Gable House
Gable
noun
- the vertical triangular end of a building from cornice or eaves to ridge.
Gable house is a low energy house, as such it needed to have a simple form with few projections or unnecessary tucks and folds.
The gable provides the protective envelope in which the space folds and opens up. The exterior is a very simple form projecting from the sloping hill site facing the regenerating bush to the West. The interior is a more complex series of intersecting volumes that inhabit the gable fully, providing a home for a family of 4 and their dog.
The house features an airtight construction with an air handling unit for ventilation and fresh air provision, triple glazed aluminium windows and skylights, and pared back structure with a services cavity to the inside of the wall. This construction ensures any penetrations of the airtightness layer and then the thermal envelope beyond are minimised, allowing superior building performance and a comfortable, quiet interior.
The house sits low on the street edge, with the garage hidden below. Continuous dark metal cladding further nestles the house into the green of the bush surrounds. Although a large family home, it is only the help of the drone that allows the scale of the house to be read against the hill. The outside is nearly as quiet as the inside.
the gable hides a surprising interior complexity with its simple triangular face.
Photography by André Vroon


















