Cricket Pitch House

by Scale Architecture

From the Architect

The Cricket Pitch house is a 2 storey garden house was designed specifically around the owner’s love of backyard cricket. The linear organisation of the house creates a long north-facing side yard that maximises solar access to the house, while also forming the ideal dimensions for the backyard cricket pitch.

Located in a well-established suburban part of Sydney, the building’s form recalls the pitched roofs of its environs. The roof ridge runs diagonally across building, creating four different facades, each responding to their orientation. Viewed from any angle it never looks out of place, yet retains its own unique architectural language creating four different facades, each responding to their orientation.

A light-filled stair void makes a transverse ‘cut’ through the building, filtering light deep into the internal spaces. This floating stair also interrupts the plan, acting as a key programmatic separation for the master bedroom from the kid’s bedrooms, as well as the living area from the kitchen and dining spaces. This ‘cut’ is expressed with a 2 storey steel vertical window on the north façade and with a ‘notched’ skylight on the southern side. The lives of the inhabitants have been enhanced and enriched by the design – exceptional comfort levels have been achieved using thermal mass contained in the recycled brick wall and troweled finish concrete floor, the high performance of the ventilated timber façade and clear cross ventilation paths

Finely detailed board finished concrete provides texture and mass to the study and entry spaces, while large timber framed glass sliding doors open from the dining and living spaces to the garden. The upper brick volume is punctured by horizontal windows, framed by painted steel surrounds that protect the glass from the intense summer sun.

The design allows for a compact and efficient floor plan that leaves space for a generous backyard for a growing family. The large setback on the northern side both provides privacy and maximum solar access whilst surrounding the living space with a garden. Each room having its own unique garden.