Chaucer Residence
CHAUCER RESIDENCE
The Chaucer Residence is a striking example of aspirational modern living within a vibrant inner city suburban community.
JHA provided Hydraulic and Civil services for this architecturally designed renovation and extension of the Federation home in St Kilda. The diversity of spaces and accommodation of extensive and complex programmes required a meticulous approach to detail and layout of the services.
The site’s compact size, heritage-protected facade and narrow rear laneway provided a challenge for all however resulted in a thoughtful and dynamic design of a courtyard-style house that presented discreetly to the street and unfolded spectacularly at the rear.
Due to the flat nature of the site, JHA had to provide a stormwater management strategy to ensure stormwater flows were safely conveyed to the street drainage system. This involved a combination of charged roof drainage systems and working closely with the architect to create overflow paths around the building. Furthermore, water sensitive urban design (WSUD) principles were demonstrated using rainwater harvesting and filter baskets to reduce the amount of pollutant leaving the site, which could impact downstream receiving waters.
Additionally, the site was impacted by overland flooding within the rear laneway where the basement car stacker was accessed. Careful coordination of a flood barrier was required with the architect. Also there had to be consideration around the design drainage of the basement should wind wept water/failure of the tanking system occur. This involved working with the design of the car stacker base structure to allow for emergency storage volume should the pump out systems fail.
Internally, JHA worked closely with the architect to ensure the internal hydraulics were considerate of the open nature of the development, with pipework carefully concealed. With the external exposed pipework, this was designed to ensure the visual impact was harmonized with the external design elements.
Images: Timothy Kaye
