Pi_Pad is a townhouse renovation and new top floor addition that explores multi-generational and multi-modal living, landscape and place. The focus of the design is a beautiful upper level living retreat, clad in dark metal with timber deck and privacy screens. The form explores raking roof, soaring eaves and dual balconies to anchor interior and exterior garden spaces into the St Kilda West landscape.
Who are the clients and what's interesting about them?
• The clients run a family farm in The Mallee, however work brings them regularly to their Melbourne crash pad, with children at boarding school, family and friends also needing to be accommodated in groups together or individually
• Connecting to landscape was the priority for the clients, whose rural home is immersed in big landscape with big sky.
How is the project unique?
• Pi_Pad creates its own big sky moment on an inner city site. External spaces are visually connected to the landscape, with a view axis through aligned door openings from the rear deck all the way to the front balcony and streetscape tree canopy.
• Instead of feeling enclosed, the rear deck feels expansive and connected to the landscape. The timber privacy screens are carefully designed with deep timber blades and larger openings between, to allow a horizontal view out. The screens are variegated, wth step-changes in batten patterns, to mimic the patterns found in nature.
• We used rural shed typologies to advantage. Featuring raking roof and soaring eaves, active and passive solar design, capturing rainwater, utilising low embodied energy or longevity of materials, and clever skylights to provide transformative in spatial and design quality.
• Details that elevate the external form include bespoke corner junctions to the Spandek cladding that dissolves the form. A triangulation to the cladding in the boundary walls of the raking roof that lightens form and provides a generous urban response to the street
• The façade response is critical to the design – the pattern of fenestration splits from two windows to three full-height aperture on the upper level, differentiating the new and aligning a view axis from the roof-deck landscape immersion to the streetscape landscape immersion along Canterbury Road and beyond.
What was the brief?
• The brief was to add an additional level with main bedroom, walk-in robe and ensuite, and ideally an upper level deck. The rational strategy to build the new rooms over the existing envelope for sustainability and budget reasons, allowed a larger deck than might otherwise be achieved, and an additional living area, creating a true retreat on the upper floor.
• The client’s budget was not immune from the cost pressures of today particularly in it’s ‘crash pad’ form, yet, the house needed to age into a place of temporal permanence for a future tomorrow when it will become their main home.
• A requirement to completely renovate the cramped kitchen was added halfway through the construction build.
What were the key challenges?
• The clients were very concerned about the planning condition to screen the entire perimeter of the deck, worried it would feel enclosed and prison-like. This drove the solution for the deep-blade and variegated privacy screens, a primary feature of the design.
• The kitchen renovation was added to the scope of works during construction, and flexibility was required from the builder to accommodate the new scope within the existing timeframe . The result transformed the entire ground floor.
What were the solutions?
• The multi-modal solution was to enable all occupants to ascend through to the upper level retreat, by placing the living area near the new deck, and layouts that create view corridors from front to back, anchoring to external space.
• Zoning works with one occupant or 10; The island bench although small can keep pesky guests intimately out of the way during cooking activities, and an additional bathroom on the middle level was created by splitting the existing one into two.
• The client’s budget was not immune from cost pressures, however through careful selection and curation of materials we designed a house that will age into a place of permanence for a future tomorrow when it will become their main home.
• The new kitchen was able to double in size by spilling into the central area of the floor plan and through clever borrowing of redundant circulation-space
• The design celebrates the metal craftsmanship of the original balustrade through new timber elements in stair and joinery.
What are the sustainability features?
Pi_Pad exceeds 6-star NatHERS rating and post-occupancy performance exceeds expectations.
Prescient consideration was given to energy use, and gas supply was decommissioned. An all-electrical installation supported by a 5KW solar array was achieved, despite the compact room form, utilising high-efficiency solar panels.
All timber was specified and checked during construction to be FSC or chain-of-custody equivalent, including timber screens, timber used the stair and balustrade, the kitchen timber battens, Royal Oak floor/benchtops and the Polytec timber veneer. The 'raw concrete' caesarstone is environmentally friendly and certified for its durability and low maintenance, and all paints and carpets are low-VOC.
A 1000L rainwater tank is installed in the front garden together with raingarden and ground-floor WC flushing, and other energy efficient installations including a heat-pump to drive hot water and air-conditioning.
Skylights are aligned in the floor-plan layout even though a new level is added, aligning the new ones over the old for light penetration through to the ground floor particularly in the stair and kitchen voids. The stairwell linear skylight extends into the eaves overhang as an optical illusion, extending interior space into the sky.
Team:
Architecture & Interiors: McMahon and Nerlich
Builder: Horizon Building Group
Photographer: Shannon McGrath
Materials Used:
Indoor Furniture Kitchen & Lounge Room :
• Custom black dining table by Home Concepts
• Dining chairs by Home Concepts
• Couch “Delta IV” with storage and smart arms by King Living
• Jenny Jones ’Wabi Sabi’ Rug in Duck Egg
• Paintings by mcmahon and nerlich
• Floor Lamp and table lamp from RJ Living
• Side Table from RJ Living
• Anaca Studio ‘Edgar” table in Espresso
• Cushions from Vincent and St Marcs
• Throw ; by Sarde from Nest South Melbourne
• Kettle and Toaster by Alessi
• Black Vase by Dinosaur Design
• Pottery bowls by Three Bowls Full
• Green glass vases by Anaca Studio
• Indoor plant pots from Garden of Eden
• Downlights by Masson for Light
• Ceasarstone benchtops in “soft concrete”
• Dulux “Ash Grey” cabinets
• Miele semi-integrated dishwasher
• Fisher & Paykel French Door Fridge
• Sirius dual-motor rangehood
• Franke fragonite sink in grey
• Misu Drift Mk2 gooseneck black kitchen pull-out mixer tap from Reece
• Timber Vic-ash battens by Porta
• Door handles from Designer Doorware
Main Bedroom & Robe;
• Green velvet bedhead by RJ Living
• Oak Side Tables by RJ Living
• Linen by St Marcs for Nest South Melbourne
GENERAL
• Joinery veneer from Polytec Natural Oak
• Splashback; green colour-back reeded glass
• Pull-out mirror by Hafele
• Carpet; Supertuft Escape Velour in Yasmin
• Floor & Wall Tiles MOOVE from Earp Broos
• All tapware (except kitchen sink mixer) by Astra Walker in black
• Timber Flooring (Upper Level) by Royal Oak
• Lighting by Masson for Light;
• Print (bedroom) by Madeleine Goodwolfe
• Shower screen to custom design by mcmahon and nerlich, black powdercoat
• Towel by Sarde for Nest South Melbourne
• Dish by Clae Studio
• Indoor Plant Pots by Garden of Eden
• Stoneware dispenser by Robert Gordon
• Indoor and outdoor Plants from Plantmark
• Black feature outdoor pots by Pots Centre
ACCESSORIES & FURNITURE
• Coouch ‘Johanna’ from Cosh Living
• Anaca Studio ‘Flo’ armchair in American Oak and black leather
• Anaca Studio ‘Emi Pod’ in stained black American Oak
• Anaca Studio Coco Ottoman in white
• Photograph print by Christopher Tung
• Green wool blanket by Jardan
• Green metal plant pots from RJ Living
• Feature desk lamp by Wastberg from Euroluce
• Ceramic Valley Vessel in white by Clae Studio
