Betty House | Josh Mulford Architects
This fresh revitalisation to the classic exgovie provides an example of a highquality sustainable alternative to the often large and expensive knockdown rebuilds in the Canberra suburbs.
The key move that unlocked the potential of the house was relocating the kitchen to the centre of the house, addressing the formal nature of the spaces and becoming the beating heart of the house. Working within a tight budget, this move allowed a 3 bedroom + 1 bathroom house to be internally reconfigured to a 4 bedroom + 2 bathroom house without extending the building footprint in any way, creating the maximum effect with an economy of moves.
The interior celebrates the simple joy that lies within assembly, craftsmanship, and timeless materials. Although contemporary in nature, the new subtly stitches and blends into the existing, almost as though its always been there.
Bill’s House | Fabric Architecture Studio
Bill’s house is a project that is close to one of our directors’ hearts, a considered reimagining of the tired family home to which was a classic red brick 1970’s piece of Australiana.
Not wanting to unsustainably discard the original home, the approach was taken to touch as little of the existing structure as possible and let the design organically grow out of the existing form. This approach was both cost effective and was crucial in creating a unique design that responds to the surrounding environment, (including feature angophora) and respecting the original house.
Birchgrove House | Carter Williamson Architects
A bold new interpretation of its context, Birchgrove House is in conversation with its natural environment as well as its history. Sweeping folds of concrete, glass, brick, and steel are softened by warm timber and vibrant marble to create a forward-thinking tectonic experience of light, shade, and spatial ambiguity.
The original sandstone cottage was painstakingly restored, with a delicate white steel staircase encased in patterned brick stitching it together with the contemporary addition. The project negotiates a steep waterfront site as it cascades down across several levels from the street to the harbour. Tasked with celebrating the joy of small family rituals as well as bigger social occasions, it spreads itself across a series of spaces that scale effortlessly. Its planes are pinched and pulled in a series of flourishes. punctuated with a cluster of soaring voids to allow old and new to coexist in a unified, optimistic future.
Black Box | Archaea
Black Box at Malvern is a sculpted contemporary container for the Hope family’s ever-changing art collection. An addition to a 1920’s bungalow, new built form has been defined in black steel and brick, distinctly contrasting the existing, white-painted brick and render. Never seeking to blend or compete, the black contrasts in both form and colour.
An existing Willow Myrtle, its gnarled, knobbly trunk and contrasting feathery foliage was retained and helped inform a design response that saw the eventual floorplate hold tight to the existing, extending laterally across the site rather than stretching towards the rear, savouring the tree.
The addition stands bold in black, with a sense of formality through its form coupled with a softness emerging from the contrasting palettes internally. The result is a home reminding the Hope family that beyond a canvas for artwork, the space is also, and more importantly, a canvas for family life.
Blackheath House and Studio | Design King Company
Set in the Historic village of Blackheath some 120 km’s west of Sydney and at an altitude of 1100 meters. The area was originally believed to be the summer corroboree meeting place for the peoples of the Darug, Gundungurra and Wiradjuri nations and lies amidst the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains Area. It is a unique cultural, natural and physical setting but at times a harsh one with exposure to extreme temperatures, wind, snow and bush fire.
The project consists of a free-standing studio and workplace for the clients, substantial alterations and additions to the existing house and finally the landscape and connecting infrastructure that ties the development together.
The whole ensemble retains the scale, form and spirit of the context of Blackheath while adding a layer of modernity and complexity to the way the site works and the buildings look, perform and operate as a home and workplace.
Blue Mountains House | Anthony Gill Architects
The project involved the substantial renovation of an existing 70’s kit home and the construction of a guest house adjacent.
The site is environmentally sensitive and classified as flame zone.
The existing house is modified to suit the client, becoming the family’s second home.
The guest house, excluded from the family’s regular use, is conceived as an extension of the site’s existing landscape. Acting as a large boulder or mass, it encourages the external traversing of the structure connecting its three separate external stairs with an original network of pathways on the site. This helps to absorb the building into the family’s realm.
This new structure enabled the site to be reorganised providing a buffer from the street and a new private, north facing entry courtyard that is the centre of the new home. It provides a place to gather, protected from the near constant southwesterly wind.
Bob’s Bungalow | Blair Smith Architecture
This addition to a 1930 Californian bungalow in Strathmore, Melbourne, is a response to countless conversations with two romantics in semiretirement, accompanied by their rescue dogs, Archie, Buzz and at one time the projects namesake, the dearly departed Bob.
Project meetings typically involved sharing food, so this was conducive to extended, wide ranging discussions on subject other than architecture like; film, the veggie garden, collected artefacts, camping trips and the decades already lived within the house. These discussions and the idiosyncrasies of both individuals have now, somehow through osmosis, manifested into a space that evokes their personalities. As a space that compliments an authentically full life and decades of collected treasures, Bobs Bungalow is unashamedly pastichelike
a physical translation of an ongoing collaboration and friendship.
Atkinson Recycle | Light House Architecture and Science
The Atkinson Recycle demonstrates the enormous potential within Canberra’s existing housing stock by transforming a classic Canberra 413 ‘exgovie’ into an energy efficient, family home.
In 1882 the Atkinson cycle was designed to provide efficiency at the expense of power density. In 2022, this little house was redesigned to provide efficiency at the expense of unnecessary floor area and embodied carbon.
The original ‘exgovvie’ character remains while the functionality and sustainability have been dramatic dramatically improved. The revitalized home achieves an impressive energy efficiency rating of 7.2 stars and uses more than 60% **less** energy than the average Canberra home.
With careful attention to detail, including a refreshed façade and thoughtful interior design, the home seamlessly blends with its surroundings while offering modern comforts and a very small carbon footprint.
This exemplary project demonstrates a commitment to sustainable suburb reinvigoration and sets a benchmark for sensitive yet innovative housing transformation.
Bayview Tree House | Woodward Architects
Nestled in the lee of a North facing hillside, Bayview Tree House offers prospect through spotted gum eucalypts toward Pittwater and Lion Island on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
The original 1970’s brick and painted weatherboard beach house has been adaptively reimagined to facilitate the needs of a growing family whilst enhancing their connection to the surrounding bush and the bay.
The response was to celebrate the existing house DNA by maintaining the original building form reconstructed using natural materials such as recycled hardwood and exposed steelwork in cohesion with the existing brickwork, reflective of the Sydney School architectural movement prevalent in the 1970’s.
Bellevue Hill House | Tribe Studio Architects
This grand old Arts and Crafts dame in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs channels the spirit of the original architect in its restoration and extension. Opening up to sun, garden and view, the house now addresses its beautiful garden, supports energetic and playful family life as well as contemporary work from home.
Driving our design process was the question: If the original architect had access to our building materials and tools, how would they approach the brief? We have used the ethos of the arts and crafts to be inventive with detail, to embrace narrative within the design and to lean into eccentricity.