Houzz Tour: A Playful Home Drawn Up by 8-Year-Old Twin Boys
Plans for this Melbourne home were going nowhere – until the homeowners' eight-year-old twins came to the rescue
Out of the mouths of babes – or rather, from the drawing books of children – come the most ingenious ideas. Architect Andrew Maynard had spent a long afternoon with the owners of this engaging home, brainstorming possibilities for the renovation and extension that would create the family home they wanted. After hours of discussion, digression and going around in circles, they were no closer to finding the spark that would get the project underway. Maynard recalls the gloom of that first meeting: “We found ourselves deep down the rabbit hole”. With a modest “There you go!”, the couple’s twin boys presented the drawings they had been engrossed in while the grown-ups were buried in their serious business. No racing cars, spaceships or dinosaurs for these kids – there on paper was the concept that would anchor Tower House, the imaginative home the family now enjoys.
This picture shows how the twins’ fledgling ideas blossomed into an integral part of the final design: the ‘tower’ image that permeates a set of new structures and puts its quirky stamp on the home. The project involved the renovation of an original weatherboard house and the construction of a series of buildings with angled rooflines, fitting together like a giant Meccano model. The tallest of these structures, and the reason behind the name ‘Tower House’, is the twins’ studio-cum-study-cum-crazy playroom.
Photos by Peter Bennetts
Photos by Peter Bennetts
Step inside this tall tower and check out the boys’ ‘study’. How active and adventurous boys could possibly study in this play paradise is a mystery! It has desks at floor level, and this child’s fantasy: The Net, which hangs above the boys’ desks.
The Net, reached from the ground floor by a set of steps, enables keen climbers like the twins and their friends to keep an eye on street and backyard action, as well as provides a comfortable and bouncy place to read, draw and dream. The safety netting is attached wall-to-wall and is strong enough to survive energetic eight-year-olds. The eye-catching tower connects to the original weatherboard building by a short glass-enclosed link.
Maynard comments: “This space pushes the idea of verticality, a theme that runs through the whole project – internally, it is a wholly vertical shelf running from floor to ceiling.”
Safety net: Oxley Nets; FRP (fibreglass reinforced plastic) grating steps
Maynard comments: “This space pushes the idea of verticality, a theme that runs through the whole project – internally, it is a wholly vertical shelf running from floor to ceiling.”
Safety net: Oxley Nets; FRP (fibreglass reinforced plastic) grating steps
The studio makes a significant statement on the home’s skyline. Shingle cladding, which covers many of the exterior walls of the numerous new structures making up the home, is western red cedar and has been left untreated to weather naturally. The ribbed white cladding on roofs and remaining walls cleanly defines the tower shapes and is conceal-fixed for watertightness.
Longline 305 wall and roof cladding: Lysaght
Longline 305 wall and roof cladding: Lysaght
The house is between two thoroughfares: a leafy post-war suburban street to the front, and a rear one, shown here, which Maynard says “feels like a country road.” The suburban context is small, humble weatherboard and brick abodes and he felt that “a chunk of contemporary architecture would be an imposition.”
So how best to design a home to satisfy the family’s space, functional and aesthetic needs without overpowering the site and the streetscape? Maynard’s ingenious proposition was a series of small structures, echoing the pointed form of the boys’ sketches, each subtly different.
He describes the design aesthetic as ‘anti-monolith’ and explains: “Externally, the home looks small, as there is visual fragmentation in the separate buildings, rather than one bulky building. Internally, the house seems large – it defies logic in a way, like a Tardis!”
He describes the design aesthetic as ‘anti-monolith’ and explains: “Externally, the home looks small, as there is visual fragmentation in the separate buildings, rather than one bulky building. Internally, the house seems large – it defies logic in a way, like a Tardis!”
Says Maynard, who worked with project architect Mark Austin, “Tower House developed into more than just an extended house – it became a small village, with each building performing a different function, synchronised by the boys’ tower shapes and anchored by the original weatherboard house.” This view from the rear lane illustrates the idea that carried the project through from beginning to end – an alliance of structures differentiated by the family’s diverse activities, Maynard’s ‘village’ as home. The effect calls to mind the European concept of the extended family farmhouse complex.
