What is it about Georgian townhouses that we love so much? They are adaptable, they are built with proportions that feel good, with high ceilings and large windows. They are light-filled, yet solid, using materials that improve with age, they are beautifully decorated and when built in terraces create an elegant street scene that evokes a sense of pride. Above all they are loved by everybody.

It is these principles that will inform this design. The design is an evolution of this typology, and not one that strays away from these established design elements, but that simply tweaks them to respond to a modern lifestyle. Most importantly this townhouse has a sustainable conscience.

Families

Families can be tight-knit, far-flung, nuclear, extended, single-parent, 2.4 kids, multi-generational, toe rags, teens, parents, grannies, all shapes and sizes. Pretty much all of us are part of one. Family housing is one of, if not the most socially important housing type in our built environment and yet the family housetype has been forgotten in the design led residential renaissance of the past two decades.

A starting point for this design strategy was to place the family at the core of the design allowing the family to evolve their lifestyles within an adaptable home offering a tailored environment to respond to a particular lifestyle at a moment in time.

What makes a house a home?

We seem to have lost a bit of the character and some of the adaptability and utility that was built into older homes. This has been eradicated from newer homes in the drive for more efficient plans, buildability and lower costs.

This design seeks to return to the feeling of a home by re-using the ingredients of old: essential hidey holes like space under the stairs for vacuums, even a loft to store those Christmas decorations, ‘over the fence’ interactions with neighbours, the garden shed retreat, somewhere to hang your clothes to dry, and so on.

Introducing the Eco Wrap - A prefabricated ‘hood’ that is modular and flexible to respond to orientation and choice

The Eco Wrap dresses the rear elevation and is a frame holding environmental devices to facilitate a minimum of Code for Sustainable Homes level 5. Each part is independent of the other allowing the user/housebuilder to choose their device. The wrap works facing east, west or south, the orientation informing the efficiency of use. Choices are photovoltaic panels, providing electricity for the home and powering electric vehicles, solar thermal collectors providing hot water from the sun, and rainwater harvesting.

To the south elevations only, the hood also operates as an environmental buffer, improving thermal performance in summer and winter with its three storey sun spaces. The hood is capped by a wind cowl offering stacked ventilation and passive heat recovery, and is complemented with green roof and wood pellet heating.

FutureForm

The design embraces modern methods of construction with the use of FutureForm’s innovative light gauge steel, volumetric, energy efficient modular construction system.

Each module is 4.1m wide by 7.5m long and a maximum of 3.5m high. An early design move was the decision to sit the garage and kitchen side by side at the front. This leads to a broad elevation but maximises natural surveillance, creating defensible space, and encouraging community interaction.

The glazed corner kitchen window at the threshold to the home not only helps occupiers to see who is coming and encourage ‘eyes on the street’ but also adds vitality to the streetscape which is reinforced by an option of ‘add-ons’ in the form of bay windows and porches.

The townhouse presents two faces; a thick, solid, front elevation clad with brick slips remaining appropriate to context and memory and a steel and glass lightweight modern look to the rear.

Design strategy

The plan is divided into three: fixed living and adaptable living divided by a services/circulation core. Fixed living contains the base scheme for the family home with dual aspect eating and living levels, sleeping and penthouse level. Adaptable living is occupied by garage, live work unit/young person’s studio, additional bedrooms, and terrace for bedroom extension. Rooflights with lightwells are placed over the staircase to provide natural daylighting and ventilation. The staircase is configured for adaptability and separation of floors for individual use, eg, granny flat on the ground floor.

The section is a response to achieving the high ceiling accommodation enjoyed within the Georgian townhouse, balanced with the demands of the efficiency of mass housebuilding. This is offered through a split section at ground (eating) and first floor (living), and occupying the vaulted roof zone (penthouse).

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