High-Performance Home ● Residential Design ● Previous work
Axis House
Designed, documented, and delivered by Matt Burleigh while employed at Whitehaus.
For Hilltop Residence, a challenging battleaxe site in Perth became the foundation for a high-performance home defined by bold simplicity, layered materiality, and passive solar design. Designed, documented, and delivered by Matt Burleigh while employed at Whitehaus.
Axis House is a high-performance family home in Perth, designed for a complex battleaxe lot with challenging geometry and limited street presence. Defined by bold simplicity, layered materiality, and passive solar planning, the home achieves an 8.1 NatHERS rating through carefully considered form and orientation. The project was designed, documented, and delivered by Matt Burleigh while employed at Whitehaus.
Timber detailing brings warmth and cohesion to the interiors, offering a tactile contrast to polished concrete, natural stone, and softly textured surfaces throughout this high-performance home in Perth.
The new upper level is deliberately modest in scale, designed to sit lightly on the battleaxe site while improving thermal comfort and overall liveability. Instead of resisting the shard-like boundaries, the design follows them—subtly angling the form to optimise solar access and privacy. North-facing glazing and large sliding doors draw sunlight deep into the plan, enhancing passive performance and creating a seamless flow to the surrounding garden. Strategically placed openings promote natural ventilation and reduce reliance on mechanical cooling—key to the home’s 8.1 NatHERS rating and its identity as a high-performance home in Perth.
Inside, a tactile and durable material palette grounds the architecture in comfort and resilience. Timber detailing is used with precision, softening the crisp industrial base of polished white concrete, high-end stone, and finely textured laminates. Upstairs, warm timber flooring introduces further contrast and comfort underfoot. Each material was chosen not only for its visual balance but also for its longevity—reinforcing the home’s passive performance ethos and its suitability for large family living.
The upper level is dedicated to the family’s five children, with a sequence of bedrooms and a shared study designed to support both connection and privacy. Rather than treating each room as an isolated volume, the layout encourages openness—allowing natural light and air to circulate freely while still offering retreat. A tonal palette of timber and soft finishes creates a calming backdrop, while robust materials ensure the interiors meet the demands of busy family life.
Custom joinery is used throughout to offer built-in storage, spatial clarity, and everyday functionality. From shelving to window ledges, each element is carefully integrated—balancing visual interest with practicality. These quiet design moments reflect the home’s broader ethos: a commitment to durable, functional architecture tailored to large families, and a defining example of a high-performance home in Perth.
Integrated shelving, ledges, and custom cabinetry offer space for display without overwhelming the architecture—defining subtle zones and creating moments of pause within the open-plan layout.
Beyond its functional performance, Axis House is a study in balance—between robustness and refinement, openness and retreat, simplicity and considered detail.
Beyond its thermal performance and spatial clarity, Axis House is a study in contrasts—balancing industrial strength with everyday softness, openness with privacy, and architectural rigour with lived-in ease. Designed for a growing family, the home is both refined and deeply personal, with every detail considered to support the rhythms of daily life in a high-performance home in Perth.
Designed, documented, and delivered by Matt Burleigh while employed at Whitehaus.