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Stand-Alone House Design Ngā Whare Tūwehe

1. Site Design 2. Placing the Building 3. Street to Front Door 4. Outdoor Spaces 5. Accommodating Cars 6. The Building
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Work with the Site
  • 1.3 Design the Site and House together
  • 1.4 Respect the neighbours
  • 1.5 Good quality infill development
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 The spaces around the house
  • 2.3 Privacy and outlook
  • 2.4 Designing for the sun
  • 2.5 Types of House
    • 2.5.1 Detached or 'stand-alone' houses
    • 2.5.2 Zero lot line houses
    • 2.5.3 Courtyard Houses
    • 2.5.4 Accessory dwelling
    • 2.5.5 Extended family House
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Designing for neighbourhood character
  • 3.3 Designing for safety and amenity
  • 3.4 Creating privacy
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Provide for an outdoor lifestyle
  • 4.3 Design for accessibility
  • 4.4 Optimise your landscaping
  • 4.5 Respond to the neighbourhood
  • 4.6 Design for stormwater treatment
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Integrating parking, garaging and access with the street
  • 5.3 Parking options
    • 5.3.1 Parking beside the house
    • 5.3.2 Parking under the house
    • 5.3.3 Parking behind the house
    • 5.3.4 Parking in front of the house
  • 5.4 Designing the driveway, shared accessway or lane
    • 5.4.1 Designing for safety of children
    • 5.4.2 Driveways for rear sites and shared access-ways
    • 5.4.3 Lanes
  • 5.5 Garages as flexible spaces
  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 Building form and appearance
    • 6.2.1 Building height and mass
    • 6.2.2 Primary building elements and details
  • 6.3 Weather-tightness
  • 6.4 Building performance
    • 6.4.1 Keeping the heat inside the house
    • 6.4.2 Move the heat around, and ventilate the house
  • 6.5 Planning for all ages and abilities

Case Studies

  • Addison, Takanini
  • Anselmi Ridge, Auckland
  • Arapai-Urale House, Auckland
  • Box™ Bassett Road, Remuera, Auckland
  • Brown Vujcich House, Auckland
  • Courtyard Houses, Seatoun, Wellington
  • Detached House, Remuera , Auckland
  • Lester Street, Hobsonville
  • Living Spaces, Dandenong
  • Preston Starter Home, Otara, Auckland
  • S House, Mount Eden, Auckland
  • Tagata Way, Mangere
  • The Block, on St Johns Road
  • Zero Energy House, Point Chevalier, Auckland

    Living Spaces, Dandenong

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    Overview

    The Living Places Suburban Revival showcases a range of housing that meets the need of a today’s changing demographics. It also demonstrates that with good design, high density can have a minimal impact on a traditional suburban neighbourhood.

    Project Summary

    Project Summary
    ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Living Places is the result of  design competition run as a joint initiative between the Office of Housing  in the Department of Human Services, Victoria, and the Office of the Victorian Government Architect. The brief behind the competition was to create a design that explored increased density in a traditional suburban setting, and was repeatable across a variety of sites.
    ​
    The project is social housing which is owned by the Department of Human Services, and their brief was to create a range of housing types to accommodate a wide range of demographics including single storey fully accessible accommodation, and 4 bedroom housing with downstairs accessible bedrooms and bathrooms. It also had to demonstrate best practice architecture and sustainability.

    The winning design by Bent Architecture focuses on maximising the use of the communal outdoor space. These areas are a shared space that blends car manoeuvring and accommodation, pedestrian paths and communal outdoor spaces and seating areas. The success depends on careful consideration of detail, as well as a community of residents that are happy to share spaces and co-operate with each other. 

    The single storey houses are designed  in three distinct, staggered forms each with a roof at a different pitch. The ceiling follows the roof profile to give a generous amount of internal space, and the external pitches break up the overall form of the building and provide a response to the suburban setting.

    The buildings are designed to follow best practice energy efficient design principles. The walls have increased thermal mass to heat and cool the buildings, there are rain tanks under the slabs, and solar hot water and energy generating photo-voltaic cells on the roof.

    The project is a place to live for a wide range of people who would otherwise have had no other choice in this neighbourhood. It shows that a relatively dense development can fit into an existing suburban area, respond sensitively to the s​urrounding stand along houses yet be a distinctly modern housing form. 

    The single storey houses are designed  in three distinct, staggered forms each with a roof at a different pitch. The ceiling follows the roof profile to give a generous amount of internal space, and the external pitches break up the overall form of the building and provide a response to the suburban setting.

    The buildings are designed to follow best practice energy efficient design principles. The walls have increased thermal mass to heat and cool the buildings, there are rain tanks under the slabs, and solar hot water and energy generating photo-voltaic cells on the roof.

    The project is a place to live for a wide range of people who would otherwise have had no other choice in this neighbourhood. It shows that a relatively dense development can fit into an existing suburban area, respond sensitively to the surrounding stand along houses yet be a distinctly modern housing form. 

    Information for this case study was largely sourced from ‘Model Housing’ written by Jennifer Clazini in July/August 2012 issue of Architecture Australia Vol 101No 4.

    Information for Getting it Right: The Building was sourced from ‘Living by Design’ written by Kate Robertson in the Domain, April 26-27, 2013

    Other information was taken directly from the website of Bent Architecture

    ​

    Living Places

    Related Resources

    • Design Statements - An Essential First Step to Good Design
    • Building a New Home - The Prebuild Process
    • Understand Auckland's Planning Rules
    • Apply Auckland's Planning Rules to a Site
    • Design for Auckland's Planning Rules
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    Auckland Design Manual

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    To Auckland's Design Manual

    The manual provides professional advice, step-by-step best practice processes and detailed design guidance. The manual will enable us all to make informed choice and build homes, and create new streets and neighbourhoods that not only look great but are built to last, sustainable and give best return on investment.

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    Disclamer:

    The Auckland Design Manual provides supplementary guidance to the Unitary Plan on design matters, which will be updated by the Council from time to time. The Manual is not part of the Unitary Plan and the Unitary Plan doesn’t incorporate the Manual by reference in the terms of the provisions of Part 3 of Schedule 1 to the Resource Management Act 1991. While the Manual sits outside the Unitary Plan, advice notes are occasionally included in the text of the Unitary Plan to alert the reader to the existence of relevant guidance in the Unitary Plan.