Inspiration for this project comes from thinking about how this family live and enjoy life. Spaces are playful; conceived more like a favourite local café than a house, reflecting this family’s desire to create a home that allows them to connect with friends, family and their local community.

The existing house has been kept intact with the addition of a new ‘gable-like’ element to the rear. The new volume is shifted off the side boundary to open up the living spaces to the sun and to connect the kitchen/dining space to the rear garden.

Off-form concrete forms a heavy base, expressed externally and internally, creating integrated seats, benches and durable surfaces for family life. Floating over the base, a decorative timber screen fills the end of the upper gable roof form, containing the main bedroom. The angled panels mediate the sun and control overlooking, while still providing distant views over the rooftops beyond.

The rear of the house has been designed as another ‘front’ with a flexible studio garage an important part of the project. Viewed from the house and providing an opportunity to connect with the laneway it needed to be elevated beyond the typical garage response.