Three Florist's Houses – Living With Plants Across Three Sites

Project Overview

My occupant is a florist, and according to a florist’s working requirements, I design a flower shop, a flower farm and a research house in North Melbourne, Castlemaine and Lerderderg respectively.

 

The florist usually lives in the flower shop. In autumn and winter, she goes to the flower farm and lives there, spending time planting seasonal flowers. In summer, she goes to the research house every weekend to study local plants.

 

Across the three houses, the consistent design concept is to use flowers and plants as the main elements to divide the space, allowing the florist to live with plants while also protecting her privacy.

 

House 3: Research House – Living Under the Plants

Spatial Strategy

In the research house, the strategy is living under the plants. No one will disturb my occupant here, so I designed the plants and living areas to be more closely connected, which is also more convenient for the florist to study and get close to plants.

 

Materiality and Environmental Strategy

The main material of the research house is also 45x120 seasoned hardwood, covered by zincalume cladding. This house doesn’t have a roof; instead, the tree in the middle is used as the roof, providing more ventilation and sufficient sunlight.

When it rains, the inclined cladding blocks part of the rain, while some raindrops flow into the grass through the open steel flooring in the middle.

 

Conclusion Strategy

These three houses together form a set of industrial chains belonging to the florist. The system is also environmentally friendly, producing a smaller carbon footprint because the flower mileage is reduced and there is less need for processing and refrigeration.