Butterfly Residence in Rutherglen, Victoria Real Estate, Australian Residential Architecture Images

Butterfly Residence in Rutherglen

Contemporary Australian Home in Victoria, Australia design by Steffen Welsch Architects

1 Apr 2019

Butterfly Residence

Design: Steffen Welsch Architects

Location: Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia

The Butterfly Residence is a rammed earth house and was Steffen Welsch’s first completed project and is like an old friend to him that you always come back to. It lives in north east Victoria on a rural site with no town services. It was Steffen Welsch Architects’ first significant sustainable project applying environmentally sustainable design principles throughout.

The response to the harsh climatic conditions was a simple and compact building that uses innovative materials with good thermal properties, has effective solar control and has water collection and water treatment on site. Building elements were standardised to meet the tight budget and time constraints as well as to reduce wastage during construction.

The roof was prefabricated allowing large, column free ceilings and reduced construction times on site. The residence has a single heater, and does not have to rely on air conditioning for thermal comfort. The household uses rainwater only and 110,000 L tanks formed an integral part of the design.

The brief was for a rural home for a busy family with three children working and studying in a large town nearby. They bought a rural block with no town services and intended to build a low impact home with the earth found on the site.

The block had no services, the client not enough money, I had no experience and the earth was not suitable.

Steffen Welsch was very keen to design and build a house with these conditions. It meant to go to first principles. Steffen knew that a simple layout based on passive solar design principles would work: orientation, zoning, sun control, airflow, thermal mass and insulation.

Detailing had to be simple and not overworked to make the house cost efficient to build. This is all self-evident in the home as it presents itself now. It works, it fitsonto the site and it ages nicley like an old friend.