Vale House / Ming Architects

The brief for this contemporary family home called for a practical house with four bedrooms for a young couple with children, with a close connection to nature. The context of the site is a front-facing busy street with high vehicular traffic and a public bus route running along it. From the start, privacy was paramount, and a deliberate decision was made to close off the first-storey living spaces facing the street with a solid-clad wall, creating an internal courtyard on which the house would be orientated.