A fundamental approach to the project, sparked by the tall peaked towers in the twins’ sketches and emphasised by the vertically-aligned ribbed cladding, was to move away from longitudinally extended building forms. “Australia is wide and flat. As a result, our homes are often wide and flat. In contrast, this project explored the idea of creating a vertical home,” says Maynard.
Individual buildings differ in size and orientation, but a sense of cohesion is achieved by the materials used and how they cluster sociably around the outdoor area.
Individual buildings differ in size and orientation, but a sense of cohesion is achieved by the materials used and how they cluster sociably around the outdoor area.
The floor plan shows the original house with bedrooms, bathroom and kids’ living space central on the site, linked on the left by a small tower to the family kitchen/dining and living areas, which in turn lead to the master suite and library. The boys’ study/playroom tower (top off-centre) is reached from the original house through a glass-enclosed link leading off their living space. The square, top far left, shows the netted level of this tower.
The weatherboard dwelling on the site has retained its modest proportions and traditional brickwork front porch, but has been given a smart facelift, both inside and out. It contains a bedroom apiece for the boys, a bathroom and their indoor playing spaces. The house is entered through this modest homely porch.
Exterior paint in ‘Intimacy’ (NG44): Haymes
Exterior paint in ‘Intimacy’ (NG44): Haymes
This view shows the rear of the original dwelling, and how the boys’ indoor play space opens to the rear gardens through large folding doors. The gunmetal grey of the painted weatherboards sets off the timber floors and hoop pine plywood cabinetry. The wall of the shingle-clad tower, the boys’ magical netted studio, is visible on the left of the picture.
The twins’ bedrooms, in the original house, have visual and physical connection to the new extension buildings. This has been maintained by the strategic placement of windows and the way the structures fit together. The kitchen/dining/living area is in a separate building, but connected to the original house by a small tower-shaped link. It can be seen, or screened off, from this boy’s bedroom. Check out the floor plan above to see how this works.
The floors are spotted gum, with a tung oil finish.
The floors are spotted gum, with a tung oil finish.
The twins’ all-white bathroom is sleek and practical and full of natural light. Heating in the original part of the house comes from hydronic panels, and the new extensions have in-floor hydronic coils.
Most modern domestic hydronic heating uses water as a heat transfer medium. Water heated (or in some cases chilled as well, for cooling) in a gas-powered boiler is piped through the area to flat panels or underfloor coils, which give off heat.
Ceramica Vogue 200 x 200cm Ghiaccio matt and gloss mixture tiles: Classic Ceramics; Cube 500 above-counter vanity basin: Caroma; gas wall spout assembly taps: Rogerseller
Most modern domestic hydronic heating uses water as a heat transfer medium. Water heated (or in some cases chilled as well, for cooling) in a gas-powered boiler is piped through the area to flat panels or underfloor coils, which give off heat.
Ceramica Vogue 200 x 200cm Ghiaccio matt and gloss mixture tiles: Classic Ceramics; Cube 500 above-counter vanity basin: Caroma; gas wall spout assembly taps: Rogerseller
The kitchen sits in the hub of the house, taking in light and sunshine from wide steel-framed doors that open onto the gardens and the other structures of the ‘village’. The floors throughout the kitchen and living areas are polished concrete with exposed aggregate.
The twins appear to spend a lot of time above ground level. Climbing seems to be one of their favourite activities and tower-shaped cut-outs in the plywood walls of the kitchen encourage – and luckily support – feats of mountaineering.
Towers have become a motif in the home: these cut-outs at floor level on the island wall, resembling tiny tower-shaped mouse holes, are a profile of the house! The tower motif also appears in the joinery at the entry porch of the existing house.
The ceiling of the kitchen and dining area follows the contours of the external structure, bringing the tower form and the vertical shapes that pervade the design to the interior, and giving space and openness to what is quite a compact area.
The expansive island bench, at almost 3 metres long and 8 metres wide, is a sociable meeting place – meal preparation is often a communal activity when friends and neighbours visit.
The island benchtop is black-painted steel, which is waxed to a hard finish. Kitchen joinery is sealed hoop pine plywood.
