The owners approached us to plan a multi-staged reconfiguration of their Workers Cottage. An ambition was for their young family to have an active engagement with their environment – to participate and make active choices in their comfort.
Stage 1 excavated workshop space under the cottage, reinstated a previously enclosed verandah to the street and renovated a small bathroom.
A veil of delicate steel bars to the verandah allows the home to be open and ventilated whilst providing security. The bathroom, concealed behind a wardrobe door reveals a raw and robust palette of ironbark and folded stainless steel which will continue through Stage 2.
The second stage will provide a new family hub, conceived in part as an urban climbing hut, designed to the rear of the existing workers cottage. Structure is assembled as basic expressed elements of walls and beams creating a suspended platform from which to engage with the landscape. Pulley-operated shutters open and close the space to moderate against the weather. Materials are raw and direct to engage the touch and provide an honest and humble space.
This operates in contrast to the existing weatherboard workers cottage with its small rooms and intimate spaces that reassure and protect.