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Architects: Studio Ilk Architecture + interiors
- Area: 110 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Adam Gibson
Text description provided by the architects. Hanover Cottage: A thoughtful adaption of a circa 1836 heritage-listed Battery Point cottage. Responding to complex heritage, site, and extant fabric constraints, the new additions sensitively weave into the existing building. Enhancing connection to the garden, improving the liveability of the family home, whilst celebrating the history of the place.
Conceptual Framework For The Project - Underlying Principles, Values, Sustainable Initiatives, Core Ideas And Philosophies. Embedded in Nipaluna, Hobart’s historic Battery Point precinct, the area and the existing ‘place’ are heavily protected under the heritage provisions of both the local council and the Tasmanian Heritage Council. We had intimate knowledge of the site conditions after completing a project for the same owner several years earlier. Subsequent to this project, the client’s needs have evolved, with four children and elderly parents all cohabitating in the heritage home. It was critical to maintain and improve the connection to the garden and pool areas and to maximize the open interface to the yard, with minimal increase in built footprint. An existing ‘sunroom’ added in the early 2000s, with its white timber-lined cathedral roof, glazing, and sandstone floor, provided light and tactility the clients wanted to retain and protect. Analysis of these elements provided the conceptual basis for a space that enhances and supports interpersonal and spatial relationships and the perpetual motion of a contemporary family. Warmth, light, family, connection, chaos, history, and respect are focused literally and figuratively in this new space at the heart of the home.
Contribution To The Lives Of The Inhabitants. A large, energetic family dynamic required further spatial evolution of Hanover Cottage. Functional elements used daily have been collected together to provide a nexus that has the ability to compartmentalize the remainder of the existing rooms leading off the Kitchen while concurrently acting as
a space fully connected to the garden, completely blurring the delineation of indoor and outdoor. Bi-fold doors along the edges are open more often than not due to the favorable orientation, and this multiplicity, adding amenity, and functionality and enhancing the connection to the garden and pool terrace belies the comparatively tiny new building footprint.
Relationship Of Built Form And Context. It was important for the original unique ‘L’ shaped Hanover Cottage form to remain legible from the garden and for any new, iterative elements of the building to read as separate and subservient to the heritage fabric. The new garden room connects to the existing dwelling, but is contrasting in form, low lying and linear, crisp white tapered edges and almost no solid walls mean the new space reads almost as a separate building. There is a visual connection back to the original cottage from almost any aspect of the site.
Program Resolution. Our clients required a liveable, robust, light-filled home with warm, tactile materials alongside visual and physical connection with the garden. The operable edges of the new garden room and reconfigured kitchen provide enhanced permeability and create an intimate node, enhancing relationships and flow between different areas of the home. Rich history is visible and tangible throughout the existing home, and this new space has provided immediate comfort and connection at the heart of a very much loved and lived-in home, embracing the wear and patina of life and allowing life to flow into every nook and cranny.
Integration Of Allied Disciplines. Previously established trust and mutual respect between the builder, clients, and our practice provided a solid foundation for a smooth and collaborative process and a successful outcome. With the clients remaining on-site during construction, honest communication between all parties was absolutely paramount. Undertaken with great care and consideration by the builder, preceding insights into the personal and historically important elements of the place and additional collaborative relationships with the engineers, steel fabricator, and joiners have resulted in a subtle and elegant interface along the edges of the garden room.
Cost Value Outcome. Bricks, originally taken from a demolished outbuilding, were used as courtyard paving bricks following the completion of the previous pool project. These bricks have again been repurposed into the new garden room. Similarly, existing timber decking, removed to make way for the new garden room was reused to form the new platforms which step softly down to the garden. The new works overcame efficiency challenges, and despite the seemingly simple and small footprint of the new addition, the improved liveability and enhanced engagement with the ample garden has elevated the home well beyond the expectations of the modest budget project.
