• Location
    Hawthorn, VIC
  • Status
    Complete
  • Type
    Residential
  • Size
    720sqm
  • Internal Area
    300sqm
  • Team
    Rob Kennon, Jack Leishman, Emlyn Olaver
  • Collaborators
    Dimpat, Eckersley Garden Architecture, Metro Building Surveying, Meyer Consulting
  • Photographer
    Derek Swalwell
  • Awards
    AIA Victorian Architecture Awards - Waffle House (Shortlist)
  • Publications
    Waffle House - On The Grid
  • Tags
    Housing, Arts and Crafts, Renovation, Garden Setting, Concrete

This renovation of a Queen Anne style family home finds a new expression for the principles of Arts and Crafts. It uses volume, scale, depth, and discrete adornment to reveal the inherent beauty in material and the craftsmanship of building. Through a series of considered cuts, subtractions and annexes, it reorients life within the home towards (the founding principle) nature.

[1] The deep-set entry portico, the heavy, pure formalism and timber grid strappings that line the ceilings suggest a departure from Victorian influences in favour of more simplistic adornment, a greater emphasis on the materials and an appreciation of the natural world
The brief was to design spaces that were voluminous but not noisy and separated the preparation of a meal from the sharing of it. The concrete waffle ceiling provides acoustic baffling and volume, while the kitchen benchtop (intentionally without stools) encourages sit-down dining
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The architecture is composed of a varied and textural palette of materials that come together through their purity and restraint
[3] The garden is walled in the same concrete brick that envelopes that main space to stretch the scale and depth of the architecture to the garden. We worked closely with Eckersley Garden Architecture in reimaging an unprogrammed garden space that embodies the principles of a traditional garden (formal, layered, verdant)
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The architecture embodies the client’s desire to distance work-life from home-life by separating the functions over two levels. The division is further emphasised through deliberate orientation - sky views in the upper level and panoramic garden views on ground
[4] The concrete waffle ceiling embodies the solidness of the original building and is punctuated by staggered skylights that pierce the grid above. The volume and evenness of natural light draws you in and your eyes up
[4] The grid form of the ceiling references the strapping on the existing ceilings and the waffle allows for the large structural span and provides acoustic baffling
[6] An ultra-fine skinned dining room (fully glazed) counterbalances the monumental depth and volume of the living and kitchen. This separate, sunken dining room immerses you in the act of dining, and the fineness of the glazing and detailing give you a feeling of being within the garden
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[2] The garage parking arrangement is parallel, providing a continuous rear boundary wall that minimises its presence in the rear garden. As a result of this planning, the rear garden is drawn further into the house, bringing life within the home closer to nature

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