House for BEES by Downie North Architects
House for BEES, a house located in Mosman, Australia, was designed in 2021 by Downie North Architects. Driven by shared values of connectedness, site-specificity, place making and passive design, House for BEES encompasses a refined addition directly connected to the garden. Conceived as a garden room, the design directly grounds and orients the occupants toward their garden. Kitchen, living and dining spaces are lightly contained by a floating roof.
Garden Room Encourages Seamless Interaction
Conceived as a garden room, the design directly grounds and orients the occupants toward their garden. Kitchen, living and dining spaces are lightly contained by a floating roof, folded to capture northern light and facilitate the capture of easterly breezes. Structural simplicity and legibility dissolves the southern and eastern edge, with banks of sliding doors fully retracting to enable a seamless connection with the garden.
Meeting the Needs of a Small Family
The clients, Sarah and Evan, parents to Barney and Eddie, approached Downie North to create a new addition to their single level Federation era home in Mosman. The rear of the house which would form the focus of the design originally contained a small kitchen and meals areas, pseudo playroom and laundry. As avid cooks and entertainers they sought to create a large kitchen and informal dining and family area that supported a ‘no fuss’, casual approach to living that engendered a sense of ease. Very importantly they sought a design that made the most of its aspect and environs so that they could passively operate the house throughout the year.
Design Integrates Backyard’s Natural Features
Understanding the house within the greater context of Mosman and Sydney Harbour, the site benefited from an unusually deep backyard and position near the top of the ridgeline which would have originally been a processional spine for the Cammeraygal and Borogegal peoples. Coastal breezes were enjoyed and could be harnessed. Neighbours were close by but staggered relative to the original house, affording greater privacy than normal in suburbia and providing opportunities to borrow views from established trees and gardens. The backyard however faced south, complicating opportunities for winterly northern solar gain along with some damp and drainage issues, given the proximity to the bedrock.
Combining Elements for Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Living
Observing how the family enjoyed living in the garden, the design sought to replicate that – at its simplest the house is like a picnic rug laid under a protective canopy. With north to the street and with the existing house sited and addressing that frontage, the rear addition was positioned as close to the western boundary as was feasibly allowed under the instrument of CDC to minimise the impact to the eastern and southern gardens, and established trees. This allowed for the main path of circulation to be maintained along the existing corridor and spine of the house, which encourages direct movement out into the garden.
Stepping up from the original level of the house, to address the slope and minimise excavation, including disturbance of topsoil, the kitchen, dining and family areas commune directly with the garden. Four architectural components – a wall – the protective back, a screen, the open front, a platform and roof, creates precise yet elemental inhabitation. This creates an immediate connection to nature suggested by the minimal shelter of a camp site.
Materiality Aims for Longevity and Sustainability
The masonry wall and its ancillary servant spaces of kitchen and pantry, creates the protective back, featuring a lower roof, discreet openings and smaller proportions, both as a result of its function and in accordance with setbacks. Comparatively the public or served spaces of dining and living are lightly contained by the fully retractable sliding doors, which directly commune with the garden and are topped by the folded roof plane which cranks up to the north to capture winter northern light (whilst excluding summer thermal gain), and also extends to the east to contain the monsoon eave. The folded roof plane acts like a wing, creating lift, as air moves over the ridge. The concealed ventilation in the eaves then drags this air inside the house, passively cooling irrespective of the weather.
Emphasis on Peculiar Plant Life and Sustainable Features
With a focus on craftsmanship, materials were selected for their longevity, sustainability and potential future re-use. Keeping a large portion of the existing building, and minimising the extent of the build, the budget was able to be selectively focused. The client supported the investment of the budget in more expensive elements like the standing seam roofing and balanced this with the use of reclaimed materials, personally hand-cleaning bricks and salvaging joinery, fixtures and fittings from the house or purchasing second hand. The structure, in particularly the steel has been refined to a minimum, to create a material lightness and reduced carbon footprint. It was important to create structural simplicity and legibility so as not to get in the way of a strong connection to the garden.
In addition to its lightness of footprint, material reuse and passive operation, the house benefits from 18kW of solar panels, two 5000L rainwater tanks to irrigate the garden. The working edible garden features fruit trees including native lime, olive and peach trees, warrigal greens, herbs and flowering plants which provide food, along with shade and habitat to native fauna and have been well adopted by native birds and the namesake bees.
Photography by Clinton Weaver
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