The Slate House - Suburbia re-invented, or, Inside-Out Living at its best

The house inspires, relaxes and calms with its beautifully crafted spaces, natural materials and endless dialogue with nature. Biophilic design, a deep connection with nature such as implemented here, has been shown to benefit occupants’ health and well-being, including stress-reduction, and improving cognitive function.
Each space offers intimate views and engagement with natural surroundings and vegetation, be it from courtyards, gardens, green roofs, or planters. Natural light, ventilation and direct sunlight give a profound sense of diurnal and seasonal rhythms. Borrowed views of gum trees from the adjacent park give the feeling of being immersed in nature, blurring the reality of the suburban setting.

Holistic sustainability concept integrated seamlessly into the design, e.g.
1. Green roof and planters enhance biodiversity, mitigate urban heat island affect, reduce stormwater runoff

2. Biophilia–a deep connection with nature benefits occupants’ health and well-being.
3. Re-used materials, natural materials, low-VOC materials reduce embodied energies/create a healthy living environment
4. Passive solar design–High insulation levels with vapour control/airtightness membrane, thermal mass, active+
passive shading, high performance windows (thermally broken and double glazed), courtyards for ventilation and
deep solar access, etc
5. Integrated active systems like the large solar PV array forms an integral part of the overall design
6. Home automation assists a sustainable lifestyle, eg. alarm is raised when switching on AC while window is open, etc.
7. Innovative Heating/Cooling strategy via solar PV and heat pump technology maximises free solar energy, designed to be Net Zero. The house was designed to maximise passive solar heating, while cooling is provided when ample energy is generated up on the roof. Excess energy then cools the slab, effectively turning the slab into a battery for renewable energy storage.

The design brief was about creating connections, while delivering healthy and sustainable living, and good flow of spaces. All rooms bar one have north-facing aspect. Each GF space connects with its outdoor ‘buddy’, blurring boundaries between inside and out - e.g. the playroom opens towards a ‘play yard’, etc. Upstairs, the master bedroom allows ‘living in the treetops’ and extends to an external private green roof, overlooking the adjacent park. A built-in bunk bed and secret connection ‘door’ between the kids’ rooms add a level of playfulness and delight.

Biophilia.SlateHouse, Northcote, is a home that sits comfortably in the suburban streetscape and draws inspiration from its context, while forming a beacon for the future. Initial streetscape studies led to the strong vernacular roof form: standing out without dominating the street. At the back, the house form fragments, inviting and embracing the parklands, and mediating its built form towards this park and its neighbours left and right.