Stuartholme House | Nielsen Jenkins with Michael Lumby

Stuartholme House is the renovation and addition to a post war cottage sitting on a long block which backs into the foothills of Mt Coot-Tha to the west. The existing rectilinear house runs north/south on the block, with a previous addition by Peter Kuhnell to the south east. 

A new lounge room and master bedroom suite are arranged to define and prioritise a new private courtyard which connects directly to the bushland beyond in both plan and section. The new work uses the geometries of the boundary setbacks to flare slightly apart from the old building edges and allow increased amenity to existing spaces. 

Filtered light and canopy views are brought into the building through high level glazing but the building and courtyard are deliberately sunken into the hill slightly in order to achieve a sense of refuge within a larger landscape.