Project Completed 2021
BUILDER
BuiltByEli
PHOTOGRAPHER
Alexander McIntyre
Located in Wickham, the surrounding buildings are characterised by workers cottages, small lot housing and small fabricators workshops and the nearby woolstores. The site is a small remnant lot that was part of an old title subdivision for workers cottages that was the rear yard of an existing house facing Wickham Park.
Due to its unusually small scale, the design required a deft use of both indoor and outdoor space. The buildings massing and program is distributed through a series of courtyards. Passive and active functions are further organised around passageways and a central void that bisects the building in both north/south and east/west orientations. Massing is pushed to site perimeters to open up the centre of the site for family and friends to gather whilst also maximising natural light, ventilation and through aspect to view corridors and sight lines. The building forms over connect and hover above the ground floor areas utilising the minimum of structural bracing developed closely with our consulting engineers.
The site is subject to significant flood level heights which on many nearby properties can often render the ground plane underutilised or disconnected from the house. The design consciously looks to use this area for multiple purposes including dual use of garage spaces for paved courtyards that act as intermediary areas between the street, living and dining areas and a former pool yard.
The dining and kitchen large door suites draw back in two directions to provide ample connection to the rear south terrace. Circulation is stacked and centralised to maximise efficiency of movement and use of internal floor area. Bathrooms, laundry, stairs and storage/robe spaces are located to the western flank of the building to provide a buffer to hot afternoon aspect. These spaces are held within a series of cabinet like doorplate partition-like enclosures that provide a soft interior skin of native blackbutt veneer that lace through ground and first floor compartments as a single form.
Upper level windows are shielded via perforated metal screens which also assist to provide a modicum of privacy and when lit at night display a diaphanous lantern like offering back to the street. Concrete floors were chosen for their robustness and passive thermal mass which is valuable in such a small footprint.
Gardens are distributed at ground, first and roof level providing visual amenity and articulation. The gardens feature low water drought tolerant species which is particularly important for elevated residential planters. A deciduous tree features in the central void which will provide shading over time. The roof serves dual purpose as a plant area and additional outdoor space accessed via an internal folded metal ladder.
