Domestic Arrivals

Sydney-based duo Noxon Giffen attach an elevated living concourse to transform an ordinary 1960s brick house into an extraordinary destination.

Alts and adds” (industry slang for alterations and additions) are bread-and-butter work for many architects and builders, but they can create issues. “While an extension might sit well on its own and look great, you sometimes find that it demeans the original,” says architect Justin Noxon, of Sydney-based practice Noxon Giffen. “The whole idea here was that the new element would not make the original house – which is very ordinary – appear diminished by its presence. We blended the two parts of the building without the new part in any way mimicking the old.”

The “old” was a late 1960s brick veneer house, sitting on a ridge on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, about an hour and a half’s drive from Melbourne. The original building was low and squat – a simple, L-shaped dwelling with a north–south orientation, with its living areas at the southern end, and three bedrooms, a study, a main bathroom and a laundry leading off either side of a long central corridor. To the east, blocking an Arcadian view of a green valley, was a series of crudely built extensions comprising a studio, a cabana and a guest bedroom, with a deck to the south, and a lap pool and double carport to the north.

“The whole premise of the original house was wrong,” Justin explains. “The living area was cold and the house’s elevation to the east had no connection to the landscape at all. The former building was also very horizontal; the new extension was all about extending that aspect, but also giving it its own character. Now it grows seamlessly out of the old house to face the landscape.”

The new, slightly elevated living area.

The new, slightly elevated living area.

Image: Shannon McGrath

Noxon Giffen has replaced the old extensions with a long, singular living space that stretches into the landscape to capture the view, sunshine and cross breezes. One end of the new structure slots neatly into the midpoint of the existing house, improving circulation through the spaces. Here, a small family room replaces an old bedroom. A clean, white joinery box, containing a new kitchen and butler’s pantry, separates the family room from the rest of the new addition, which transitions from an eating area to indoor then outdoor living zones.

“The kitchen is essentially a pod with airy spaces flowing around it,” says Justin. “As you walk through the extension, you move from a semi-enclosed area in the family room to increasingly open zones. Gradually, the walls fall away entirely until you’re left standing on the roofed deck.”

The character of the new extension is markedly different from the original house. The older building is constructed of solid masonry, with small, cellular spaces and pinched openings; the new, glass-clad extension, with cathedral ceilings, is light and airy, appearing to hover above the clipped turf that surrounds it courtesy of recessed footings. The two generations of the building have enough in common, however, such as a shared roof pitch and dark-stained floorboards, to tie them together.

The new kitchen, a joinery pod with airy spaces flowing around it.

The new kitchen, a joinery pod with airy spaces flowing around it.

Image: Shannon McGrath

“In elevation, this new element is a reworking of the old house,” Justin says, “but it doesn’t hit the ground with the same clunkiness.”

Replacing the original pool and carport is a pool house, set perpendicular to the new extension, and a double garage. The two buildings flank a covered pedestrian walkway leading to a bright yellow entry door to the new living extension. Both buildings are clad in single-skin corrugated fibreglass that conceals their interiors from public view.

“The clients are not showy people and wanted to avoid a pool that looked like something at a resort,” Justin explains. “This design is gentle and quiet. The garage and the pool house are an architectural take on other farm buildings that are clad in Colorbond, but using corrugated fibreglass instead of metal means that their interiors become flooded with natural light by day.” By night, both buildings transform into softly glowing lanterns within the darkened landscape.

Enclosing the pool provided the owners, an older couple who swim daily, with shelter from the local windy conditions. The siting of the pool house also partly encloses a small, sunny courtyard at the centre of the collection of structures.

“The design offers a variety of outdoor sitting areas to accommodate changes in the weather, which happens quickly down here,” Justin says. “One minute the valley is full of mist, and the next it disappears. The views here are like moving wallpaper, enveloping the extension.”

The owners elaborate: “The original house was grounded in the earth to the point where we couldn’t see the valley. Now we’re slightly elevated, and the house allows us to have a relationship with the landscape in a way we never could before. And that has been a total, delightful surprise.”

Products and materials

Roofing
Colorbond Lysaght in ‘Woodland Grey’; Bradford roof and ceiling insulation.
External walls
High performance low E double glazing; colour-backed glass in ‘Woodland Grey’ as external cladding; galvanized steel fascias.
Internal walls
Plasterboard painted in Dulux ‘Natural White’; Ampelite Cool-lite fibreglass sheet.
Windows
Capral black anodized aluminium blind mullion frames with silicone butt joints (external); glass louvres with black anodized aluminium frames.
Doors
Painted solid core timber doors with Lockwood hardware (internal); glass doors with black anodized aluminium frames and Lockwood hardware (external).
Flooring
Stained Victorian ash floorboards.
Lighting
Cosmoluce compact fluorescent downlights; Gamma Illumination fluorescent tubes; LED feature lights.
Kitchen
AGA cooker; Liebherr integrated fridges; Bosch microwave; Miele integrated dishwasher; Corian benchtop with integrated twin sinks to island bench; stainless steel benchtops to pantry bench; Colourback glass; stainless steel ‘D’ pull handles; 2pac polyurethane joinery.
Climate control
Existing subfloor ducting system extended; Helioscreen external motorized blind.
External elements
Spotted gum pergola; Rietmans sandblasted basalt pavers.
Other
Focus Mezzofocus fireplace model on custom-built concrete base; Biolytix waste treatment system.
Artwork
Artwork Bronze sculpture in pond is ‘Pisces’ by Douglas Stephen.

Credits

Project
Domestic Arrivals
Architect
Noxon Giffen
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Project Team
Justin Noxon, Darren Giffen, Stephanie Morgia
Consultants
Builder R D McGowan
Engineer Perrett Simpson
Interiors Noxon Giffen
Landscaping Noxon Giffen, Charlotte Atkinson
Lighting Lighting Design Partnership
Site Details
Location Mornington Peninsula,  Vic,  Australia
Project Details
Status Built
Design, documentation 12 months
Construction 12 months
Category Residential
Type New houses

Source

Project

Published online: 1 Feb 2010
Words: Jenna Reed Burns
Images: Shannon McGrath

Issue

Houses, February 2010

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