Bold form & passive energy define this San Pawl tat-Targa home designed to maximise daylight
From its corner, semi-detached position to its unusual triangular shape, this site in San Pawl tat-Targa offered a unique canvas from the get-go – one that Studjurban founder and lead architect, Antoine Zammit, realised into a modern home that maximises space, natural light and energy-efficiency.
“To me, this project is another confirmation that important design criteria provide basic starting points to any design,” he notes, including “a sensitivity to context, a close regard to orientation (particularly understanding sun path), using natural light as a key determinant of wellbeing, a clear knowledge of energy conservation and passive energy opportunities while providing an appropriate response to user requirements.”
“These criteria need to work in tandem and reinforce each other in order to create a quality and resilient outcome.”
The design of this dwelling takes a playful approach to light and shadow, particularly externally where a bold vertical rhythm that echoes the shape of the site is visible from street level, framing the rest of the building.
Internally, the house’s layout is inverted; the main living areas were placed at the top and bedrooms at the bottom, allowing for cooler spaces in summer that are also easier to warm up in winter.
“The potential for entertainment is acquired with an outdoor terrace that is accessible from the main living/dining space and leads to an outdoor terrace and a pool deck enveloping a 10-metre-long lap pool.”
The lower levels enjoy natural light through a central courtyard that reduces the reliance on artificial lighting, receiving direct light from the morning sun which diffuses into the bedroom areas and indirect light in the afternoon, when the courtyard is in the shade, reducing heat gains to the rooms that surround it while still providing desired daylighting.
A key design element of this home is the solar chimney which doubles as a lightwell, traversing three storeys from the courtyard on the lowest level which heats up air at the top through a glazed skylight.
“Rising by convection, the air escapes out of openable apertures, pulling the cooler air at basement level through the building to naturally cool the living spaces during hot Maltese summers. The solar chimney also provides a shaft of diffused natural light down to basement level.”
From a six-metre-long picture window located in the west-facing kitchen that takes advantage of beautiful sunset views to skylights and dramatic portals, natural light is exploited to its fullest, flooding the property with a warm brightness throughout various times of the day.
“Together with the solar chimney, 18 PV panels for passive energy generation and a fully insulated building skin throughout the walls and roof contribute to a net-zero energy (NZE) building,” says Antoine. “The presence of a basement provides a plenum set at a constant temperature while reducing humidity levels in the upper living areas.”
Internally, the building is as striking as its exterior, where a rich material palette of marble, granite, concrete, perforated steel and bamboo set an elegant tone, earning this project a BIG See Architecture Award in 2024 in Ljubljana, Slovenia in the Residential Architecture category.
“At a time when environmental goals have reached a critical point, this project aims to provide optimal living conditions for its users, focusing primarily on ensuring the presence of natural light that diffuses constantly throughout the property, while minimising the energy requirement for cooling and heating,” says the Studjurban founder.
“The design of the property questions the often ‘obvious’ decision to have sleeping quarters located above the living areas, inverting this logic to provide the areas wherein one spends most time during the day with the best natural light and visual aspect, while simultaneously enabling more temperate conditions for the sleeping quarters.”
via Design Dispatch
