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Architects: Lande Architects
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Derek Swalwell
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Manufacturers: Artedomus, Big River Group, Great Dane, Krause Bricks
Text description provided by the architects. A home for a couple learning to do less. Our clients, a couple with one foot in retirement, contacted us, explaining they had spent two years looking for the right down-size house, but had never found one that completely fit the brief. They explained that the home they had come to purchase was almost there, but cramped living spaces and a lack of connection to the garden were in need of fixing.
They requested we surround and inject as much greenery as possible. We really wanted to bring the outside in and bolster a modest footprint with borrowed space from outside, a technique often used in our studio. The addition is respectful to the original cottage at the front, and hugs a north-facing courtyard, to deliver as much light as possible into the living spaces.
The clients surprised us with a tendency towards the rich and moody. This inspired the palette, and one of the first things we decided on, even before we nailed the floorplan, was the green marble in the kitchen. This informed a lot of the layout and functional requirements and now acts as a submissive backdrop, linking two different green areas. The stone informed the cabinetry color and reads surprisingly subtly in the space. It’s an element that reveals itself, and its detail, as you approach and use it. Perhaps most special, is the hidden skylight, behind the overhead cupboards, which floods the backsplash with natural light, highlighting the detail in the stone.
Other elements of note, are the Kraus bricks, which were a custom mix for the project, and expressed both internally and externally, again, helping blend the inside and outside The bricks also conceal a sliding screen, which helps filter the harsh western sun, but gives an impressive aperture to the landscaped back yard. Ben Scott came on board and delivered a delightful landscape concept, which talks to the architecture beautifully. There are several parallels between the architecture and the landscape in this project, which we are always delighted to learn about.