Paint in ‘Lexicon’: Dulux
The island benchtop is black-painted steel, which is waxed to a hard finish. Kitchen joinery is sealed hoop pine plywood.
Paint in ‘Lexicon’: Dulux
The master bedroom suite is situated in a separate tower structure, connected to the main living areas and the library by a glass-enclosed link. The house has His and Hers retreats – Hers is the serene timber-lined book-filled library shown in the foreground, adjoining the master suite. “His is a sneaky spot in the roof space above the kitchen, lined with synthetic grass and furnished with a book and a banana chair,” says Maynard.
The ensuite forms an angle enclosing part of the garden. The bedroom floor is polished concrete with exposed aggregate.
The ensuite has the same pared-back simplicity and contemporary design as the boys’ bathroom, with similar tiles and fittings. A wide hinged floor-to-ceiling toughened glass panel closes off the wet area and oversize glass sliders maximise natural light. North-facing windows and doors have light- and heat-excluding blinds. The library can be glimpsed on the right.
Stylus Newbury Island 1800 bath: Caroma; Pol summer rain shower rose: Sussex Taps; Ceramica Vogue 200 x 200cm Ghiaccio matt and gloss mixture tiles: Classic Ceramics
Stylus Newbury Island 1800 bath: Caroma; Pol summer rain shower rose: Sussex Taps; Ceramica Vogue 200 x 200cm Ghiaccio matt and gloss mixture tiles: Classic Ceramics
To satisfy the family’s enthusiasm for a series of functionally separate but integrated structures, Maynard created different moods within the complex with different colours and materials. The library, says Maynard, “is a place of thought and contemplation, in contrast to the playfulness of the boys’ study.” The serene room is lined with dark Spotted Gum and is slightly submerged so that “the desk is almost buried in the garden.” Organic forms in jewel colours in a leadlight window by Leigh Schellekens of Hampton and Bayside Leadlight reflect the garden setting.
Maynard believes that “increasingly our houses are overly concerned with privacy and we are turning our backs to our neighbours,” a view shared by the owners. Their vision was for a home where “community, art and nature come together” and the sincerity of this sentiment is amply illustrated in the front of the house and the neighbouring property, which is also owned by the couple. The area has become a community vegetable garden – neighbours are invited to help themselves, and do a little digging and weeding if the mood takes them. The high fences around the rest of the property can be closed off, but are often left wide open so neighbours can use the garden as a shortcut between the two streets.
A small mystery surrounds the property: Tower House is number 3 in the street; the adjacent traditional cream weatherboard house is number 7 – “and nobody knows what happened to number 5,” says Maynard.
A small mystery surrounds the property: Tower House is number 3 in the street; the adjacent traditional cream weatherboard house is number 7 – “and nobody knows what happened to number 5,” says Maynard.
Community, art and nature are all wrapped up in this playful, flexible and easygoing but very functional home. It’s both private and public, small, yet spacious, traditional and contemporary. It enables solitary contemplation or sociable celebration, work or play. That its inspiration came from the lively minds of the family’s youngest members give it an extra touch of magic.
Tower House is shortlisted for the 2015 Australian Interior Design Awards, Residential Design section, announced on May 15.
Tower House is shortlisted for the 2015 Australian Interior Design Awards, Residential Design section, announced on May 15.
Where: Alphington, a north-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria
Who lives here: A couple and their twin boys
Size: Site is 500 square metres; home is 225 square metres; 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, studio, kitchen, dining, office and living spaces
House in five words: “Nurturing, stimulating, engaging, introverted and extroverted,” according to Maynard.
At some point during the evolution of a home, there is usually an ‘ah-ha!’ moment. For Maynard, this moment came quite out of left field. While lengthy discussions with the owners were taking place – which failed to progress their design project – the couple’s twin boys, in that uncomplicated way that kids see things, had been busy drawing the plan for their new home: a tower structure, with windows, doors and rooms all in place, bathed in happy sunshine. As Maynard says, the simple artwork distilled a number of ideas that had been discussed that afternoon: “The boys had firmly pushed the boat off the shore and we were on our way.”