Brisbane's summer is warm and humid rather than fierce, and the winter asks almost nothing of a house, so the question a Brisbane home has to answer is simple: how open can it be? This concept answers it with two storeys under a flat roof, timber battens over the glass, and a kitchen that opens onto the deck so completely that in summer the deck is the dining room.
The block is flat, which lets the house be honest about its two levels: living, kitchen and deck downstairs, bedrooms upstairs behind the screens. The battens are what make the upper floor work. They shade the glass, keep the bedrooms private from the street, and let the breeze through.
On a flat block in a warm climate, the house doesn't have to fight the land. It can spend its effort on shade.
A flat roof, with deep eaves
A flat roof can look severe. Here it is drawn with a wide overhang so it reads as a shelf over the house, and the shade it throws is most of the reason the upper storey stays comfortable. The eaves are deep enough for the summer sun and shallow enough to let the winter sun under.
The kitchen and the deck
The kitchen is drawn as an island that runs to the window, with the deck through one wide opening beside it. The deck sits over the canopy, so it feels a level up even though the house is on flat ground. A garden room with floor-to-ceiling glass closes the downstairs, so the living end of the house is glass on two sides.
What the Studio does with this
Start a home from this look and the Studio sets two storeys under a flat roof, warm timber as the finish, and a kitchen that opens onto the deck. Tell it Brisbane and it will open the living side to the north and the breeze, with a covered outdoor room off the kitchen.
What HWD does here
Subtropical, climate zone 2. Warm humid summer, mild winter. Open to the north and the breeze, with a covered outdoor room off the kitchen and eaves deep enough for a summer sun. Winter asks for little.
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 flat roof, warm timber and the modern open plan style already chosen. Change the rooms, the block and the state, and HWD draws it for where you are.
