As a national trend, contemporary design is gaining more appeal. Just pick up any residential design magazine and you’ll find feature articles focused on contemporary architecture. Drive through traditional urban neighbourhoods or country settings and you will see signs of contemporary architecture emerging.
The planning of the displays everyday life in three distinct volumes: the main house, the guest house and the courtyard. In the middle of this planning logic, the central courtyard acts as a social hub and a sanctuary around which the entire house revolves. A slanted solar roof floats across the space to heighten the experience of mass and drama. Arrayed around this expansive central courtyard, quieter and compressed areas such as the kitchen, great room, bedrooms introduce spatial intimacy and a serene atmosphere. The design presents a cool green look within a language of contemporary forms. Clear decisions on heights, proportions, and massing establish a modernist vocabulary in dialogue with its surroundings. Meticulous attention to materiality and construction underpin the conceptual rigour of the design.
Its generous fenestrations offer brightness and permeability to the spaces while opening on to a variety of outdoor experiences. The low-maintenance, simple design is softened by vegetation within and on the building. The building is designed to generate its own energy from renewable sources, harvest rain water, manage its own waste, and promote occupant health and well being. A living wall and water feature in the courtyard create a self-sustaining interior ecosystem.
One of the key elements of the design is its heavy timber structure. Normerica Authentic Timber Framehas designed and fabricated the glulam (glued laminated timber) posts and beams as well as the exterior wall panels for the Dream Home and will be assisting PROBUILT by Michael Upshall in the construction of the base building. Structurlam is supplying the glulam post and beams along with cross laminated panels that will be used as interior partition walls. These panels will be finished and used as design elements, minimizing material use and adhering to the design philosophy of ‘structure as design’.
Prodema sustainable composite wood veneer and OKO skin slat-sized cement siding provided by Sound Solutions will be used for the exterior cladding and will be installed using rain-screen methodology. Folding glass walls, lift-and-slide doors, and parallel opening windows will be supplied and installed by Monarch Moveable Glass Walls and Monarch Windows.
