Cut and twist
A worker’s cottage on an inner-city suburb in south Australia gets a major upgrade for a growing family. The existing front four rooms are retained with the cramped lean-to and extension removed to make way for a new addition containing a new kitchen/dining and living, new bedroom and wet areas, and a second living/ kid’s area on the upper-floor level. The new addition is pushed to the south/west of the site, allowing north light into the new kitchen/living with a ‘twist’ to the box to help the orientation. A double-height void over the dining works to passively heat and cool the space without reverse-cycle AC, venting out hot air in summer and bringing winter sun deep into the floor area to heat the concrete slab.
A ‘cut’ is made on the ground floor to connect the internal spaces to the external play/relax/swim spaces while allowing an internal divining wall to separate and close-off the living when needed. Flexible modern living means sometimes an enclosed, acoustically separate space is important and other times everything can be open with everyone together.
The raw concrete, sheet, and mesh materials have a semi-industrial feel, reflecting the history of the area, with pops of colour in the new joinery.
