Canopy House Project | Acacia Joinery

Client Needs

In designing the home, Walknorth Architects were tasked with transforming the original, modest house into a true family sanctuary. Providing privacy from neighbouring homes on the sloped street was priority in the creation of this ‘forever home’.

In response, the new main living area of this coastal home, features soaring ceilings and custom timber-screened highlight windows which control both privacy and sunlight while facilitating natural ventilation, akin to a tree canopy. The living area, and adjacent single story bedroom wing open onto a contained garden courtyard, providing a private oasis for the family.

Integral to the design was Acacia’s custom designed and manufactured slider doors, highlight windows, and timber screens in Spotted Gum.

Challenges

The large highlight window unit is a significant feature of the home’s voluminous living area. Measuring a total of 17.3 metres in length, this single unit contains multiple window types including fixed pane and louvre windows within the Spotted Gum frame. Working with a window of this size and considerable weight, raises challenges at each stage of manufacture, but is particularly difficult to transport and install.

To add to the complexity, this highlight window unit was to be fitted with continuous timber batten sliding screens, designed to slide across the full length of the unit. The individual sliding screens each measured up to 4 metres in length.

With indoor/outdoor connectivity being fundamental to the architect’s design, the living area sliding door unit, in addition to several other sliding door units throughout, were designed to be frameless. This essentially means that the door unit had no external timber framing at all. In this case, the tracks for the door unit were to be fixed directly into the concrete floor, walls and ceiling. The doors and tracks could not therefore be tested in the factory prior to delivery and installation.

Solutions

To facilitate delivery and installation, the 17.3 metre highlight window was pre-constructed in the factory, then disassembled in multiple sections for transport, before being reassembled onsite for installation. Precise shop drawings and Acacia’s meticulous attention to detail, ensured that the timber batten screens fitted and functioned faultlessly.

Acacia worked in close collaboration with the building and the architecture teams to ensure the frameless doors and tracks lined up exactly. Acacia created extremely detailed shop drawings clearly conveying the accurate set out and on site positioning required for the door tracks. The builder was then able to work with their team and other onsite contractors to ensure the tracks were laid at the exact height and positioning required for a perfect fit.

Outcome

The meticulous planning by all parties and great working relationship between Acacia and the building and architecture teams culminated in a seamless installation process and an incredible end result.

The extensive use of timber throughout the home, contrasts beautifully with use of polished concrete, brick, stone and ceramic tile, delivering a sense of deep comfort and tranquility. The timber screens are a triumph, not only in allowing the family to control privacy and ventilation, but also by imbuing the interiors with beautiful filtered light similar to a tree canopy within a forest.

“Acacia crafted a large suite of custom sliding hardwood timber doors and windows along with sliding hardwood timber screens for privacy and shading for a renovation on the mid north coast of New South Wales. They welcomed our custom and precise detailing and responded with a rigour of their own, working with us to refine and finesse the end result.

The finished result of the Canopy House owes much to the quality of the hardwood joinery that Acacia produced. We look forward to working alongside the team at Acacia on our future projects.”

Jaya Param, Walknorth Architects, Architect

Canopy House

Project Details

Project Overview