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Architects: BKK Architects
- Area: 115 m²
- Year: 2008
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Photographs:Shannon McGrath
Text description provided by the architects. The placement of the existing residence on the site presented a number of difficult challenges. The central placement of the house created awkward residual spaces whilst the orientation of the site was problematic as main living spaces faced south, devoid of direct sunlight.
The clients, with a growing young family, wanted two new bedrooms, a bathroom, laundry and a lounge. The brief was to increase the size of the residence and retain a sense of landscape. They also have a fairly extensive art collection and wanted wall space to display the work.
Our strategy for the project was to draw the extension around the perimeter of the site to create a new courtyard and expose the living area to the northern orientation. The stretched circulation created by this approach was designed as gallery space, expanding and restricting at points depending on the placement of the artwork and creating a variety of spaces that punctuate the journey.
Similarly the outdoor spaces push and pull against the extension in a dialogue that creates diverse landscaped experiences. The suburban front and back yard is reinterpreted in a manner that is more fluid and less defined than traditional subdivisions.
The articulation of multiple insertions and material definition create a series of ‘pod’-like accretions rather than a singular reading of the residence. The combination of these pods and the boundary occupation of the addition offer a complex relation with the landscape and climate as opposed to a house placed within a lawn.
