, along with their placement is finessed to achieve the perfect ambient temperatures year round.
Achieving this perfect placement for ideal temperatures results in not only reduction of mechanical ventilation for heating and cooling, but also ideal aspect and roof pitch for the placement of photovoltaic cells, roof areas to drain for rainwater collection utilising gravity falls, sunlight hours to match vegetation for the cultivation of various edible plants, and in turn the ability of these plants to provide shelter from harsh summer sun.
With this information, the exact sizing of the rooms, along with their placement is finessed to achieve the perfect ambient temperatures year round.
Achieving this perfect placement for ideal temperatures results in not only reduction of mechanical ventilation for heating and cooling, but also ideal aspect and roof pitch for the placement of photovoltaic cells, roof areas to drain for rainwater collection utilising gravity falls, sunlight hours to match vegetation for the cultivation of various edible plants, and in turn the ability of these plants to provide shelter from harsh summer sun.
Client:
Newcastle City Council
Year:
2021
Status:
Competition
Team:
Benjamin Berwick, Sarah Veas, Arianna Brambilla (USyd) Brooke Jackson (Informal Architects)
Collaborators:
Newcastle City Council
The computation of ideal internal environment based on site constraints.
Ambient House
