“Located in Melbourne, Australia, this new house was designed for an empty nester couple who desired the ability to accommodate interstate and overseas friends when they came visit. The house is set on a block with two street frontages and afforded a formal front entry and an everyday back entry to the house.
The house has three distinct levels ; the basement with a light filled terraced courtyard for entertaining grandchildren, the ground floor level to accommodate all of the couple’s requirements for their everyday living and the top level for visitors to stay short or long term with a degree of independence.
The form and composition of the dwelling both compliment and challenge the home’s traditional suburban surrounds. At the front, the roof forms a spliced hip made of timber cladding which twists to make a traditional gable roof at the rear. The timber roof becomes the timber walls that meet with rammed earth intersecting through the dwelling on the ground floor plane. All of the spaces form a close connection to gardens and greenery – surrounding the house and to the mature trees in the distance.”