Architect: David Weir Architects
Project: The Exploding! Shed House / small footprint living
Location: Mount Lawley, Perth, Western Australia
Area: 95 sqm
Builder: Leimac Homes
Photographs: Dion Robeson
The Exploding! Shed House is a small footprint living project designed by David Weir Architects. Shed House is located in Mount Lawley, an inner northern suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The client’s brief was simple – a small, affordable home with a yard and a ‘messy space’ for a studio.
Description by David Weir: The Exploding! Shed House is an experiment in small footprint in-fill living for modern Perth, but references a more modest lifestyle of the past. Built in the backyard of a sub-divided bungalow property, this 1-bed, 1-bath home fulfils the goal of a joyful and simple suburban residence while respecting its place and location; greater urban density shouldn’t need to translate to boundary-to-boundary development while ignoring its site and neighbours.
The design eschews unnecessary floor area for a backyard, and limits internal walls to allow for open space, natural light, breezes and views beyond the limits of the house. The mature jacaranda tree anchors the site, and its branches spread over the house to give shade throughout summer. Sliding doors and windows and fans cool the house, and orientation to the North and thermal mass help to heat the house in the winter.
The materials used inside and out split the building into weatherboard cottage and corrugated studio (a reference to the shed at the bottom of the garden). The clean white walls and ceiling of the residence give way to the more hand-crafted wood linings of the workshop. The house is tied together with the simple yet durable concrete floor running throughout the home. The yard is paved with concrete council pavers rescued from a local renovation.
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