'Hawk House

UPDATE: We are currently working on an extension to this house. The owners made contact in 2013 asking for us to design and procure a residential extension and renovation to a dilapidated Californian Bungalow in Northcote that had lost its original charm through a life of rough-and-ready renovations comprising cheap-and-nasty aluminium framed windows, aluminium external cladding, and a ‘re-stump’ utilising an old tractor tyre supporting some of the bearers.  

 

Happily, we took on the project and after initially looking at concept design responses incorporating a renovation & extension, it became apparent that a new house would be as cost effective as a renovation & extension, given the extent of the repairs and maintenance required to the existing house. This also enabled siting of the house to be rethought, such as to reduce the street setback and to locate the front entry to the side, rather than the front of the house.  

 

Each morning, many people travel past in cars, busses, trucks, bikes and on foot on the way to work and school, the cycle being repeated in reverse each afternoon & evening. We were interested in how a new building on this site could be experienced by these passers-by and also how the house could potentially offer differing visual experiences depending on the direction of travel. This led to an interest in how perspective could be utilized to give the appearance of a larger, more flamboyant building from one direction resulting in an exaggerated perspective and when viewed from the opposite direction, how a flattened perspective could result in an apparently more subdued building form.