An Arched Timber Vault Promises Privacy Within This Tasmanian Cottage

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Project Details:

Location: Tasmania, Australia

Architect: Studio Of: Architecture / @so_architecture

Builder: Anstie Construction

Structural Engineer: Aldanmark Engineers

Landscape Design: Playstreet 

Photographer: Sean Fennessy / @seanfennessy

Project Details: "Harriet’s House is a small but conceptually bold extension to a single story Georgian Cottage, located in Launceston, Tasmania on the land of the Stoney Creek Nation.

"The project is a collaboration, a six year long conversation between architects (us) and a historian/archivist (our client, Harriet), focused on creating contemporary, yet referential, architecture within a well preserved and deeply rich Tasmanian Georgian context.

"Whilst beautifully maintained, in near original condition, the existing cottage’s south facing orientation and absent volume contributed to a sense of enclosure and spatial fatigue. The approach to the new work centered on introducing height and an element of surprise, with the addition of one generous, over-scaled room. Furthermore, the project explores, what we believe to be a very Soanian idea—the coupling of a simple and seemingly straightforward floor plan or elevation with an unexpected and delightful section. The contrasting restraint and whimsy of Soane’s work felt like an appropriate cue for an archivist's house.

"The exterior form of the addition is a simple rectangle with two glazed openings, one to the east and one to the north. The panels of glass appear to have been pushed into the brick facade with force, corbelling the brickwork. This detail and the red brick upstand reference the cottage's formal Georgian facade. The elevation is almost entirely without decoration yet has one moment of what Harriet would describe as Regency sophistication: the recessed wall panels located on either side of the entry door. The detail speaks to a method of decoration that is without addition but rather employs the material limits of the brick to define the capacity for movement—for push and pull.

"The proportion of addition plays on the geometry of the two-room cottage and flips it on its side; the resulting space is two rooms high rather than two rooms wide. A tall slender volume flanked by two top lit voids, softly spotlighting a collector’s collection. The arched timber vault hovers over the continuous brick floor, throwing light. It’s kind of a blind arch, walled at each end. The vault is a simultaneously strong and delicate gesture, a pure form, an archetype suspended in an act of whimsy.

"A desire for privacy and retreat drove the project from the beginning. The existing single story cottage is bounded on both sides by two story houses both with overlooking upper window. Their proximity was very apparent from the moment we entered the site. Our strategy was to employ thick service and storage walls to blinker the context and focus the plan towards the northern courtyard. Additionally, we worked closely with Miriam Shevland, a landscape architect, to cut and reform the landscape to emphasize the fall of the terrain and introduce a tumbling, high pile native carpet of endemic species to attract bird and insect life.

"Harriet’s House, from our first meeting to present day, has been a space for discussion, exchange, investigation, and shared exploration."