Trust was one Essential ingredients to bring Knight Office and Dan Wilson to life. Like many projects that were designed during the highlight of the pandemic, the project was exposed to unexpected design changes and rotations that are not always easy for customers to accept. By combating these changes with trust, customers granted the architects the freedom to react creatively to challenges, which led to a carefully dissolved and flexible home.
The customers were looking for a constant residence for their young family of four in the coastal town of Bogangar, New South Wales, and wished for a home to support their daily rhythms and prioritize connections to nature. From their past experiences, they articulated a clear desire for the rooms that would best record their life patterns: an open living area that would serve as the center of the house, supplemented by a rump room that could be separated from the primary apartment and could act as a private retreat for losing weight and television.
The outside of the house is inspired by the design aesthetics of the middle of the century, which contains orange masonry on the lower level and fiber cement cladding on the second floor. This influence continues in details such as the band driveway and a garage that is positioned in accordance with the house. The decision to refer in the middle of the century was informed by investigations by the design team, in which it was found that many local houses that were built between the 1950s and 1980s used a mix of brick and fiber cement on their facades. The architect Dan Wilson said that these houses were usually missing from front fences, had concrete strips and garages that were integrated into the zone of the house – a contrast to recent developments in the region, which often introduced large building volumes, front fences and prominent carports. Knight Office and Dan Wilson's design are a tribute to the original character of the neighborhood by taking an aesthetics in the middle of the century and the elimination of hard limits and at the same time invite opportunities for random encounters between community members.
The emphasis on the connection to nature can be seen from the moment of arrival. Wilson said that her strategy was “to externalize the circulation rooms if possible”. The house is entered by the first round through the front yard and follows a covered outer route that leads to entry. The boundaries between interiors and the free are further blurred by rooms that open directly into the garden, the generous use of skylights and a narrow, inner garden that lays the hallway.
An original system for the house was revised when it became clear that increasing construction costs would prevent the project from staying within the initial budget. Although nothing was removed from the program during this revision, some of the rooms originally referred to for the second floor on the ground floor were assigned, and the total space sizes were also reduced. Understandably, customers experienced some concerns about these changes, but they ultimately trust in the process.
In order to alleviate the perception of reduced space, the design team integrated into the integration of sliding doors between the rooms in order to borrow the space. Both in the Rumpus Room and in the dining room, for example, large doors that open on the terrace and garden create the option of a connected environment, in which meetings can extend between the rooms. Similarly, the living room connects with the hallway and transforms what is often referred to as a “dead” circulatory zone into an active and functional part of the house.
The approach to spatial planning considered continues in the positioning of the inner staircase behind the front facade, which acts as a visual buffer between the street and the private areas of the house. This placement has made passive monitoring of the road from the staircase by glazing along the facade. Wilson explained the thinking behind this decision: “People often position a bedroom behind the front facade, and in general it is that people because it is a bedroom want privacy, so that the blinds are usually pulled. However, if they need something like a staircase or hallway in this position, they do not necessarily need to be blind,” he said.
Wilson added that the street can be observed that it becomes a safer and inviting room for children. Parents can accurately – and not open – supervise what an informal outdoor game and “a more lively street” promotes, said Wilson.
Playful excerpts in wall plaster above the kitchen skylight create moments of joy that align with windows behind them to offer a framed look at the garden and the neighborhood behind them. These excerpts not only ensure the privacy of the street, but also serve as a point of visual interest.
Despite the project that differs in different reproduction and requires a lot of trust and flexibility from customers, Wilson is informed that they have been extremely satisfied since moving in with the result and demonstrate the value that an architect entails the external challenges.