Like many Australian families, our clients were residing in a home which no longer suited their lifestyle. The original house comprised multiple small, dark and separate living spaces with limited ventilation. Our solution was to bring together as many communal spaces as possible into one great room. We began with a single unifying element; a solid block of Jarrah timber running through the centre of the house, connecting all the living spaces and rising vertically to filter daylight down from the skylight above.
We then subtracted volume from the block to create spaces for working areas, eating and cooking zones. This design strategy provided an element which effectively unified all the communal tasks while still providing individual zones with very specific requirements. Ultimately our design solution sought to embrace a broader concept of sustainability incorporating not only a plethora of environmental systems but also a social agenda to unite the family when at home.
