Aspect House

Sitting atop a generous site, the client sought to enhance this prominent heritage home with its relationship to the surrounding land and seascape. Due to legislative requirements and respecting the integrity of the old home, heritage considerations both restricted and informed the approach for the architecture and interiors. Integral to the brief was an open plan layout with an elevated interaction to the outdoors, which required a resolve sympathetic to the character of the existing dwelling. Moreover, the design needed to acknowledge the coastal conditions which would allow the user to engage with the site while remaining protected from it.

A primary focus of this project was harnessing a design response respectful to the identity of the old home. While the client originally sought an open plan living format, the floorplan was configured as a series of generous connected spaces which honoured the original layout – providing for new fluid spaces in a contemporary southern addition. A series of garden rooms employ axial sight lines to establish vantages onto the landscape while materials and finishes tie directly to the existing home and site. Elements were repurposed where possible while bespoke finishes were sourced to consciencously restore components with high quality design.

Aspect house expresses a symbiotic relationship between old and new, where the contemporary addition responds to and reacts against the heritage identity of the existing dwelling. Continuity of finishes and colour palette establishes a coherence between both portions of the house whilst the junction creates the hub of the home. Meanwhile, the addition is inserted into the landscape, responding as a dramatic expression of the site – highlighting the texture and varied undulations of the garden. Vantages are captured with floor to ceiling glazing which frame and subsume the exterior, dissolving a boundary of inside and out.

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