This beguiling addition peels away from an existing Arts and Crafts bungalow and envelops a continuous set of rooms that unfurl across and down the site. Wrapped in a facade that reads like over-scaled shingles, the addition nods to the language of the existing home and its timber-tiled gables. The interior is a visual feast with curved forms, billowing ceilings and thickened walls highlighting the change in mood between rooms. Subtle variations in floor height follow the natural fall of the site, while colour is strategically employed to define thresholds and accentuate zones.
Resisting a culture of excess, this economical and enlightening Sydney house is humble in scale but spirited in its ambitions for the future of suburban housing. At a time when the average new Australian home swells at 230 square metres, Draped House is a testament to the elegance of restraint, encompassing a modest 129 square metre internal footprint. The finished house steps nimbly across the site, with a design that minimised excavation and disruption while simultaneously responding to the proximity of neighbouring dwellings.
A clever adaptation to a Queensland worker’s cottage learns from the verandah, enabling its occupants to live on the edges of house, garden and neighbourhood. Niwa House offers a diverse set of spaces that can be used in various ways at different times of the day, week and year. At the front of the house, the existing verandah enclosure and the front fence were removed, reinstating the verandah as an open platform that engages directly with the street. Inside, a new kitchen and dining space occupies the northern edge, connecting directly to the backyard. True to its name, Niwa House – derived from the Japanese term for “garden, courtyard, yard” – showcases a remarkable connection to the outdoors.
A dilapidated corner store in Melbourne has been replaced with a captivating new house that is at once effortless and refined. In honour of the site’s past, the new design echoes some elements of the corner store that once stood in its place. It adopts a similar building footprint, replicating the chamfered corner and reinstating the street signage pinned to its facade. The new volume uses the original material palette of galvanised roof sheeting and shiplap cladding, but the new form, with its steep skillion roof and timber batten details, results in a decidedly contemporary interpretation.
A quietly radical approach threads delicate new layers into the familiar Newcastle weatherboard cottage, amplifying perceptions of seasonal change and the specifics of place. The name “Aru” – meaning “insect” in the language of the Awabakal people – refers to a number of conceptual themes evident in the garden and structure’s design: the home is light-footed with breathable skin, while the garden is quite literally a home for insects. Operable timber screens allow the occupants to moderate their environment and facilitate a natural airflow. Meanwhile, the rear lawn has been replaced by native planting developed in collaboration with Wattlebird Garden Designs as an act of repairing and respecting Country. This property serves as a sanctuary for more than just humans, architect-owner Warren Haasnoot explained, “all of these native bees have made little homes in the holes of the timber screens. There’s lizards, grubs, wasps and butterflies.”
