THAT House

https://www.archdaily.com/782890/that-house-austin-maynard-architects

Austin Maynard Architects

Location - Melbourne, Australia

Design Team - Andrew Maynard, Mark Austin, Kathryne Houchin

Area - 255.0 sqm

Project Year - 2015

THAT House can open up to the outdoors, both private and public. Importantly a house that can be very transparent needs to be able to adapt to multiple privacy needs. Hence we have installed upwards blinds to give the owners control over their level of privacy. How many times have you seen huge windows with their blinds permanently down? This happens because of the binary a downward blind creates. A downward blind provides no privacy until it is completely down. An upward blind enables you to cut-out almost all view into a home while still being able to look out to the garden, and the street beyond. This gives control over all levels of privacy and intimate control over the light let into each space.

If your spaces can adapt to suit your mood, the weather, time of day and usage, then you don’t need numerous rooms. Adaptable, complex areas allow us to make the most of our space, while keeping our homes modest in size and enabling us to have large, well-connected outdoor spaces and gardens.

Like all of our buildings, sustainability is at the core of THAT House.

- We have optimised passive solar gain into all north facing windows. All windows are double-

glazed.

• We have no glazing on western facades and limited glass on the eastern facades.
• White roofs drastically reduce urban heat sink and heat transfer internally.
• High performance insulation is everywhere.
• Along with active management of shade, and passive ventilation demands on mechanical heating and cooling are drastically reduced.
• A large water tank has been buried within the rear yard.
• All roof water is captured and reused to flush toilets and water the garden.
• Where possible we have sourced local trades, materials and fittings.
• Solar panels with micro-inverters cover the new roof.