Shed House

Shed House attempts the following: - Provide suitable accommodation for a family of five (two parents that run a furniture business and their three children) - To create a multi-purpose space that is suitable for work-from-home tasks, furniture making and leisure activities. - Enable visual and acoustic privacy from adjoining properties, whilst connecting to the street and garden. - To bring the presence of the garden inside, such that the phenomenon of landscape is integral to the home’s atmosphere and able to be enjoyed whilst sheltered from harsh external conditions. - Meet a relatively low construction budget by industry standards for a one-off architectural home.

Shed House is two-story design with the primary dwelling areas located upstairs and multi-purpose “shed” space below. A lushly planted courtyard is the home’s heart that unites the two-story layout. The natural phenomena of landscape and weather are internalised here so that the whole interior has a verandah-like quality. Life in the house revolves around this central oasis, creating a rich interplay between the interior and the surrounds. House and garden are made inextricably one in a dynamic mix of proximity, separation, flexibility, and tranquillity.

The whole site, having previously been a featureless tennis-court, has been transformed with a Shed House; uniting a family with their work, garden, and neighbourhood. The owners have said: “Shed House has changed our lives. We love always being able see each other through the courtyard - feeling together as a family yet able to be separate as needed.” More broadly, not only does the Shed House model offer a beautiful place to live that wholiscally supports a sustainable suburban lifestyle, it also generates a considerable financial value, a fact significant for the architectural profession and the broader Australian housing market.

The Procter family’s decision to engage Breakspear Architects for the design of Shed House was spurred by their admiration for Courted House, an earlier project by the firm in their neighbourhood. Despite their distinct lifestyle compared to the residents of Courted House, the Procters were drawn to the flexibility of the design. Thus, Shed House is a blend of specificities for the Procter family and universal considerations about landscape and adaptability. The plan of Shed House and Courted house are unexpectedly similar given the divergent characters or each home. The two projects give rise to a new model for Australian suburban housing. The model reorganises the components of a four-bedroom house into a highly efficient grid of nine rooms. Corner rooms serve as bedrooms or quiet areas, while a central courtyard is embraced by living rooms arranged in a cruciform layout. The model can be single storey (Courted House), or two storeys (Shed House). Customisable shading elements to the front and rear facades cater to solar control for different orientations; north/south (Shed House) or east/west, (Courted House). In a future iteration, the model’s side walls can become party walls for a new typology: the courtyard terrace house.