Rob Roy House

Neils clients were initially tossing up between renovating and extending an old brick house on the site or building a completely new house. The design process commenced with providing solutions for both options that were considered against sustainability, cost of construction and design benefit. Given the substantial changes in ground level across the site it was very difficult to add to the existing house and it was resolved that a new house on the site provided benefits over renovating on all counts. The house was to serve my clients in their active lifestyle while also providing space for the occasional visit form adult children.

There are records of Noongar families living in the Swanbourne area right up to the 1950’s. There was significant interaction between the local Noongar families and the newly developing urban area of Swanbourne in the early 1900’s.

‘Minderup, (Freshwater Bay) and Galbamaanup (Lake Claremont also previously known as Butlers Swamp) were campsites in traditional times before European colonisation. Despite the land being granted to colonists from the 1850’s, Noongar People maintained connection to this country, often through relationships with the landowners. They continued to camp, particularly at the swamp, until the Nedlands Road Board bulldozed the last camps in 1951’. (Source: ‘That Was My Home’ by Denise Cook. UWA Press 2019).

The Swanbourne area features ancient sand dune mounds and multiple historic swamp sites. The dune system of the Swan Coastal Plain generally runs north / south parallel with the coats. In Swanbourne the two largest dunes have a lower ‘saddle’ between them which is the location of the local shops and train station at Swanbourne Village. The area immediately behind the primary coastal dune systems was previously swampland before the swamps were infilled, such as was the case in the now Allen Park. Swampland exists to this day, although much reduced in area to the eastern side of Swanbourne in what is now known as Lake Claremont. 

Rob Roy House site sits near the peak of the large secondary dunes between the former swamplands to the west and to the east. Tamala Limestone can be found below these large dunes, with loose rock, limestone spears and solid limestone to be found at varying heights below ground level. Tamala limestone ‘spears’ (vertical shafts of limestone rock) were found on the site of the house during the excavation part of the construction process

The house is located at the corner of Rob Roy and Franklin Streets in Swanbourne. In this pocket of Swanbourne, the streets are named after ships that served the Western Australian coast from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Street names such as Rob Roy, Franklin, Saladin, Otway, Deakin and Australind reflect the shipping history of Western Australia. The ship SS Rob Roy (1867–1901) was a coal fired steamship (with provision for sails) that made monthly visits to Geraldton, Fremantle and Vasse carrying mail and passengers to and from the colony. Coal for the steamship was supplied via the coal mines of Collie. The curved screen walls and retaining walls at radius at the ground floor level serve to visually ‘turn the corner’ on this corner site, but also speak of the tumultuous seas on which the historic ships of the suburbs name sakes roads once experienced on the Indian Ocean. These walls at radius were designed originally with the intention that they would be constructed from limestone, something that didn’t unfortunately eventuate with construction.

Upon this fascinating history involving the use of coal, we sought to design within the constraints of budget, the most sustainable new house possible. The three-story building, with the exception of the lower ground floor fly-ash concrete floor slab, is fabricated entirely from locally sourced timber. Passive solar design ensures excellent winter sun penetration to all internal and external living spaces, while the narrow width of the building allows efficient cross ventilation to all rooms.

Stories of place continue within the fabric of the building as the expressed timber wall trusses reference the tartan of the nearby Scotch College along with the tartan of the street’s namesake Robert Roy MacGregor (1671–1734) who had the reputation of being the Scottish Robin Hood.

The parameters of the maximum height permissible were tested to achieve the highest possible first floor level, thereby providing panoramic views west from the master bedroom to the coastline of Swanbourne beach where the SS Rob Roy would have once been visible.

With the exception of the concrete ground floor slab, the remainder of the buildings structure is constructed entirely from timber. Timber can dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of a new building. Of all the main available building materials, timber is the most environmentally friendly, as it has the lowest energy consumption and the lowest carbon dioxide emissions. Timber is not toxic, does not release chemical vapour into the building.

The design also used the existing buried structure of an old disused swimming pool as retaining wall thereby avoiding the cost and additional materials that would have otherwise been required to construct a new retaining wall.

Roof top solar PV panels and sub-floor storm water storage tanks add to the building’s environmental credentials.