A Brief Summary of the Project
Charming period style meets new world sensibilities in this unique, compact home in Northcote, Melbourne. The Thomson House combines creative ideas, shared spaces, and contemporary character to lift an old cottage into the modern day, providing a refreshing extension that is light filled with playful details, functional living & spaciousness.
The extension & retrofit to the quaint heritage home sought to provide an efficient response to the challenging small lot. The program’s aim was to find a balance between how much to keep and how much to demolish in order to maximize space and improve livability with an open, free flowing floor plan that makes sense when combined with the existing layout.
What was the brief & how did you interpret it?
Spatial constraints & client’s brief to expand the homes number habitable rooms, provided key opportunities to develop a unique dwelling that responds positively to its surroundings, whilst increasing floor area & preserving the original abodes character. Combined with contemporary, spirited architecture and interiors, the aim was to showcase natural light and improved wellbeing with strong interactivity & functionality between spaces.
The original, dark labyrinth of a layout was reconfigured to an open plan with strategic flow - achieving the clients desire to convert the run down 2-bedroom dwelling occupied by squatters, into a 3-bed home with modern amenities and ample outdoor & indoor space. By rearranging and pushing out the center & rear of existing dwelling, enabled a 3rd bedroom. In terms of positioning of rooms, the house was divided in two, keeping private areas requiring less light & more seclusion, in the front of the dwelling, and prioritizing active, communal spaces, that would benefit from a greater capacity of space and light to the north facing rear.
Entertainment rooms sit at the back where the dwelling unfolds to embrace a double height volume, absorbing northern light & greenery. By borrowing space from the yard, the extended footprint ensured the kitchen, dining & living (one of the most used spaces in a home) is maximized. To make up for the reduced yard, the design adds a second level with multipurpose room above, connecting dual living alongside outdoor space, for alfresco dining and entertaining, with vistas across the neighborhood via the open mezzanine level & outdoor terrace.
How is this project unique?
Smaller footprint living via well-connected zones and playful experiences is at the essence of this house. The home was created to enhance the lifestyle of inhabitants without compromising on natural light, space and ambiance. This considered proposal promotes the idea that you can still live big in a compact home, reimagining the Australian suburban family house and architectural language.
Respectfully the house connects with its past, the present and surrounding environment. Retaining neighbourhood character and the original Edwardian charm, the restored existing homes shell mirrors it’s location and heritage significance. Following patterns in the street, the dwelling repeats new and old forms of neighbouring pitched roofs, modern architectural differences & double stories, ensuring the design is appropriate and sits well within its streetscape.
The Thomson House’s front façade provides an endearing and considered entry, retaining proportions relevant to its humble origins, and offering a modern surprise on the back. A light palette of whites & grey colours refresh the facade, creating a bright, unimposing, yet inviting street presentation - reflective of internal spaces.
With materiality and functionality held in equal regard, the house is welcoming from the beginning. The story starts at the entrance via the restored porch and façade, showcasing the original abodes character through the revamped weatherboards, flooring, windows and original led light panes.
As you move through to the rear, the connection between old and new is highlighted and not hidden – with the change in flooring from refinished boards to a burnished concrete slab, framed by the hallway period fretwork, which is a repeated element from the external façade. Generous ceiling heights are maintained through this transition space and successive windows are staggered right down the hallway, bringing a sense of brightness & warmth which grows as the space opens to a double height volume at the back of the dwelling, turning modesty into feelings of grandeur and curiosity.
The Thomson House is designed as a place of leisure, whilst supplying spaces that inspire & encourage wellbeing, offering peaceful and connected reprieve. A subtle, restrained palette of neutral materials derived from nature, radiate calming warmth & lightness. Ply cabinetry, textural tiles, generous skylights, and an accessible configuration, enhance the interior mood.
A key design strategy for this abode was the harnessing of shared multipurpose elements to provide efficiencies and space on the challenging small site. The extension contains two levels of living under one key gestural ceiling form. In-between moments unite the upstairs mezzanine level & downstairs kitchen, living & dining, joined together by a playful, hammock-like netting and spiral staircase that provide transparency through space under the gliding ply canopy.
From clever dual-purpose ideas such as the kitchen island doubling as seating, to the overall entire extension reaching outwards & upwards – the creation of additional outdoor & indoor living spaces for enjoyment & interaction were pivotal value adds to the design.
Essential to providing a modern, life enhancing home, was the inclusion of features like the internal light court in the middle of the ground level, which links bedrooms and bathrooms to landscape, light and natural ventilation. Various outdoor vantage points such as these, are integrated into each space within the house whether they be public or private, providing connection with nature, improved illumination, and the flexibility to extend indoor space outwards to increase floor area.
