This house celebrates the owners love of entertaining, art, gardening, and mid-century architecture. It was a challenging proposition for Drawing Room Architecture given that the site was previously subdivided and is only 7m wide yet over 45m long.
Careful design was needed to ensure that the home could support two bedrooms, a study, two bathrooms, a sunny kitchen/dining area and a separate living area.
A central courtyard was modeled to reveal an abundance of natural light and garden views from the living rooms. This was particularly important when considering the narrowness of the site and the need to maximize daylight.
The existing home had an eclectic heritage overlay and required parking for one car, a studio, darkroom, butler’s pantry, laundry, large outdoor deck and a pond, on top of the aforementioned rooms. It also required a nod to mid-century architecture. The architects called this “a real tetris feat!”
To start with, the first challenge was having an onsite parking space but to also have an entry and front facade that wasn’t overwhelmed by a car and driveway
The second challenge was ensuring that all plans would appease Rescode (building) regulations and planning regulations. The home needed to be compliant but not to overshadow the surroundings and to fit into strict setback conditions on a very tight site.
Finally, there was the issue of how to bring daylight into a site that was effectively only one room wide. As such, the living areas were located first to provide maximum daylight throughout the day.
The internal courtyard brings not only light but a fresh area into the middle section of the house facing the kitchen and dining room. There are high level openable windows to the courtyard to circulate out the hot air in summer and a side door to create cross ventilation over the dining area. A skylight in the kitchen brightens the room, naturally lighting the island.
The outdoor deck was able to accommodate a generous roof and awning that screens the entry and the study from the hot sun.
An outdoor pond managed to be included to run alongside the living room. In what may be “the narrowest pond made by man” has seen waterlilies adapt happily to their environment on top of many other water plants flourishing.
The garden proved also to be a success. Narrow water tanks run along the southern fence feeding the hydroponic rack of herbs and salad greens.
This home managed to incorporate all the wishes of the clients brief – entertaining, art, gardening, and mid-century architecture, but most astonishingly, did this all within a 7 metre diameter.
Photos by Daniel Fuge
