Brisbane
Region
HOUSES - ALTERATIONS AND
ADDITIONS Category
Brisbane
Region
HOUSES - ALTERATIONS AND
ADDITIONS Category
Brisbane
Region
HOUSES - ALTERATIONS AND
ADDITIONS Category
Cascade House
A 1900s timber cottage sits on a wide but shallow site with a small addition added to the side. The addition visually recedes, separated by courtyard and landscape, leaving the original cottage sitting proudly to the street. The addition becomes the more public parts of the house. It is broken up into a series of split levels to mediate a large topography change across the site. A place to gather for meals and games opens onto on grass and across pool. A lounge and breezeway connect the extension to the cottage which now contains the private bedroom & bathroom spaces. The pitch of the verandah roof is extended over the cascading split levels below, protecting them from the afternoon western sun. Moving across the linking breezeway, the new extension sits below eye level, editing out the foreground, and allowing an uninterrupted outlook to the sunset, valley, and hills.
By John Ellway
Photography by Toby Scott
Maritimo
Conrad Gargett was privileged to have the opportunity to refurbish, upgrade and enhance the highly significant Brisbane House – Maritimo. Built 1925 it is a landmark Brisbane riverfront home by Architects Hall and Prentice.
The design approach was two-fold.
To preserve the character of the existing house through maintaining the key spaces of high significance intact, while repurposing rooms of secondary significance to provide the modern services and amenity functions.
Secondly, to design exceptional new interventions as contemporary but subservient to the existing house. This included the new open plan roof level Master Suite as a glazed attic extension and the new grand sculptural central stair.
The design outcome provides a comfortable juxtaposition of the original character with modern additions and amenity.
Maritimo has both retained its original grandeur and been further elevated as a significant landmark Brisbane home designed for contemporary living and entertaining.
By Conrad Gargett
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Green House
The Green House was for the client an example of making a difference one project at a time. Sustainability on many levels was at the forefront in consideration and has brought a sense of purpose, comfort and responsibility to the design, however the projects main role of a home was paramount bringing order, elegance and grave to everyday living.
On a 200sqm site this home consists of living spaces curtained by cascading perimeter planter boxes softening the composition. On the ground floor the brass top kitchen folds out to an explosive outdoor room with a rear sunken yard beyond. Upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms reside with robust interior finished dominated with grey ironbark surfaces and recycled hardwood framing. Fabricated from steel plate, the main staircase’s mid-landing dynamically cantilevers towards the street with three sides in-filled with louvers to function as the lungs of the house.
By Steendijk
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Emma Street
This dilapidated 1920’s worker’s cottage underwent a process of subtraction to restore its original design and integrity: aluminium windows replaced with timber windows, enclosed verandas opened up, vj lining uncovered by sheeting. The original height and footprint of the building was maintained.
The house extension involved excavating under the house to create new spaces that allowed the family to grow. The upper and lower levels are connected via a new internal stair which also provides a central connecting spine, joining the workers cottage to the garden room and yard beyond. The constrained layout compelled us to carefully design each square meter of space, the building edges and spine performing dual roles. This can be experienced in the stair void which doubles as a library, offering a place to pause. The garden room extension supports a sense of connection to the yard, creating a harmony between built and open space.
By Kuhnell Architecture
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Bardon Undercroft House
The undercroft of a Queenslander is often the most comfortable place to be in the warmer months of the sub-tropics – a cool shady space with battened edges to allow breeze to flow and a concrete slab to act as a heat sink.
This renovation celebrates the undercroft. A new living level under a Queenslander contains a series of connected spaces, each with their own character and outlook, but unified by the rhythm of the exposed structure above.
Upstairs the original house becomes a private retreat, accessed via a timber lined stair that rises into the centre of the old Queenslander. This space contains bedrooms and private retreat spaces for the family of six.
Prospect and refuge – the ability to be together and retreat within the site allows family life to occur in a breezy light filled home the that allows strong connection to the garden and suburb beyond.
By Kieron Gait Architects
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Our Resilient House
Our Resilient House, designed by husband+wife Architect+Client team for their own family, faces north opposite Enoggera Creek and a busy pedestrian bike pathway in Ashgrove. With outlooks of lush creek foliage, the existing post-war house was reinvented to encourage resilience through sustainability, enacting opportunistic social engagement, respecting the surrounding context and resisting flood and bushfire threat.
Following the 2011 floods, the Brisbane City Plan 2014 enhanced flood overlays to creek-facing properties. Our Resilient House was the first renovation in the street to respond, requiring elevated minimum habitable floor levels. The robust undercroft design enabled flood water to sweep and safely drain away without burdening neighbouring sites.
Context was an important consideration, along with giving back to the street through connections socially via displayed activities or retreat as appropriate. Ashgrove’s architectural vernacular is distinctive and valued. These character features influenced key building angles, materials selection and form through progressive modern interpretation.
By contexture pty ltd
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Kenmore Renovation
WINNER OF THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
The client’s love for their mid-century modern home guided the decision to renovate and create their forever home. The strategy was to preserve the street frontage while improving connections to the garden. The house is not heritage listed and had undergone previous renovations which disconnected the house from the outdoors, and were not in keeping with the style of the house.
The existing pool is now connected to the house via a new sunken lounge, bar and bathroom. This completes the missing link between the pool and house. New upper-level terraces provide an outdoor room, opening the existing house to the rear garden. By creating a stronger engagement with the outdoors, the architecture improves a sense of connection to the place, landscape and climate of Brisbane.
