Description:

Paper House strove for an innovative solution to a problem many entering the housing market face, how to design aspirational and beautiful architecture on a budget. Our graphic designer clients found a small section in Westmere, and our challenge was to design their home on a small site with tight regulatory boundaries, and on a budget.

When we presented the initial scheme to our clients, we showed a diagram of how the proposed form would hug the HiRB and maximum height plains creating a series of asymmetric surfaces or folded origami. The resulting name, Paper House, became the conceptual idea and narrative for the project. The clients are graphic designers with a beautiful collection of art and objects, so the building fabric was decided to be a white backdrop or ‘paper’ to display their curiosities.

In the early stages of the design, we recognised the need to provide a brise soleil screen for protection of the northern glazing and gesture to the main street elevation. We signaled to our clients that we had designed a ‘placeholder’ screen, and they should design the final screen. In collaboration us and Minka Ip at Finework, they designed and had fabricated a CNC-cut perforated corrugated aluminium screen.

The brief was for a compact, light, and airy, two-bedroom home with a positive connection to the street and garden. If required, the design had to be able to be staged (shell, then internal fit out) to work within the budget. However, we were able to achieve the completed project in one go.

The section is a compact 144m² perfectly square (12m x 12m) site with an 11m height limit and two differing HiRB controls to two opposing boundaries. These were seen as opportunities rather than constraints and helped define the form and approach.

The resulting home has a double-height living space and stacked bedrooms and bathrooms. The living room ceiling is approximately 8.5 meters high, and its profile is asymmetrical, ascending at different angles to negotiate the HiRB recession plains. The main bedroom looks both north externally through traditional windows and internally over a balustrade into the main volume.

In the screening, the CNC router works in two dimensions and usually on a flat sheet. Here, because of the three-dimensional wave of the corrugate, each perforation sits at a unique angle and has a slightly different shape. Some are oval, some even look heart-shaped and so each shadow is subtly different. As the sun moves, the screen stops the living area from overheating, and projects patterned shadows into the space.

Paper House is a problem-solving exercise in what is a growing challenge in our society - how to create aspirational and beautiful design on the average budget. Our clients absolutely love the result and enjoyed the process as well. We believe design and the joy it brings should not be exclusive, and that this project is one that sets the bar.