Architect: Steffen Welsch Architects
Project: Doncaster House
Location: Doncaster, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Photography: Rhiannon Slatter
Doncaster House is a single family house designed by Melbourne-based Steffen Welsch Architects.
From the architect: The brief for this modernist home, in leafy Doncaster, was to improve its energy efficiency, extend the existing home for the changing needs of the family, and to open internal living spaces to the outside.
Our approach elevates the whole home through generous insulation, thermal mass, permanent shading, thick curtains, inbuilt weather seals and laminated timber-framed sliding doors (so they don’t warp) – details that make a real difference to the liveability of the home. Informed selection of building materials and systems ensures our clients enjoy garden views through large expanses of glazing, while still maintaining good thermal performance for their home.
We’ve reinvigorated the existing feature courtyards. New living areas engage with the garden, while a zoning rethink creates children’s quarters – complete with rumpus room – and a parents’ wing at the other end of the house, overlooking the garden.
The design language continues through partition cupboards redefining living spaces, and frameless, floor to ceiling double glazed windows set with freestanding stone rendered feature walls.