What were the challenges?
From the beginning, the decision between knock-down rebuild or an extension, hinged upon how hard an extension solution could work for the existing home. The renovation option provided a smoother process through council, resulting in time & cost savings, when compared with a more intrusive proposal. Selecting long lasting, durable materials & repurposing existing elements, further reduced costs & waste and made the choice to retrofit a clear winner.
An additional second level was also vital in gaining adequate meterage internally to make the renovation solution stack up, and with setbacks compatible with neighbouring properties and respectful of regulations, this option made more sense than starting from scratch. The resulting tucked behind extension remains harmonious with existing, as it rises up on an angle, using white metal panels to repeat linear lines replicating weatherboards, as it subtlety pokes out of the ground floor.
Internally, the interior spaces needed to also be efficient to align with the spatial requirements of the brief. Taking advantage of the upward sloping ceiling, the additional mezzanine living area provided a rare opportunity to create a distinct, floating interaction between two living spaces. These spatially aware, 3-dimensional zones provide added flexibility in functionality. Many elements, such as the multi-functional island bench, mezzanine with hammock, terraces, or kitchen with hidden laundry, have been designed to have dual uses or share their space to make the most out of the modest footprint.
With limited square meterage on the tight site, and an aim to produce a healthy, modern home, including garden areas where possible and blurring indoors with outdoors, helped to encourage wellness, increase space, natural light, and airflow. In addition to this, considered materiality and the positioning of openings, visually or physically interact with nature from various perspectives. The internal courtyard at the center of the house also provides light, cross ventilation, private views and tranquility to private spaces.
Onsite & design challenges during the build were mitigated by strong communication & close relationship that was established between designers & builder early in the project. This dynamic enabled successful navigation of finer details & complexities - ensuring the outcome, including finish, structural integrity, and materiality, were delivered at a high standard.
Items like the brick boundary wall, which had a significant lean, required problem solving to provide a cost-effective solution to prop up the home, whilst the wall was rebuilt with existing bricks. Netting integration, ply ceiling shadow lines, cladding & tile set outs, and the inclusion of a sizeable skylight to run the length of the kitchen and sit flush with joinery, were all managed to present a quality finish & maintain design integrity. Landscapers incorporated space conscious gardens that will grow laterally & vertically to eventually screen boundaries & neighbouring properties.
Working alongside the Builder, JR&C, and Project Managers, Shepherd, allowed for the project to be successfully value managed. Inclusions to the design, like the netting integration, ensured each level benefited from a combined feeling of spaciousness. This element provided a cost-effective enhancement that increased the feeling of volume & offered transparency alongside seating and/or storage options in dead space, instead of using a fixed bulky balustrade. Other key items were swapping out heating/cooling hidden bulkheads, to custom niches housing spilt systems, which still retained the desired flush appearance with wall. Additionally, the extensions slab was burnished instead of laying a new polished concrete floor on top, which provided another cost saving without loosing the intended design aesthetic.
What are the sustainability features?
The home promotes positive sustainability outcomes by preserving & retrofitting an old home, whilst upgrading the dwelling to be fit for the future, instead of building from new. By retaining existing built form such as façade, framing, porch and front two bedrooms & repurposing materials like floorboards, bricks, & windows, meant costs and environmental footprint were significantly reduced.
A light exterior & roof reduces heat transference by reflecting sunlight. High pitched ceilings with strategically placed double-glazed windows, skylights & light wells, ensure the dwelling can heat & cool using natural systems.
Orientation of the new additions to the home also enable the most frequented spaces, such as kitchen & living, to absorb the morning eastern & midday northern solar gains while providing protection from harsher western sun in the late afternoons. The south facing expressed angled soffits, and minor eaves of the all-white top floor extension add dimension and visual interest yet let plenty of winter sun inside during the cooler months and providing some shading alongside mature street trees in summer, to protect this multipurpose zone with outdoor terrace.
Materials specified have been carefully chosen to reflect a naturalistic quality to draw from the surroundings and enhance mood & health. Timber, light weight ply was selected throughout for its FSC certification & healthy, low formaldehyde classification of E0, textural Japanese tiles in a terracotta colour reflect an earthiness, while crisp white fixtures add freshness, lightness, and contrast internally. Efficient details have been incorporated where possible, features such all electric appliances, handle cut outs in joinery and the extensions burnished slab (instead of laying new additional polished concrete floor) further reduced excess materials & costs.
The choice to reinsulate the entire existing home and wrap the extension in a membrane to tightly seal openings, cracks & gaps, avoided excessive temperature losses and/or gains, significantly improving performance. Furthermore, the additions slanted roof facing north also provides the perfect space for solar integration.
