‘Construction techniques reflect a sense of place, drawing inspiration from impressionist paintings’
Project: IMPRESSION
Masculine and feminine programs articulated through form, structure and materiality. Transparency of strong materials and solidity of lightweight materials combine to reveal and conceal key public and private programs and functions. Light is articulated through improved placement of forms and circulation. Street and neighbourhood connection is increased.
The intentionally modest design embraces primitive construction techniques in order to reflect a sense of place, drawing inspiration from impressionist paintings, especially those depicted at nearby Gardner's Creek in the late 19th Century. These paintings captured untouched landscapes, an understanding of Australian light and nature and an awareness of potential settlement. Suburban streets like this one, typically encompassing Melbourne, often fail to exhibit a connection to place, favouring ‘styles’ over suitability.
The site is located in close proximity to the ‘Box Hill artists’ camp’ in Gardner’s Creek, this was the site used by renowned Australian painters such as Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin. The relevance of this historic connection was barely evident on early site inspections and it was through the design development stages that this connection became more prominent through the architecture of this project. The existing semi detached 60s brick home had been renovated in the early 2000s, with a first floor addition, creating dark and often under-utilised ground floor spaces. 20% of the ground floor space that could be retained, was lifted with new surface finishes, the remaining 80% required a full re-design. The existing ‘front door’ opened into a sitting room and the dining room was relocated to the east, where the kitchen was previously located. This allowed us to create a lobby, a space that would allow the comings and goings of a busy family to flow uninterrupted, in turn creating private and semi private programs to exist.
Private, darker spaces were located to the north, with brighter and larger public spaces located to the south, closer to the existing rear garden. The palette uses native silky oak timber veneer, water based wood washes and deep navy and black backdrops attempting to imitate the deep Australian night sky.
The internal and external palette are inspired by colours found in the Australian impressionist paintings. They are calm and reflect all tones of a landscape painting including the exterior colour that is reminiscent of canvas tents used by the 19th century local painters at their camp. The solid timber posts holding up the shading structure were hand selected from reclaimed local wharf stock.
