Only a plasterboard was used in the expansion of this Collingwood family home.
“The approach was to keep the materials honest and reduced and to enable their natural qualities in the center,” says architecture and architect Eleanor Eade about the recently completed “Ghost Gum House”.
The owners had moved from Tasmania to the house in the city center, which consisted of a “beautiful, albeit dilapidated” Victorian facade with veranda and four main rooms.
However, the back of the property had several ad hoc add-on: from strange windows to random pointing and sanitary solutions and so many external concrete plasters that only two square meters of the garden were permeable.
“It was a specific jungle,” says Eleanor. “The couple came from Tasmania an inherent love of nature and landscape and a sharp talent for plants.”
As a result, her letter concentrated on “nothing more than they needed” in order to prioritize the landscape design and the back yard.
The original apartment was also of great importance. They tried to renovate the not original elements in the back with a new addition that sits properly next to the Heritage Frontage-and not to overwhelm.
Assuming architecture has developed a design that would maximize the space in the urban corner block: an open and airy barn-like extension with a deck.
'The barn is a wonderful shape. It works particularly well for small locations, ”says Eleanor.
“It expresses the strong living character and the street presence we were looking for. Simple and clean. It is a free opposite of the inheritance character of the existing apartment. '
The pitched roof offered a large internal volume in which the open living, kitchen and dining area is now housed.
The use of texture materials such as brick and wood gives the interiors a warm, in the middle of the century, which is emphasized by other must-have features such as wood heating and a large barn door to hide the main living space.
After a Linkway has moved through the original hallway and the bedroom, a Linkway in the Terrazzo floors with skylights above the head offers a moment of the break ”, which leads to the laundry and powder room.
“As you pull through the house, the floor level is increased and the ceiling is lowered as you go to the new addition and form a threshold between old and new,” says Eleanor.
The barn structure was not only successful to reduce the footprint of the house without affecting the convenience, but also contributed to combining the center of the house with large, two -way doors with the gardens straightened north.
The resulting house does not simply offer the existing Victorian with a contemporary expansion, but also offers a “dialogue” between the contrasting materials of the house – weather board and plaster, for bricks and wood – and in shape – inheritance and a hip and talf.
And thanks to the impressive work of the owners on the gardens, this ordinary family house feels like a small oasis in the heart of the city.