ALLEN-HAZARD EXTENSION - Elsternwick

This project was a response to the client’s aspirations for a ‘new house’ rather than simply a ‘new extension’. Efforts were made to compress together the various domestic elements required in the brief and then expand them to produce a kind of prosthetic attachment to the existing 1920s brick dwelling. Functionally the design reverses the way in which the house is used due to the intentional rearrangement of living areas from front to rear. The roof geometry is reconciled with the plan to create a spatial result which does not compromise roof or plan, but helps generate a light and airy interior which twists away from the neighbouring fence line to the north and directs views back into the depth of the garden beyond. For reasons of privacy and energy efficiency, the southern wall of the extension remains blind. The coloured metal cladding system enables the scheme to be camouflaged as a single entity - relying on a colorbond mixture of bronze and red to match the existing brickwork of the original house.

Photography – Staughton Architects