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Periscope House / Architecture Architecture

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Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior PhotographyPeriscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior PhotographyPeriscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior Photography, StairsPeriscope House / Architecture Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, FacadePeriscope House / Architecture Architecture - More Images+ 18

Richmond, Australia
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Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior Photography
© Tom Ross

Text description provided by the architects. A periscope, washed-up on the beach. The oceans must be full of them and yet this is quite unexpected: half buried with its ends poking out like a happy seaworm, chatting to its tail. The tides have washed it crystalline; mirrors bend the light to fill its buried chambers. A single sunlit passage, coursing through the sand.

Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior Photography
© Tom Ross
Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Image 20 of 23
Plan - Ground Floor
Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior Photography, Bedroom, Windows, Bed
© Tom Ross
Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Image 21 of 23
Plan - 1st Floor
Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Bathroom
© Tom Ross

There’s a particular joy derived from designing a small house well. In a dense urban pocket of Richmond, on a site of just 84m2, this one’s particularly small. The key challenges here were space, natural light, and vertical circulation. Rather neatly, all three have been addressed with a single solution: the periscope.

Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior Photography
© Tom Ross
Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior Photography, Stairs, Windows, Shelving, Handrail
© Tom Ross
Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Image 23 of 23
Section
Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Interior Photography, Stairs
© Tom Ross

A double-height void in the center of the house defies constraint, lending a little luxury to the spaces that spill from it. Being on a narrow site, this ought to be the darkest part of the house and yet, a sky window, the full width of the property, inundates light like a sudden sun shower. It is into this firmament that the staircase rises. Space, light, and movement in a single gesture; a mirrored screen amplifies these effects, drawing views through the house, from both the courtyard and the sky.  

Periscope House / Architecture Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
© Tom Ross

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Cite: "Periscope House / Architecture Architecture" 19 Sep 2022. ArchDaily. Accessed 2 Jan 2025. <https://www.archdaily.com/989180/periscope-house-architecture-architecture> ISSN 0719-8884
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