Designing an efficient, comfortable home and the 'future of urban living' with Home by Hütt.
Designing an efficient, comfortable home and the 'future of urban living' with Home by Hütt.
Nestled down the tiny, rugged back lane in Melbourne's northern suburbs of Coburg, stands a bold, modern home in a beautiful, tranquil garden. While it's impressive and delightful, it's the Passivhaus technology that elevated it to an award-winning 'eco-friendly' house. This new-build was constructed by the co-founders of Melbourne Design Studios, interior designer Felicity Bernstein and Architect Marc Bernstein. Through this challenging project, the Bernsteins not only created their family home but also a prototype for their new venture, Hütt, designing 'ready-to-build' Passive Houses for others to embrace a sustainable lifestyle.
From the beginning, the aim of this build was to utilize every part of a small footprint of land to build a contemporary, sustainable home, without sacrificing modern luxuries. Keeping the home carbon-free and using a holistic approach to materials to ensure seamless cohesion between architecture, design and sustainability were essential in creating the most efficient and comfortable home.
Using organic materials, such as Bauwerk's 100% non-toxic and VOC-free limewash paint, was a must for Felicity to create a natural feeling for the interiors. To complement the internal raw timber finish, they looked for a mid-neutral warm colour. In order to maximise breathability within their walls they used Rockcote, a clay render, for their walls. After a coat of water was applied (raw materials can be thirsty!), one coat of Bauwerk limewash paint in Chalk was applied in our traditional cloud technique, followed by one coat of Bauwerk Flannel Flower. As limewash has a level of translucency, it's possible to layer our paint for customised colours. This technique can also create more visual movement as you'll see peeks of the varying tones within the varied brush strokes. The result is a beautiful, organic, matte look, complimented by the subtle appearance of old organic-rendered walls. Using limewash paint over the raw-rendered walls means the surface stays natural and breathable and ultimately contributes to the environmental aims of the construction.
