The site itself is probably the thing that drove it in many ways and that is that it
was a bit challenging. It's just a narrow site, there's no rear lane access or anything like that,
which means you've got to design with that in mind because what's designed has to be built. Getting
in three meter by three meter sliding doors is the challenge; they've got to be craned in
and all those kinds of things, so that that was really the starting point of where we began and
the thought process behind achieving the spaces that we wanted to achieve and meeting the brief
and getting in all that natural light as well. I've got a pretty strong building background
myself, I was born and raised on building sites with my dad and my my brother
that understanding of the process is quite handy. It's an Edwardian home,
the front two rooms of the house were retained and then the rear was completely knocked off.
What we added was a bathroom, a master suite and a kitchen, living and dining space,
built really boundary to boundary with a focus on creating internal courtyards
that were able to bring in natural light and give them a view of landscaped spaces as well
and then beyond that we sort of focused on the interiors and the details of joinery
and blending those old period details with new contemporary ones and how that worked.
It wasn't in our interest to make little spaces really and the way we were able to define it was
in transition of floor finishes and also ceiling finishes as well, to start to define the spaces
even though it was within one larger volume. We introduced a number of courtyard spaces that
cut into the building that allowed natural light and green space to bleed into the building and
then skylights as well, so that was one way that we were able to introduce a good amount of natural
light in a building that is actually built pretty much boundary to boundary. It was really quite
a conscious choice to introduce really robust materials; brick and concrete and timber really
are the core features of the pallet and we've used those in a really edited way to get consistency
but also create a sense of calm through the building as well. Because of the open-mindedness
of the clients, we were able to explore the use of material a little bit further. The fully rendered
concrete bathtub being a key feature of the house. That's something that took a little bit of trust
from the clients and from the builder as well to build that and get a water tight and looking good,
but it's a real key feature of the bathrooms and I think it stemmed back to the idea of a
sort of paired back, super simple, you know, raw essence type of space that we wanted to build.
The party wall is obviously double brick that needed to be solid plastered and originally we
intended to paint it and then when we saw the plaster on there, we came on site for a meeting
and I sort of decided to leave it raw. So we just put a wax coating over it and left it as it was
and decided not to paint it. It was just one of those impromptu, sort of beautiful moments on site
while we were building it. Some of the best buildings that have been built
in the world had a lot of involvement from the architect during the build process. That's shifted
in recent years where now it's expected that the documentation that we produce is absolute and that
once it starts on site it's all known and follows a set of drawings and that sort of thing, but I
think anyone who's ever built anything or created anything knows that there's still a process to
go through as you're putting things together and it's really important that we're involved through
that process and working closely with trades people that understand and value that as well,
because there are some changes along the way and there are beautiful opportunities that are
seen and moments that are created that we want to celebrate that aren't always understood on paper.
I think we're most proud of the outcome and the level of quality that we've been able to achieve.
You know our client satisfaction as well, that's very important but we're certainly very,
very happy with the outcome and think that it reflects our design values perfectly.