ArchShowcase 
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. Picket House in Melbourne, Australia by FMD ArchitectsFebruary 11th, 2023 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: FMD Architects Tying together the old and the new, Picket House engages with its streetscape and surrounding heritage character. Subtle material transitions between the existing and the new acknowledges its contextual relationship. Sited in a suburban context, the house’s corner site provokes a dialogue between its occupants and the surrounding community through the archetypal picket fence. Offering opportunities for social engagement between the layering of fence, façade, existing and alteration – the rhythm of the pickets establishes moments of exposure and concealment between the street and inner private gardens.  Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt
 Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt The existing entrance and southern façade are retained and expressed internally through the floor surfaces that are then carried throughout the house. New living spaces are positioned to the north, with picket clad canopies both offering shade in summer and allowing sun to penetrate in the winter months – a daybed beneath provides offerings of respite and observation of the houses’ inner functions – as well as views to the backyard and glimpse through to the street. The connection to the streetscape is referenced internally, with mirrors to both the kitchen and stairwell playfully mimicking the geometric forms of the pickets, reflecting light deep into the floorplate of the house. The addition of two studies to the ground floor, one hidden behind the guise of double pivot doors, provides a flexible arrangement that enables the occupants to work from home, whilst the first floor offers bedrooms and a private retreat for the children – a quiet breakaway from the working mechanisms of the ground below.  Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt  Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt A playful continuation of the picket fences’ angular geometry is mimicked again throughout the bathroom’s mirrors and joinery – the mirrors reflecting the adjacent wall’s tiling, maintaining the houses’ engagement to the streetscape within the dwellings’ more private spaces. The landscape surrounding the new addition continues the concept of layering, with garden beds embedded between the façade and fence. Roof gardens above extend the landscape vertically, adding insulation to the ground floor, roof, and shading to the first floor. Our architectural addition didn’t want to reshape who our building was or change its identity. We were conscious to allow the house to extend its presence in the streetscape and converse with its neighbouring community.  Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt  Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt  Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt  Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt  Image Courtesy © Tatjana Plitt  Image Courtesy © FMD Architects  Image Courtesy © FMD Architects  Image Courtesy © FMD Architects
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Categories: House, Residential |
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