An Australian Home Plays Peek-A-Boo With Spotted Gum Sliding Screens

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Project Details:

Location: Newcastle, Australia

Architect: Curious Practice / @curious_practice

Builder: Built By Eli

Structural Engineer: Skelton Consulting Engineers

Landscape Design: Wattlebird Garden Design

Lighting Design: Est Lighting

Photographer: Clinton Weaver / @_clintonweaver

From the Architect: "Weatherboard cottages built in the first half of the twentieth century were often generous at the front and restricted at the rear, with their relationship to prevailing breezes, appropriate orientation, and gardens being a low priority. Aru House (the Awabakal word for 'insect') plugs-in a series of carefully balanced sensory amplifiers and connectors to such a cottage in order for a long-ignored sense of place to re-emerge.

"These sympathetic augmentations to the existing dwelling provide numerous advantages, in particular, allowing the building to become responsive to seasonal living patters with a newfound sense of contextual sensitivity. A new program of adjustable apertures, with only a minor increase to the floor area, has meant a greater efficiency of space and an increased program for the home. A side addition accommodates study, bed, and bathroom, while the western rear extension forms a deep, reconfigurable living threshold—allowing interior spaces to both connect to and shelter from outside elements through spotted gum sliding screens.

"A new side deck performs a natural continuation of interior living areas, allowing inhabitation to expand in summer and compress in winter. All the new programs of the house overlap and borrow from each other in this way, becoming more flexible and generous, which enables efficient planning and an ability to focus on quality over quantity. As a result, the cost and value of the project is measured in joy and delight through the way materials are crafted, light is choreographed and edges are blurred.

"As a gesture of generosity to the street, existing elements of the building were upgraded, articulated brickwork forms step, porch, letterbox, and public seat. Front fencing and lawn is replaced with native garden, bringing color and biodiversity to the public realm. These, and many other bespoke elements throughout the project, are the testing of ideas to form new architectural scenarios which are the result of working closely with trades to develop construction strategies and efficiencies. In this process of craft and making, architecture is celebrated in its purest form of realizing design intent.

"These approaches become an important strategy when considering existing housing stock, and consciously revitalizing homes in this manner ensures the building is loved, cherished, cared for, and respected as it ages gracefully in place and with life."