Linda Cheng: Could you tell us a little about your family and your background?
Kristan Kirkpatrick: I’m a mum. My husband and I have a young daughter. I was born in Port Fairy (in south-western Victoria) and my parents still live here. After moving to Melbourne to study, I later decided to return to Port Fairy because I was drawn to its lifestyle. I loved the community, the sense of family, and also being close to nature and the beach. I’d always known that I wanted to move back eventually, to have the same for my own family.
LC: How did the project come together?
KK: We had been looking to buy a house in Port Fairy when the opportunity to purchase this site came up. It’s quite unusual to find a vacant site, such as this one, right in the heart of town – that’s why we were attracted to it. We then approached Sibling Architecture, where my brother Nick Braun is a director, to do a feasibility study. The team explored different possibilities for the site and, ultimately, we decided to build two houses – live in one and sell the other – because we felt it was most appropriate for the scale of the street.
Hello Houses by Sibling Architecture.
Image:
Christine Francis
LC: What was your brief to Sibling Architecture?
KK: Big, open spaces with lots of natural light, the connectivity between the open living areas, and having the kitchen at the heart of the house were all really important to us. Also, because the project is in the centre of town, a big part of what we wanted to achieve was to connect with the Port Fairy community. We weren’t too prescriptive in terms of what the houses would look like and we placed trust in the architects’ creativity.
LC: How did you prepare for your first meeting with the architects?
KK: We first made a list of our priorities. Sibling asked us many questions about how we live as a family and that brought about quite a strong conversation around whether or not we like to have our separate spaces, and how we function on a day-to-day level. Those valuable conversations prompted design elements that we would never have thought of.
The new home provides generous, light-filled volumes. Artwork (L-R): Annabelle Aronica, Sean Bailey.
Image:
Christine Francis
LC: Is the result of working with an architect what you expected?
KK: The thing that we really wanted – which is such a strong part of the design – was the openness to the community and to the street. Sibling spoke a lot about the way in which the house is not just yours to go inside and close up, but also something that can potentially be opened up to give back to the street. We’re so happy with the result. On a day when we were all there during a jazz festival, about seven or eight people in a two-hour period came up to us for a chat. That was proof in the pudding, that we could be sitting out the front and have this connection to the neighbourhood.
LC: In this case, the architect is your brother. What’s it like working with a family member?
KK: As we’ve seen Sibling Architecture grow as a practice, we’ve always been really excited by their work and even more so by the way they always try to bring the community in. Having that connection means that the team knows us very well and what our tastes are, but there’s also mutual respect. We totally trusted them and we knew they were going to do a great job. And because Nick is my brother, we could have really frank conversations if we needed to. There were some things that perhaps we were not sure about initially, but we had trust in the architects, we took their advice and we’re so happy that we did.
Hello Houses by Sibling Architecture.
Image:
Christine Francis
LC: Did you have much involvement in the progress on site?
KK: We’d always go down and take a look. It’s really exciting when you start to see everything come together. With things like natural light, which is so important to us, you can see how it might work in the drawings, but it’s not until you’re standing on the slab, feeling the sun come in through the frame in a really special way that you get a real sense of it.
LC: What advice would you have for someone who’s thinking about engaging an architect?
KK: My main advice would be to tell the architect what’s important to you in your home and how you want to live, but ultimately to have an open mind and trust their recommendations. Dreaming up something that is tailored to you and your family is a pretty awesome process. And I think that what an architect should do is listen to what you’re looking for in a home and enhance that.
LC: Would you use an architect again?
KK: Yes, for sure. There’s so much value added to the project that hasn’t necessarily cost more in the build, but shows that it has been thought about in different ways.
LC: Would you use a different architect?
KK: [Laughs] That might be a bit controversial!
Yes, we’d always be open to engaging architects in general, but I think we just love Sibling’s work and know it so well – it’s so playful, but also really thoughtful and that’s what attracted us to them in addition to the fact that Nick is, of course, my brother. We wouldn’t have necessarily approached them if we didn’t think the result was going to fit so well with our lifestyle and what we needed in a home.
Read more about Hello Houses and Sibling Architecture.
