Dining, Albert Park House.

The client’s brief was to design an extension to a Victorian house that would provide a new living/ dining/ kitchen area with a good connection to the rear yard. They also wanted a new master bedroom suite.

The site dictaded the spacial organisation of the house and resulted in an upper floor rotated 90 degrees over the lower floor. Roof pitches were used to allow maximum ceiling heights whilst preventing overshadowing and visibility from the street.

The opportunity to design something that related more to rear lane aesthetics rather than the original Victorian dwelling meant that we had freedom with the massing of the house and it’s materiality. A mixture of charred timber and concrete was used externally including an in-situ wall formed with shuttering from the old shed.

Key to the ethos of functionality was a focus on sustainability. The house is orientated to maximise solar gain and rainwater is collected under the building for the pool, toilets, laundry and garden. The house was heavily insulated and achieves a much higher energy rating than required by the Australian Building Codes.

Builder: Inquire Invent

Photo: Garth Oriander