Houses 95 preview

Houses 95.

In this day and age, not everyone aspires to the great Australian dream of a stand-alone house on a quarter-acre block. More and more people live in apartments, units, townhouses, semidetached dwellings or some other small-footprint home. In these spaces, the emphasis is on “quality, not quantity.”

Houses 95 includes the reworking of a compact studio apartment by Nicholas Gurney that demonstrates that good design can be accessible to all. To make the floor area of the apartment “work hard,” Nicholas has explored the difference between furniture and joinery. At just twenty-seven square metres, this space is perfectly liveable.

Another home that reminds us that you don’t need much space to enjoy the pleasures of daily life is the Pump House by Branch Studio. Located in a paddock south-east of Melbourne, the retreat has a footprint of sixty-two square metres. This project was intended as a prototype for the practice – you could easily design and construct a “pump house” in multiple and varied locations.

The Balmain Houses by Benn and Penna Architects suggests that you can make a small site accommodate a range of functions by creating adaptable spaces. This site, which is much smaller than the average Australian house size, contains two main dwellings augmented by a third studio space that could be used as a living or work space. Here, the key to the design is the shifting, angling and sliding of elements in the plan, section and elevation.

Terrace houses are generally always challenged in size – long, narrow spaces without access to natural light. At the Long Courtyard House by Scale Architecture a form containing the kitchen runs adjacent to a slender courtyard. When the doors are slid back, the entire width of the terrace is transformed into a protected outdoor room, giving the feeling of a more generous space.

This issue also includes houses by Peter Stutchbury Architecture, MORQ, Bent Architecture, O’Connor and Houle Architecture, FMD Architects and Shaun Lockyer Architects. We also profile the work of Sydney-based Virginia Kerridge Architect, and take a look at BKK Architects first commission.

Katelin Butler, editor

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