The brief was to create a flexible open plan living space that minimises energy use and maximises the north aspect, while rebuilding the wet areas, reclaiming a bedroom, and respecting the existing heritage building.
The turn-of-century worker’s cottage, which is listed on the Local Heritage Register, consisted of two main rooms, two smaller rooms with a curved lean-to roof under the front eaves, and a second lean-to comprising a kitchen and bathroom.
The kitchen and bathroom have been demolished and reclaimed as external spaces: a private service courtyard which hides the plant equipment, and a leafy dining courtyard which gives light and ventilation to the small rooms adjacent the sun-filled link between old and new. The low cost addition takes advantage of the length of the block by placing the new living space deep in the backyard, and using the wet areas to separate the public and private spaces.
The spacious kitchen commands a central view into each outdoor space, allowing access to passive ventilation and casual observation of the client’s young family. With the site’s rear facing northeast, the upper floor has been cleverly twisted ten degrees north to maximise winter sun penetration. The first-floor charcoal box sits atop a two-way sliding door system that enables stacking in multiple positions, providing additional flexibility to the open living and entertaining space.
A library is placed on the upper floor, which is accessed via a quirky plywood ladder incorporated into the second bathroom. It shares this upper level with a double-height void over the living space, which both frames the existing tree and brings unexpected views of the client’s literary collection from the lounge. The extra height enhances the addition’s generosity of light, and exhausts hot air via motorised louvres and draws cooling breezes through the south-facing windows. Two rainwater tanks, collectively storing 5000L, are positioned along the western boundary of the service courtyard, which conceals the clothesline and hot water unit and enables the other outdoor spaces to remain verdant and inviting. The steel frame is expressed at the rear and is folded back to expose the interior to sunlight appropriate to the site orientation.
A simple palette is maintained internally, with dark charcoal painted timber-framed windows, warm-toned EO plywood, low VOC polished concrete flooring, and recycled brick paving. The original jarrah floorboards from the two main rooms are extended into the play area and third bedroom, and provide a clear delineation between the heritage and contemporary forms. Seconds-class double brick with cavity insulation is used as thermal mass. This lends presence to the two sliding forms of the living space, while the colorbond-clad contemporary box wraps deftly down the link and crashes into the cottage walls. The irregular texture of the seconds bricks matches the quirks in the original hand-made structure, and a breeze brick opening on the right-of-way makes reference to the industrial character of the neighbourhood.
The design is fresh, open, light and well detailed, an inner suburban dwelling for the twenty-first century.
Team:
Architects: Jon Lowe
Structural Engineer: Jim Wilson
Builder: Evoque Homes
Photographer: Belinda Monck
Materials Used:
Revolution Roofing colorbond True Oak Deep roofing and cladding, insulated cavity
(seconds-class) painted brickwork, steel super-structure, timber framing, polished
concrete flooring, thirds grade jarrah flooring, recycled brick paving, cedar door and
window frames.
Caroma and Hansa fixtures, Masson (LED) light fittings, Eco Tile Factory tiles,
Laminex Essa Stone benchtop, Kingspan insulation.
