Laurel Grove by Kirsten Johnstone Architects

Laurel Grove home was designed to celebrate sustainable materials and artfully combines rammed earth, Australian timber and burnished concrete. The rammed earth blade walls serve a dual function of protecting the home from the western sun and provide solar mass properties, along with the ground floor burnished concrete slab.

Designed by Kirsten Johnstone Architecture, the home is sited on land with a Significant Landscape Overlay which requires the conservation and enhancement of landscape qualities inherent in the area. This requirement bought about the use of materials which were sustainable and respectful to the area while generous window frames provide views of the unique surrounding bush-surburban landscape.

Sustainability specs:
– Rammed earth walls used as thermal mass
– Burnished concrete flooring on the ground floor used as thermal mass
– Australian ecologically sourced timbers used as cladding and internally
– Large, well-placed windows provide ample natural light
– Drought tolerant garden with gravel paths

Upon completion of the project, the clients have become innately attached to their home and the immediate area, joining the local environmental group to ensure future developments in the area are similarly sensitively designed in this much-treasured bush-suburban streetscape.