Mildura is on the Murray in the north-west corner of Victoria, and it is hot and dry: long summers, a cool winter, and not much rain in any season. A house there has two jobs the roof can help with. It has to keep the summer sun off, and it has to catch what rain there is. A butterfly roof does both.
The roof is two planes that fall towards the middle, like a shallow V. The high edges are on the outside, which leaves room for tall windows on both sides of the house. The low point in the middle is one long gutter, and every drop that falls on the roof goes to one place: a tank at the end of the house.
On a dry block, the roof is the water supply. A butterfly roof sends all of it to one tank.
Around a courtyard
The plan is built around a courtyard, which in a hot dry climate works harder than a deck. It is shaded by the house for most of the afternoon, sheltered from the hot wind, and the rooms around it get their air from the cool side. A shade sail and one tree finish it.
Steel, and high light
The outside is dark steel, which sheds heat quickly at night and needs almost nothing to keep. Inside, the high windows under the roof let in an even light all day without letting in direct summer sun, and the west wall has almost no glass at all.
What the Studio does with this
Start a home from this look and the Studio sets a single storey under a butterfly roof, dark steel as the finish, and an island kitchen. Tell it Mildura and it will draw a sheltered courtyard rather than an open deck, small openings to the west, and living rooms that face north for the winter sun. The gutter in the middle wants careful detailing, and a builder will say so.
What HWD does here
Hot dry, climate zone 4. Hot dry summer, cool winter. A hot summer and a cool night: a sheltered courtyard rather than an open deck, small openings west, and living rooms that face north for winter sun.
The Studio reads the climate from the town or postcode you give it. The zone boundaries follow a map, not postcodes, so it prints its reading as a note, never as a compliance statement.
Draw your version of this home.
Opens the Studio with the butterfly roof, dark steel and the modern open plan style already chosen. Change the rooms, the block and the state, and HWD draws it for where you are.
