House Twenty Seven was constructed on the footprint of a demolished, one-bedroom, social housing townhouse. The new design takes formal and tectonic references from its context while achieving a clean, contemporary aesthetic.
The design focused on using standard construction materials in atypical methods and placements whilst employing the skills of local artisans. This two-bedroom townhouse is constructed from concrete cinder blocks and fully clad in IBR roof sheeting. The IBR roof sheet is given a seamless look by cranking (rounding) the bends, creating a rounded ridge similar to the asbestos roof sheet ridge that was on the previous house.
In a push for sustainability, the new construction uses the previous prefab concrete walls (which were demolished) as quarry for the new floor slabs and other concrete works. Insulation was also added between the IBR sheets and the concrete block walls to reduce uncontrolled thermal energy loss and gains during cold and warm weather.
The emphasis for this design was to explore an attainable architectural composition that is affordable while uncompromising in its details, taking on the ethos of “doing more” with what’s available.
