Mount Macedon House
The house sits at the foot of Mount Macedon on an acre block one hour north of Melbourne. The vacant site presented an opportunity for a cost-effective building form with a long glazed north facade and deep eave to control sunlight and view the garden and mountain in the distance. The house is just over 50 metres long and sits close to the south boundary to maximise the garden space with a predominantly solid south facade for privacy from the street.
The large pitched roof and corrugated steel roofing and cladding reference vernacular buildings and the original surrounding houses and a row of pin oak trees were planted along the northern edge of the site inspired by those lining the Avenue nearby.
The house was designed for one person, my mother, and made as one big open space, rather than a series of smaller confined spaces. The long horizontal view in combination with the solid protective south facade makes for a calm and comforting space and extends the house outwards to include the garden, mountain, birds, animals and weather. The house is flooded with sunlight in winter for strong passive performance and for the psychological benefits of sunlight in winter, of particular important for a single occupant in a cold climate.
The house was also designed for the owner’s large visiting family and guests and there are two bedrooms, a bathroom and an entry room that sit within the larger space with smaller openings to the south. The house can be divided in half into public and private, defined by granite and timber flooring respectively and separated by a sliding panel. A sliding panel also closes the main bedroom from the rest of the house when required.
There are two circulation paths - for the owner from the carparking area into the private part of the house and for guests through the main entrance into the public part of the house. The floor levels step down from the private to public spaces as the site falls from west to east to create a direct relationship between internal spaces and garden and appropriate ceiling heights for each room, while the northern edge of the concrete slab remains at the highest level and becomes a seat as the floor levels drop.
The house is lined with gaboon plywood for warmth in the cool climate and to balance the concrete, granite and ceramic tiles, steel and aluminium elsewhere and designed around the owner’s existing furniture and the tile grid that aligns to joinery, wall and ceiling lining, structure and glazing.
