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When we conceived of the house, we actually thought about it as a collection of buildings
that are connected together that lead you from the street through to the garden. The
passage through the house becomes like a street in itself.
The level changes mirror the topography change as you step down into the site.
There's a sequence and a pausing and a progression through until you release into the garden.
My name is Antony Martin from MRTN Architects and we were the architects for the West Bend House,
located in Westgarth Melbourne. The really special thing about this site is actually
it's located on the banks of the Merri Creek, so a long winding creek that comes through
Northcote and North Fitzroy. For this house, we had designed for a family of five, so a lot of
our conversations and the needs for our clients was addressed around what this kind of evolving,
older family would look like and how they would use the site.
So conceptually we had this idea that it is almost like a village the home, so the house is conceived
as like a street with buildings where each the individuals of the family can get away to.
The space I'm sitting at the moment was particularly key for the brief. So there was
the regular kitchen living dining spaces, but the family also wanted a space that they could come
together and work in, so we extended the narrative of the village as a home and then created a city
square which is that coming together area and this is the one living space that actually faces
north and gets some warmth. The brick flooring replicates that city square or exterior type
of space. It also creates thermal mass so the sun heats it up in winter, doors can open up,
sun can come in and it provides a landing place for the house. The key criteria for our materials
was that they didn't have a indoor to outdoor distinction; that one material can be used in
both locations, breaking down these boundaries between inside and outside throughout the house.
There's a number of different living spaces that are connected through the circulation
from the front to the rear. We're very conscious about creating a specific
atmosphere and material palette for each of those spaces. They feel quite different. We
also vary the ceiling condition in each of these spaces which helps create specific character.
We were conscious of the heritage connection to the site and we were focused on creating forms
that were in harmony with the original dwellings that are found in the area. We're very conscious
about not creating a box house to the street. This was the location of the original Westgarth or
Northcote House, built in around 1850, it actually preceded the streets and roads in the area.
Outdoor space and gardens was obviously so key with this home and there's probably
three distinct areas of the garden, which is the front garden, which we really worked on
blurring the distinction from the street to the house to sort of give back to the neighbourhood,
and then this harder paved area through the middle of the house. So all the living areas
are kind of gathered around here and feed into the various areas, but what was sacrosanct was that
back garden. So we very consciously designed the house to reduce in scale as a fed into the garden.
Our clients and also us were very concerned about passive design principles and sustainable criteria
in the design of the home and they've been incorporated through all elements of the house.
One of the key aspects was that there's really high performance windows throughout the house
which help keep it cool in summer and warm in winter. All our floor surfaces are then either
concrete or brick which provide thermal mass. There's also a really big solar array on the roof,
so the house is in fact powering the car as well.
It's really interesting about how we appreciate spaces when we enter into them, so the mind
doesn't take into account the size or volume of a space, it actually goes to the surfaces and
the materials that are in there and that's how we piece together a space or a room, so by varying
the materials, by keeping commonality and links through them, we create a gentle narrative through
the house, defined by space, level change and material. What I'm most proud of is the success,
that you really hope for with architecture, is a highly specific response. You've got a family
and you have a site. How do you match those two things together in this location and how do you do
it so that it's fit for them and suited to their lives and it's really wonderful sense of space and
connection from the street through to the garden and accommodates them in their day-to-day lives.
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