Niwat Architects was founded on 1972 by Dr.Niwat Tantayanusorn. With a focus on Lanna culture, Niwat Architects has designed dozens of buildings, mainly residential and hotel&resort.The cultural and environmental based designs are spread all over the Thailand, mainly in northern part of the country.Architect in Chiangmai,Architects in Chiangmai,Chiangmai Architects,Sustainable Architecture Chiangmai,Lanna Architecture Chiangmai,Contemporary ,Architecture Chiangmai,Architecture Office Chiangmai,Passive Architecture Design Chiangmai,Green Architecture Chiangmai,Environmental Architecture Changmai,Northern Thailand Architecture,Hotel and Resort Architecture Chiangmai,Residential Architecture Chiangmai,House Design Chiangmai,Eco-House Architecture Chiangmai,Thai Local Architecture Office Chiangmai,Northern Thailand Architecture Office,Lanna Architecture Chiangmai

1. Green House home located in the fine grain suburb of Rozelle
Green House is a light-filled, robust, urban-infill home located in the fine grain
suburb of Rozelle. The home is flexible; accommodating two businesses,
overseas travellers and a growing family. A home office and florist’s studio
double as guest bedrooms and mezzanine levels in the children’s bedrooms
provide additional play/storage space.
Project Details:
Location: Rozelle, Australia
Type: Residential – Houses
Project Completion Date: 13/08/2013
Architects: Carterwilliamson architects – www.carterwilliamson.com
Project Team: Shaun Carter – Lisa Merkesteyn – Kellie Beatty
Builder: David Fletcher Construction
Landscape Architect: Melissa Wilson Landscape Architects
Engineer: Cardno

2. The site falls by two storeys from Hartley St to the lane at the rear; creating a
unified living plane was one of the key design gestures in this project. Kitchen,
living and dining engage with the courtyard-like garden with a studio sitting
atop the garage at the rear boundary, creating an amphitheatre back to the
main house.
Upstairs the spaces are quiet and restful; bedrooms and a secluded,
contemplative library divided by a glazed void with views to the sky.
Though the site has a double frontage, it was challenged for light and series of
voids, courtyards and lightwells have been designed to liberate the plan. The
tiled courtyard off the florist’s workshop and living space is cool and restful,
whilst a tiny lightwell with cascading planting addressing the two-storey stair
draws in snatches of bright northern light. At the rear the house is cleaved in
two by an internal lightwell and glazed void which swallows light deep into the
home and programmatically defines the open plan spaces of the ground floor.
green architecture chiangmai

3. Photo © Carterwilliamson architects
One of the great successes of this home is that it accommodates a wide range of
programs in a relatively small footprint; well suited to our client’s lifestyles.
There is plenty of room to grow their family and to house their steady flow of
overseas visitors as well as a home office and florists studio- both of which can
be converted to additional bedrooms or living spaces as required.
A generous timber island anchors the living spaces of the home; part
workspace, part sculpture and impromptu dinner table, it is the locus for family
life.
At it’s Hartley St address the Green house takes it’s cues from nearby raking
roof-forms, matching alignments and setbacks to compose a facade that is both

4. contemporary and sympathetic to the streetscape. The single storey street
frontage belies the generous two-storey home concealed behind the modest
ridgeline.
The studio/garage typology is common in the rear lane and is positioned to
address both the lane and the home, whilst maintaining a green band of
vegetation consistent with neighbouring properties. The studio form and
boundary walls give the rear yard a secluded feel delightfully at odds with the
home’s dense urban context.
Our client’s busy lives meant that it was important the home was low
maintenance. The house is clothed in robust face brick and glass mosaic tiles
that are easily hosed down to wash away accumulations of salt and dirt and
which provide colour and texture to the building and give it a playful, graphic
patterning.
The clients are thrilled that the most common compliment they get from visitors
is about the quality of light throughout the home. The old house had been dark
and damp and it was key to the brief that the new home dispel these
associations. green house architect
Though the home has a strong sense of connection to the outdoors, the
external spaces are compact and constrained. Landscaping was particularly
important to our client who works as florist, it needed to be low maintenance
but also provide colour and texture to the home.
The collaboration with Melissa Wilson Landscape Architects maximised the
potential of the outdoor spaces and addressed a variety of tricky microclimates.
It included the creation of bespoke timber garden boxes that hang in the shady,
green courtyard, adding to the lush feel of the space.

5. Photo © Carterwilliamson architects
The clients invested in ideas like the green mosaic tiles, face bricks and timber
windows which give the home so much of it’s colour and character. Though
these items appear expensive at face value, long term they are financially and
environmentally efficient choices, their cost and embodied energy being
amortised over a long life-span and their inherent robustness reducing the need
for intensive, ongoing maintenance.
This home was built with a “build-it-once and once only” approach, designed to
amortise the embodied energy of its parts and materials over a long life-span.
Although it is generously sized it is spatially efficient, incorporating a range of
programs and allowing our clients to work from home, reducing the frequency
of their commute. ECO House Architects
The home operates passively through much of the year with the courtyard plan
and glazed lightwell providing myriad opportunities for cross-ventilation and
abundant natural light.
At it’s Hartley St address the Green house takes it’s cues from nearby raking
roof-forms, matching alignments and setbacks to compose a facade that is both
contemporary and sympathetic to the streetscape. The single storey street
frontage belies the generous two-storey home concealed behind the modest
ridgeline.

6. The studio/garage typology is common in the rear lane and is positioned to
address both the lane and the home, whilst maintaining a green band of
vegetation consistent with neighbouring properties. The studio form and
boundary walls give the rear yard a secluded feel delightfully at odds with the
dense urban context.