CLIENT BRIEF / ​PLANNING STRATEGY​

​To turn a small but charming 1940's brick two story cottage into a large family home where a family of 4 can live happily ever after! We retained the charm of the cottage by creating a series of new pavilions across the beautiful leafy 1000msq. site. The existing brick house is a bit different to its neighbours in that it is orientated to North rather than to the street and it is setback from the street. This allowed us to add a double garage in the front and a glass link connected new kitchen living dining pavilion at the back which then leads to a cabana / pool pavilion. The style is highly contemporary but the brick walls tie existing and new together. We have been working closely with the owners at as usual at every stage to integrate their ideas while maintaining a cohesive design concept.

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THE DESIGN SOLUTION

The existing house is modest in size and has no relationship to the beautiful garden. It was based on an english cottage design and is tilted off alignment with the street grid giving it a cottage in the woods, fairy tale feeling. There is a tiny garage at the back that is unusable. The solution is to make the whole existing house a cosy bedroom wing, turning the living and dining room into bedrooms. Then a glass link runs to a new contemporary flat roofed pavilion containing the kitchen, living and dining room, parents lounge, laundry and guest toilet. This pavilion faces the garden on two sides and has a seamlessly integrated outdoor room. It has a clerestory window and large stacking sliding doors to the garden. The garage is now in front of the house in line with the neighbours houses which reinforces the streetscape and it has a tiled roof to complement the neighbours. At the back of the site is a new pool and overlooking cabana which will become a fantastic teenagers zone as the kids grow up. These major components of the design sit on the garden site in a series of carefully orientated pavilions forming a cohesive and happy group, each having their own relationship to the garden and the sun. The circulation spine of the house ties the pavilions together in an informal zig zagging yet still structured approach which creates both order and excitement at different points along the path. The living room and parents lounge wrap around the outdoor room in an L shape and the kitchen is at the centre of everything. Passive solar design (orientation, roof design, window placement, materials) is used carefully to create delightful light spaces that will be warm in winter and cool in summer.

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DESIGN AESTHETIC

The garage at the front is somewhat traditional to directly complement the existing house and the neighbourhood. The living room and pool house are very contemportary yet the materials such as the brick walls tie in nicely with the existing cottage. Both pavilions have flat folding roofs that hover over head and then fold down protectively to the ground at each end and these are clad in Blackbutt hardwood cladding. It is as if they look back at each other across the garden. The hardwood cladding and brick walls are fire resistant in response to the bush fire threat. The glass walkway provides a link between the separate zones of sleeping and living and results in two little garden courtyards which reinforce the continual connectedness to nature that we aimed to achieve.

The interior is highly detailed and customised (as usual for us) and the state of the art kitchen, the laundry and bathrooms have been carefully designed and detailed. Bold colours such as blue and red have been used subtly and Jess sourced some beautiful and unusual tiles. To reinforce the connection between inside and outside the terrazzo tiled floor and blackbutt ceiling run from inside to outside. White terrazzo tiles in the bathrooms are as a softer alternative to the dark terrazzo tiles in the living room and terrace. The garden is of course a continual point of reference and we were careful to keep the suburban relaxedness and leafiness while the pavilions place the residents right in the garden instead of being inside looking out at it.

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