Bates Smart ™

Salvado Street Residence
Cottesloe, Perth

Conceived as a compact and low maintenance residence for a retired couple in Cottesloe, Western Australia, the Salvado Street Residence is a modernist inspired beach home with a clear and rational design to suit the needs of its occupants which breaks with its suburban context of 1970’s brick and tile townhouses.

The design draws inspiration from modernist ideals of living which are tempered by a critical regionalist response to climate and place. Minimal lines and planar forms reference its modernist inspiration whilst materiality and detailing draw from a local palette of materials.

The planning concept is based on a courtyard typology featuring a pond, around which the private spaces and the public entertainment spaces are organised. This duality is emphasised architecturally by separate treatments of the private and public spaces: the public spaces are open plan, outward-oriented and unenclosed spaces gathered under a floating Miesian roof while the private spaces are inwardly focused and enclosed within thick masonry walls which create a sense of privacy and retreat.

Environmental considerations included maximising views, protecting against south-west winds and optimising solar access to the north, particularly during the winter months. The design responds to those constraints directly and affords the occupants a high degree of control over their internal environmental conditions by means of cross ventilation and solar shading utilising sliding louvre screens and large overhangs. Double glazing on doors and thick masonry walls provide thermal insulation to minimises heat loss and gain.

The Salvado Street Residence, drawing simultaneously on the spatial qualities of the International Style and the regional context of coastal Western Australia, reveals a unique take of contemporary Australian architecture.

Bates Smart + Madeleine Blanchfield Architects