So House K Fairfield
which is a quiet inner-city suburb of Melbourne.
So the original weatherboard house was very similar to many of the houses in this street
it was fairly worn it had had a little lean-to extension which you know gave it more space but
it wasn't really usable so the brief for this project initially was a tidy up of the existing
house and have a small extension just to be able to reorganise some of the the living spaces
many of our projects particularly sort of the smaller extension work we often talk
about the idea of making spaces work harder so rather than having a space
for everything it's about spaces that can be connected or overlapping and satisfy a
number of things within the brief or the way that the occupants then live in the house.
One of the big concerns also was minimise the impact on the garden so anything that
we did had to retain as much of it but then also build a strong relationship with it
as the project got started it was quite clear though that the structure of the
existing house and the state of it really needed a more major renovation.
The original house was quite dark and that was partly because of how
overgrown the garden was but also how tight it was against the boundary so
one of the first moves was to set back the northern side of the extension.
So from the front, the original weatherboard has been renovated and repainted
the only subtle clues to the extension and the work that happens beyond is
the red fence which references the facade of the extension at the back.
So we've intentionally kept the corridor fairly dark
the majority of the light is actually from an artwork that the owners purchased
it then compresses down into a steel transition space or threshold which has a large pivot door.
To the right is a study and library space which is the sort of the Last
remnant of the lean-to it's sort of the end of the existing house.
The living space is intentionally try and avoid one big open plan box.
So the living spaces are organised around the central storage volume and daybed.
Instead of having compartmentalised or wall spaces the register of the
floor plan is in the ceiling so there are beams or coffers that are created
that loosely define the spaces that start to overlap underneath them.
We often talk about the way that a solid line can become dashed, a wall becoming a beam above,
so sort of the dashed line on the floor plan but you actually still register that in the space.
The spacial strategies of the house really extend out into the garden there are a series
of volumes so there's an elevated pool on one side there's an outdoor dining area.
The
pool itself also creates a space behind there's a little deck a lawn and an area to sort of sunbathe
as you turn around and look back at the extension the facade is painted in a strong red colour in
contrast to the muted tones of the front of the house.
The material of the extension internally is quite stripped back the storage and the
walls are all lined in timber which creates a sort of a datum underneath the coffered ceiling
and then the kitchen itself is also fairly strong black volumes so rather than sort of
being built in and taking over the space they sort of sit and float.
And then there's a series of skylights that have been introduced
the main one being over the kitchen.
There's a small southern courtyard which is almost a chip out of the edge of the dining
room which brings in cooler more dappled light through the plants
the living space is intentionally orientated in multiple directions
We didn't want to have the one large glazed end to a box.
So I think the real secret to this project and it's one of those rare
things that you don't often get the fact that we've had the chance to
design pretty much every aspect of it so it wasn't just about the house so it allowed us
to really extend the design ideas across the entire site in the entire project.