We were approached by a family who were looking for a studio for their backyard. They had a double garage that wasn’t being used, they wanted to use this footprint (area of 58m2) for the studio. It would be used for friends and family to stay for short or longer periods of time and would in the interim be used for textile making & shiatsu sessions run by the clients.
What was the brief? An open main space with a smaller nook space, a sense of spaciousness & lots of natural light. Fresh air and views to the garden on the current garage footprint, heaps of storage, a laundry and a bathroom. Water tanks for the studio, laundry & garden water use & solar panels.
What were the key challenges? The garage footprint had a concrete slab which couldn’t be re-used as it wasn’t load bearing so we proposed the option of moving the footprint to another location but the rest of the garden was well established and so moving the footprint wasn’t an option. The footprint was sitting along the northern boundary lined fully by a neighbouring building so we would not be able to have any north facing windows (where day-long sunlight comes from) as we would need to fire rate the northern wall. Basically the location was in the least ideal location! We would need to draw in daylight from higher level windows set well back from the north as well as from windows to the east. It isn’t ideal to have western windows so they were kept to a minimum. We would need to limit southern windows and have them double glazed with well insulated walls and roof in general to create a well sealed envelope.
We wanted the studio to sit in harmony in its backyard context so rough sawn timber was used as an external cladding. Formally, we went with a simple pitched roof so the studio was easy to ‘read’, its almost agricultural in shape. Internally we were working with essentially one large room. We wanted to break up the volume with texture, shadow and lineal elements. This meant exposed rafters and walls clad with lining boards. We wanted light to flood the room(s) so we kept the colour palette minimal; white & timber. We kept the room(s) spacious by following the roof pitch above creating a tall sloping ceiling internally. We created views to the garden with two large timber sliding doors opening to the garden and to a smaller private paved courtyard. We carved out a smaller lineal window above the bench so those using the studio would be able to look out over the garden but also felt they were in a visual private space.
What are the sustainable features? The cladding is rescue macrocarpa cladding from Ceres Fairwood. The roof captures maximum rainwater leading to 2 water tanks for re-use. The studio doesn’t use gas or have a gas connection and is fully electric with split systems, electric hot-water. High level windows are mechanically operable to work as a heat stack, letting heat out in the warmer months. The west facing entry has a covered awning to shade the western side window and the only other western window is a small bathroom window. Skylights light internal areas so lights can stay off during the day. Splash back tiles were re-used from an earlier job. Timber framed doors where used for their beauty and thermal properties (over aluminium)
