High-Performance Home ● Residential Design ● Previous work
Hilltop Residence
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.
Tucked behind the streetscape on a sharply angled battleaxe lot, the Hilltop Residence turns a complex site into an opportunity for clarity, comfort, and performance. Designed to follow the geometry of the land, the home opens to northern light and frames garden views throughout—resulting in a NatHERS 8.1-rated high-performance home in Perth. Created for a young family, the design balances robust, industrial-inspired forms with warm, refined materials. Generous living spaces are complemented by quiet pockets of retreat, all crafted to feel both durable and deeply personal.
Timber detailing brings warmth and cohesion to the interiors, offering a tactile counterpoint to the polished concrete floors, natural stone, and refined textured finishes throughout this high-performance home in Perth.
The new upper level is deliberately modest in scale, designed to sit lightly on the site while improving liveability and thermal performance. Rather than fighting the site’s constraints, the design embraces them—subtly shifting along the shard-like boundaries to optimise solar orientation and privacy. This geometry allows the interiors to open generously to the north, where large sliding doors and full-height glazing invite sunlight deep into the plan and establish a seamless connection with the surrounding garden. Thoughtful placement of openings encourages natural ventilation, reducing reliance on mechanical cooling—key to the home’s 8.1 NatHERS rating and its performance as a high-performance home in Perth.
Inside, the architecture is enriched by a deliberate and tactile material palette. Timber detailing is used sparingly but purposefully, bringing warmth and softness to the clean lines of the interior. This warmth plays against the cooler, industrial palette of white polished concrete floors, high-end stone benchtops, and finely textured laminates. Upstairs, Woodpecker flooring adds further contrast and comfort underfoot. Throughout, materials are chosen not only for aesthetics but also for durability and longevity—reinforcing the home’s commitment to performance, both environmentally and in daily life.
The upper floor is dedicated to the family’s five children, with a series of bedrooms and a shared study space arranged to encourage both connection and privacy. Rather than separating each room into isolated volumes, the plan promotes flow—allowing natural light and air to circulate freely while still providing zones for retreat. A tonal palette of warm timber and soft finishes creates a calm, cohesive backdrop for the children’s spaces, while durable materials ensure the interiors are built to withstand daily life.
Custom joinery plays a key role throughout, offering built-in storage, display opportunities, and subtle spatial definition. Integrated shelving and ledges accommodate books, art, and everyday objects, balancing practicality with moments of visual interest. These details, while modest, demonstrate the home’s commitment to functional design and quiet performance—hallmarks of a considered, high-performance home in Perth.
Thoughtfully integrated shelving, ledges, and custom cabinetry provide space for display without overwhelming the architecture—defining zones and offering moments of pause within the open plan.
Beyond its functional performance, Hilltop Residence is a study in balance—between robustness and refinement, openness and retreat, simplicity and subtle detail.
Beyond its thermal performance and spatial clarity, Hilltop Residence is a study in balance—between industrial strength and everyday softness, openness and privacy, rigour and ease. Designed for a growing family, the home is both refined and deeply personal, with every detail considered to support the rhythms of family life in a high-performance home in Perth.
Designed, documented, and delivered by Matt Burleigh while employed at Whitehaus.