![]() The owners of the house were so pleased with the appearance of the concrete walls that they went on to make furniture items from this wondrous material.Ī stunning kitchen island bench and a side wall mounted bench were also manufactured by the builder in concrete. With thought and planning to the detail of the visible features in a concrete façade the concrete walls become an enduring visual treasure. The architect drew construction drawing set outs detailing the position and alignment of wall ties and form boards and the extra effort on the drawing board pays dividends in the visual appearance of the walls. This ensured that the geometric alignment created a pattern that was pleasing to the eye. Extra attention was paid to the line and symmetry of the salient visible features being the tie-bolt holes and form board joint lines. The external concrete walls were constructed as an attractive feature of the facade of the house. Internal heating of a heat storage floor with a bottom up heat flow pattern results in an energy responsible, economical and efficient winter heating system. The overlay was constructed over the top of a supporting 100 mm structural slab.Ĭoncrete has the additional energy advantage of being able to store heat passively creating a home that has an even and stable temperature throughout both winter and summer. For this design the floor consisted of a 100 mm concrete overlay incorporating the hydronic heating elements. Concrete floors have the unique advantage of being able to incorporate heating elements integrally in their structure. As heat rises the most efficient method of heating takes advantage of this: locate the heat source at the bottom and let the heat rise naturally throughout the room. Clean efficient heating of the house was provided by hydronic heating elements cast into the floor of the house. ![]() This allows open natural illumination while maintaining internal privacy – a great advantage in close urban living.Ĭoncrete floors have a lot to offer for energy conservation. Internal privacy for the owners was protected by designing the concrete external walls 2.4 metres high with continuous glazing 550 mm above the concrete wall. This creates eight separate neighbours to keep happy with the building process and the council development application – and concrete was instrumental in building the owners their dream home while satisfying the concerns of the neighbours. A normal single residential building block will often have just three common boundary neighbours, but this block despite its miniscule size has eight boundary neighbours. Small inner city residual blocks create special building challenges and this one was no exception. Concrete walls find solution for city block As Australian cities expand, reconstruction on small inner city blocks becomes increasingly demanding and challenging, and concrete walls with their inherent value of providing an acoustic, thermal and fire resistant barrier close to the boundary are solving the problem.Ī small building block six metres wide by thirty six metres long with a great location at Bronte in Sydney normally doesn’t afford a large footprint for a comfortable home, but using concrete walls close to the boundary and construction over three levels creates an expansive haven.
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