This renovation and extension converts a basic low set brick veneer house with poor amenity to a home that engages with the semi-rural landscape and creates a strong presence through a singular external treatment that ties the new and old parts of the house together. The ‘public’ spaces of the brief (kitchen, living, dining and outdoor living) were accommodated in a ‘L’ shaped extension that structures the existing amorphous yard into a rear garden court, a strong entry axis, and an external roofed living space overlooking a pool.
Existing trees and established vines were integrated to reinforce the entry experience and give the new works a sense of place. The materiality of the existing house informed that of the extension with the use of brick (bagged in lieu of rendered) and fibre cement weather boards which in turn were reinterpreted into a screening device that addresses privacy, sun, framing of views, and the shifting of the scale and language of the existing dumb building. These ‘birdhide’ screens peel open to provide discrete outlook typically to adjacent gardens – intimate views in juxtaposition to the dominant ‘big’ landscape that the house is immersed in. The interior of the extension is primarily simple white volumes with dramatic clerestory windows that bring in high level light and winter sun deep into the plan.
Photographer Scott Burrows
