Image Credit : Tess Kelly
Project Overview
Garden Room House comprises a discrete alteration and addition to a heritage home in Fitzroy North. The extension fluidly integrates internal and outdoor rooms to form an idyllic garden retreat in an urban context.
A linear plan makes clever use of all available space on a site which slopes gradually down to the street. The light-filled corridor running the length of the building borders the introduced garden room, which forms the breathing core of the home.
Level changes are addressed by the curated brick ground plane which is stepped and terraced to form various resting places within the garden and living rooms, materially linking indoor and outdoor spaces.
Generous, strategically-placed glazing throughout the house, maximises access to natural northern sunlight, and takes every opportunity to encourage meaningful relationships between the garden, the home and the young family within.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Clare Cousins, Oliver Duff, Alistair Nancarrow, Sarah Cosentino, Jessie Fowler
Project Brief
The existing building had been originally extended and overshadowed by imposing two-storey faux period structures. This, as well as the oversized pool, created enclosed, dark interiors and pockets of underused space on site. To address these disparate areas and establish easy opportunities for familial interaction, the entire addition was removed in order to remap the backyard and living configuration within reduced floor area on one interconnected level.
Obscured from the street by its original Victorian façade, the extension of the newly configured house provides the family with meaningful connections to the garden, fresh air and light.
Constructed from two shades of brick, a nod to the home’s polychromatic brick heritage frontage, Garden Room House’s current iteration follows a typically linear Victorian plan with rooms either side of a long central corridor. Though high ceilings are an existing feature of the period home they were intentionally lowered in the addition to enhance a horizontal spatial experience, rising over the kitchen in response to the stepped ground plane.
Materials and furnishings throughout are employed to evoke an emotional response to space. Oak timber panelling, terracotta brick benches and accents of brass throughout create robust yet warm, informal living spaces for the young family to enjoy. The muted grey tones of the ensuite form a contemplative and restorative space for retreat. In stark contrast is the Victorian Blue ceramic tile clad powder room, a small, bold interior utilising reflective surfaces to distract the occupant from its scale.
Project Innovation/Need
The main passageway progresses from the heritage front half, housing a contemporised parlour and bedroom with ensuite, past hidden private quarters and beyond to the new kitchen and living space at the rear.
Expansive operable glazing at its midpoint allows the corridor to dissolve into the garden room at the core of the home, while introducing abundant northern light. When open, this area – complete with outdoor fireplace, dining area and partial shelter – extends available entertaining space and acts as a centralised lung to ventilate the house.
Central to the project is the opportunity for multiple green vistas throughout the home, and the garden room outlook is a treasured aspect of the wordsmith owner’s purpose-built writing room. Here, the deciduous Robinia provides summer shade and gives way to winter sun. As vegetation develops, screens of foliage will further enclose outdoor rooms and increase privacy from close adjacent neighbours.
Directly across from the courtyard, a seemingly continuous wall of oak timber panelling swings open at various points to reveal two children’s rooms either side of a clandestine drinks compartment. These private rooms were inconspicuously positioned in the middle of the plan to create a continuum between the social spaces and the existing backyard pool.
Generous, strategically-placed glazing throughout the house takes every opportunity to encourage meaningful relationships between the garden, the home and the young family within.
Design Challenge
From back to front, the house traverses a sloping site with an approximate landfall of 2000mm. Level changes are addressed by the curated brick ground plane which is stepped and terraced to form various resting places within the garden and living rooms, materially linking indoor and outdoor spaces. A particularly joyous detail of the existing pool’s new layout is its direct alignment between water level and kitchen bench height, making it possible for parents to maintain a near-level eye line to swimming littlies from the kitchen sink.
With limited space on either side of the existing building, the spatial strategy was to introduce a garden room at the house’s mid-point, a landscape reprieve from the linear corridor spine, introducing abundant northern light and a centralised lung to ventilate the house.
Garden Room House’s reconfigured smaller form feels more spacious than its larger predecessor. The garden room provides an opportunity for multiple green vistas throughout the home, extending the view from within the interior space, and encouraging meaningful relationships between the garden, the interior and the young family within.
Sustainability
Garden Room House’s remapped layout, smaller footprint, and more efficient plan, coupled with a well-insulated building envelope, significantly reduces energy requirements. Robust materials both inside and out will require little maintenance over the life span of this family’s ‘forever house’.
Introducing the central garden room allows the primary glazed façade to be reoriented, providing abundant solar access throughout the year. Expansive double-glazed windows and sliding doors to this room allow for cross-ventilation and passive cooling throughout the dwelling, with generous eaves and leafy landscaping creating ample shade during summer months.
The existing oversized pool was reimagined and reduced in size in order to restore much needed space to the backyard, while the excess portion of the pool shell has been repurposed into an underground tank designed to collect run-off rainwater from the roof. This surpasses the garden’s irrigation requirements with a storage capacity of over 20,000 litres.
Architecture - Residential - Constructed
This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow.
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