We always try to do interesting things when we marry
heritage work with with new work. I think with this one we've dovetailed the two
together - there's a little bit of blurring the boundary between what is old and new.
We're in the inner-city of Melbourne in Richmond just on the edge of the city. The house hadn't
had anything done to it for a long time. The back of the property was um quite ramshackled
and and sheds and old structures and lean twos, but beautiful location in the front of the house
we wanted to to celebrate and utilise. We try to be faithful and authentic with respect to the
old works, certainly with this how you come into the original old entry but then you pass through
a brick wall that we created within the interior that defines the threshold between
the old and new. There is an entry hall or arrival space
then you very much come into quite a modern open plan kitchen living dining space.
Initially we had a certain strategy for the design which
had the new works further forward on the property. Through the process we were
encouraged to push the new works even further back in the property. We were encouraged to
retain the existing house more fully and the roof and the chimneys in particular.
The exercise of designing in this context everything is
relatively tight and you always have to be mindful of and attentive to maintaining
the amenity of your neighbours, so overlooking and overshadowing is always key consideration,
and certainly the balance between old and new and doing that in an authentic and respectful way.
So there's a there's an inherent contrast between the old and the new, we've got
red brick for the old dwelling and all the details that go with that. And then there's a contemporary
addition which is quite paired back very simple. It's a very limited palette on the extra,
it's a rendered finish and there's some steel detailing but then when you come inside we've
essentially got a bagged brick, a concrete floor, a timber ceiling and then through the
joinery there's some veneer, there's a beautiful stone and then stainless steel on benchtops.
The main kitchen-living-dining area of the house does
sit underneath the old existing roof. It's not as absolutely clear-cut that
we sometimes have with the old house and then we sometimes put a break and then do new work.
The dynamic between the inside and outside of projects for us is always
critical. There is only one sort of key outdoor entertaining space, so that feeds
directly off the main kitchen-living-dining, we want to be able to flow seamlessly between
inside and outside through the glazing and external door design that we've incorporated.
There was a restraint shown through the entire design and then there's small
details that are put in to give the overall design point of difference. Simple things
like the way the joinery is pulled off walls to make each piece feel elemental and almost like
each piece of joinery is an item of furniture, and then things like the stone detailing running the
grain on an angle is just to take a slightly different approach, an unexpected approach.
There's a circular detail that is recurring through
joinery handles and there's not a lot of decoration and adornment.
There's various light effects that come through not just sunlight directly coming into a space or
diffuse light coming through a skylight, there's also unexpected things that happen through a
design process, the way light penetrates a space sometimes it's not as you imagine you get these
delightful surprises. When the client commissioned a sculpture for this project
it's had this beautiful unintended phenomenon of the light catching on the stainless steel
elements of it and that light dancing in the space a little bit like the reflection of the pond.
We've created a world for them within the suburb, a home is their sanctuary and essentially we're
trying to create a little private oasis for them. There's also a refinement that's evident through
the design while delivering on that comfortable warm environment that our clients can just enjoy.
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