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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.

Constable House in Canberra, Australia by Townsend + Associates Architects

 
October 13th, 2015 by Sumit Singhal

Article source: Townsend + Associates Architects

In the 1960’s, Architect Rudi Krastins designed a modest house on a steep block in the establishing Canberra suburb of Red Hill. Forty years later T+AA were commissioned to transform the existing structure into a gracious new house with modern living amenity. The brief would take 14 years to complete over 2 stages and uses masonry, timber, glass and steel to reshape a response to the brief and an outstanding outlook over central Canberra.

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Stage 1 tackled the rear view side; providing living and entertainment spaces – both indoor and outdoor, a serious kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms. Expansive elevated decks are connected to a lower pool level by a steel and timber stair. Steel is used to achieve large spans and cantilevers and be expressive of a new structural and tectonic clarity.

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

The Stage 2 brief was focused on the street side and involved a new entry and gallery, guest suite, courtyard, study, garage and landscaping. It was desired that the house exhibit a generous and animated form to the street. The gallery links the new work with the first stage – the gallery using a south facing saw-tooth roof form to bring diffuse light and ventilation deep into the interior.

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

The new roof forms are exaggerated in height to compensate for the house being set down from street level and to screen the large original roof. The new street elevation is scaled to provide a well-proportioned street presence and explores the juxtapositions of light and dark, solid and void. The warm tones of the brushbox soffit act as a lantern to the street and continues the use of this signature material throughout the house.

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Gallery walls and ceilings are detailed to minimize shadows and to disperse the soft south light. The repeated rooflights are supported on slender steelwork, forward of the rendered gallery walls. The steel columns frame the openings and define the display walls. The ‘slippage’ between roof forms and the supporting steelwork has a dynamic effect on the space.

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

Image Courtesy © John Gollings

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Category: House




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