By KIN Architects
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Toowong Renovation
The client’s love for their post-war cottage and garden on 405m2 guided the decision to make small insertion / big impact moves. The strategy to bring living areas to ground level maintained the desired small-footprint house while preserving the cottage and its street frontage. Contemporary kitchen, dining and living areas wrap and spill onto an open-air courtyard which brings depth to the landscape. By creating a stronger engagement with the outdoors, the architecture improves a sense of connection to the place, landscape and climate of Brisbane.
Toowong renovation explores ways to engage the street and garden to foster community and family togetherness. The architecture preserves the relationship between the post-war cottage and street while forging improved connections between contemporary social spaces and backyard. Together these strategies promote a sense of belonging and improve wellbeing.
By KIN Architects
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
River House
The project itself is a wall as a ruin wrapping a building.
Stage 1 of a larger project which bookends an existing ad hoc weatherboard building.
Program: Garden, Entry, Carport, Office, Bootroom, En-suite and WIR
Construction: Tilt-up concrete walls, precast concrete roof, brick blend garden walls
By Furminger
Photography by David Chatfield
Ashgrove Hillside House
A home in the trees – elevated and surrounded by wattle, gum trees and grevilleas ,this renovation responded to the steep site with a terraced series of spaces culminating in a new bedroom and study level which look up the mountain to the north and view Mt Coot-tha to the south.
The new spaces provide places that allow the family to live, sit and entertain which emphasise a connection to the landscape beyond. These restrained new insertions to the house, minimal palette and carefully captured connections to the surrounding site aim to strengthen a quiet sense of ‘place’ amongst the whirlwind of family life.
By Kieron Gait Architects
House for New Farm
This renovation to a California bungalow home is imagined as a private oasis to contrast day-to-day urban life. The existing house was raised slightly so additional rooms could be built, allowing the gardens to be maximised. The ground level living rooms were imagined as surrounded by gardens, much like you might a find in a rural setting. The design seeks to reconsider the typically grounded California bungalow typology as a sub-tropical and private garden pavilion
By Marc&co
Photography by Andy MacPherson
Frangipani Pavilion
Frangipani Pavilion was conceived as a permeable outdoor room, that through considered siting and orientation, defines new garden spaces, like the embracing crook of an arm. The verdant courtyard that has been created now provides a central focus to both the original house and the new pavilion and offering a sanctuary. The additional intervention of a new crafted bay window to the existing living room, creates an expanded habitable threshold and establishes a dialogue between the old and new structures and celebrates the occupation of the edge. At night the pavilion becomes a lantern that floats in the landscape providing an alternate engagement and experience.
By Arcke
Photography by Andy Macpherson
Engawa House
Engawa House reinvestigates the Queenslander and creates an accessible, mulitgenerational domain for a modern family. In Japanese architecture, an engawa is a covered area facing a garden that also serves as a passageway or sitting space. In Queensland, the veranda provides a similar role and the crossover between these two cultural similarities enabled some interesting architectural exploration in thresholds and filtration of privacy. In this project, we’ve peeled away the rear of this Queenslander to create multiple spaces occupying the edge and expanding the habitable threshold between inside and out. Eroding areas of the existing floor plan significantly improved connections creating a symbiotic relationship between landscape and architecture.
By Arcke
Photography by Andy Macpherson
Sunday Street
This extension to a Queenslander is the result of a multi-layered response to site and client. The existing home had been lovingly restored, in part by the previous owner. It was decided to maintain the existing house’s connection to the street resulting in a rear extension that weaves across the site, defining and engaging with two new external courtyards.
The home is organised in two wings; one new and grounded, and one existing and lightweight, which connect around a new living space.
The new work engages meaningfully and directly with the environment and captures winter sun and summer breezes. The honest expression of materiality and dramatic shifts in volume characterise it’s expression. A small roof top tower is accessed by a covert stair. This space captures views of the distant suburb and surrounding landscape and provides the client with a playful and memorable private retreat.
By Reddog Architects
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Highgate Park House
Highgate Park House was built for a young family. The owners have roots in the area and were consciously attempting to reconnect with the suburb and its cultural traditions.
Our practice recognises the significant contribution made by private buildings to the quality of public space. This building offers two verdant courtyard gardens to the street, replicates traditional patterns of urban development and consciously reveals internal living areas to animate the streetscape.
The form, materiality and detailing of our addition to the original cottage has been inspired by our observation of informal building traditions in Highgate Hill and the surrounding suburbs of West End and South Brisbane.
By Vokes and Peters
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Ascot Garden House
The Ascot Garden House is a project of setting and scale, as much about subtraction as addition. Sitting on a North facing hillside, the existing Queenslander offered a traditional garden setting to the street, but suffered an unforgiving replica heritage extension and cramped build under divorcing the house from the back garden.
The brief called for further extension; seeking connection between levels and to the yard. Through critique of usage, and in turn the brief, a subtractive approach was taken instead; cut the extensions out and pull the garden in. The diagram is a house of two characters. The original house, lightweight and elevated, and the garden house, grounded and landscaped.
Viewed from uphill the original residence maintains its garden setting. Extending this line out, a new datum is established– a landscaped roof, replacing the yard displaced by the extension below.
A garden room, allowing room for the garden.
By nicholas harvey architect.
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
