This is pure curiosity. There’s a vacant lot near where I live that was a small quarry (sandstone) maybe 100 years ago, and has been unused ever since. The council have now sold it, but my partner and I can’t imagine what kind of house you could design that could make good use of the space.
Let me see if I can describe the lot. Imagine a 30 degree slope rising to perhaps 12m (40ft) high. Carve a U-shaped space into it so that the front of the lot is all at the level of the street there, then as you walk into the space the walls rise steeply around you until they are a sheer 12m at the rear. If you were to climb that cliff you’d end up at the street level at the rear of the lot.
So if you build a house in that space, it can have no windows at the rear (unless it’s built very high indeed, a top storey could then have light all round) and few at the sides, and would be almost surrounded by cold rock. The only opening faces west, so you’d get afternoon sun only.
And to get above the cliff the house would need to be quite tall, 4 storeys at least. You’d have a bit of a front yard, probably no way to walk around the outside of the house, and your backyard is only a metre or two wide strip running across the top of the cliff.
This is an attempt at having Google Earth show the lot from a suitable angle: http://www.filedropper.com/quarrylot (links to download of a Google Earth KML file). The houses on either sides are on the natural slope, this lot is the only one that was quarried.
How would you design a residence for such a space? Lots of skylights? I really can’t think of a practical house design for the space. What would you do?
The first two pictures on this site are from the greenhouse/parking lot of what had been a quarry such as you describe. The right side and far end of the first picture are at street level, the greenhouse is on a bluff about 20-30 feet higher than the formal garden. That would be the best solution, I think.
How big is the lot? You mention a 30 degree slope, which implies it’s only 70 feet front to back. That’s not a lot of room to build. Also, Google Earth says the elevation change in that area is no more than 5 feet – not that I believe them over you, but I suspect that you may be overestimating the slope of the hillside. 33% is one of the steepest hills I’ve seen that had houses on it, and all of the lots were leveled.
Incidentally, I can’t tell anything from that photo; everything looks flat, and it’s covered in trees!
Looking at it from Bourke Street seems like that would be your main entrance or does the quarry lot NOT go through to Bourke Street? If it did, you could have a one story house that stair stepped down into the quarry eventually hitting the alley side. In the quarry part I would locate service functions such as baths, laundry rooms, etc and have bedrooms and living rooms facing away from Bourke Street–indeed the roof of the stair stepped next level could function as a deck or roof terrace. I would say if the lot does allow a stair stepped design you could have a quite unique and interesting home built here–but I would suggest you retain the services of a good Architect there in Australia.
That would be my first blush at this without knowing topography, etc. I am an Architect if that helps
Is that the right link? I’m not seeing anything like you describe there. Maybe you could post links to the individual images you refer to? Thanks!
Well the ground IS flat there inside the quarry, of course, but it’s quite a steep slope on either side there. The height and slope are my guesstimates, but your slope/size calculation assumes the slope is over the whole lot, front to back, which it may not be. I might take a walk around it if I can and report back, I’ve only really ever seen it from the fence along the top of the quarry.
Even if it off the other street I think a stepped plan could work. One of my instructors in school had such a home and it was beautiful. Off the lower street I would imagine you would have a garage and a formal entry that took you to the first level above the street that was a living/family room. The stepped up again to bedrooms on the next level up, etc. Same concept with terraces or decks on the roofs of the lower floor plates.
As an Architect I will tell you that it is these types of lots that are most interesting as you get to break out of the mold. Most lots people want something fairly conventional–but conventional wouldn’t work on a lot like this.
OK, back with actual data! I couldn’t get onto the site itself but could look into it from both streets.
The For Sale sign says the property is 446m^2 (4,800 ft^2). The portion on Bourke St (ie on top of the cliff) which could be part of the property is 12m wide x 5m deep, so that leaves 384m^2 in the quarry part. That is more of a funnel shape, 18m wide at the Arnold St entrance tapering to maybe 12m wide at the cliff face. A bit of geometry shows that makes the ground space a huge 25m deep!
As best I can tell the cliff face of the quarry wall is about 12m high, and it is a sheer wall! As are the sides. When my camera’s charged I might go back and see if I can get some ground level shots.
A stepped design would be really cool. It would be good to build roof-top gardens etc at each level. Another option is to possibly have the garage on top of the house - roll on / roll of from the top of the quarry.
I think one of the really big challenges would be mould / mildew at the back of the house, and a lot of attention would need to be paid to this.
It’s the right link…it just isn’t what you’re looking for. In the first picture, the photographer was standing on the top of the stairs, looking down into the former quarry. The greenhouse and maintenance buildings are behind him/her. They’re ugly, anyway. You don’t want to see them.
The file names are fairly self-explanatory except maybe the last one: there’s a wide grassy footpath on the left as you approach the property from the low level, which doesn’t actually get used by anyone to walk on, so could be used as, or as part of, a front garden.
There’s a 4-storey block of flats nearby. Mentally moving it onto this block leaves the very top storey only poking above the high level part of the block (that I’ve called top deck above), so that’s an indication of the height of the cliff face at the back.
I did a search of Development Approvals on the local council’s website but nothing came up.
(BTW one great side-effect of this thread is I’ve discovered the above file hosting site, which is the easiest, quickest, and least ad-cluttered one I’ve ever come across)
