The East Fremantle House is a contextually responsive addition to a heritage cottage in suburban Perth.
The most important part of this house is the space that is not built – specifically, a large northern void – a space for sun, light, sky, sound, and breeze to inhabit.
The house then traces this edge, creating rooms with immediate connection to these elemental conditions.
On the northern face of the addition, the form is simple and linear, allowing the southern mass of the building to be an efficient living space conceptualised as one long ‘garden room’.
The northern face of these spaces is lined with sliding doors, allowing the whole space to open up and allow the life of the house to spill out and occupy the full width of the site.
On the southern face, the ancillary program elements are expressed as ‘lumps’; a tall triangular chimney for the fireplace, a curved north facing shell for an art wall, a low top-lit box for the kitchen, and a high round cylinder for a powder room.
Formally, the house is expressed in four parts; the existing brick cottage, an entry link, the ground floor addition, and the first floor addition.
The entry link acts as a mediating point, the connective tissue between the elements.
Dark, hard, and solemn.
To the left upon entry is the existing cottage, restored and lightly amended.
To the right, the garden room and living spaces which are, light, bright, and open, experientially a direct counter to the experience of the house upon entry.
Above these sits the articulated eaves and master suite, a wooden box perched lightly.
The ground floor addition is masonry construction, either painted or bagged brick, or rough thrown concrete, all painted white.
This floor then hits a very deliberate and expressed datum line above which the project becomes light framed natural timbers.
There are two points where this hard datum threshold is broken; once on the southern elevation where the counter ‘lumps’ break through to varying heights, and again in the sunken lounge room where the first-floor stair flicks a timber hatch down to welcome and gently touch the heavy base of the ground floor program.
Nic Brunsdon Architects’ view of sustainability is that it is best done as a first principles thing and not an applied technology.
They feel that getting the massing, orientation, and subsequent program planning right is the most important thing that can be done as designers of lived environments.
The clients brief was for a contextually sensitive addition that gave functional living space to a cherished existing cottage.
The house then imbues this program with the high-performance elements of sustainable space planning, addressing thermal mass, winter sun angles, and prevailing breezes.
The house also allows for changing patterns of family life.
Currently, the family is all living in the front of the house due to a recent birth.
Over time, the parents or children may choose to retreat to the rear upper floor bedroom suite at the rear.
The resulting house is breathable, functional, and responsive to the stages of life.
Project Details
Project Size – 230 m2
Site Area – 550 m2
Project Budget – $750,000
Building Levels – 2
Completion Date – 2020
Project Team
Architecture
Nic Brunsdon
Nic is the director of the design practice NIC BRUNSDON (formerly POST- architecture), and the director of the urban program Spacemarket, which pairs disused spaces with useful people.
His architecture studio is much awarded and operates locally and internationally from Perth, Western Australia.
Photography
Dion Robeson
Architectural, interior and commercial fit out photographer based in Perth, Western Australia
Based in Perth, Western Australia and specialising in architectural, interior, and lifestyle photography. Dion has a great appreciation for light and the way it moves through spaces.
A minimal but crisp aesthetic helps him to tell a story and evoke feelings when viewing the imagery.
He works with some of Australia’s leading architects and interior design firms while also representing up-and-coming talent in his home town of Perth. Featured in many international publications and also shoots for clients based in New York, Europe and Africa.
Photo Gallery
Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge.
Design © 2021 Nic Brunsdon. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2021 Dion Robeson. All Rights Reserved.
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