Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Edward Street House
Edward Street House
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Other Projects by Sean Godsell Architects
Edward Street House
This house is for an artist and his musician wife
and their three young children. The site is in inner suburban Melbourne
approximately 4 km from the CBD. There is an existing bluestone duplex at the
front of the site that is Heritage listed. These are conditions that are unusual
and refreshing for my office which has not dealt with the problem of a suburban
house since Kew House of 1997. For the past decade or more the houses we have
produced have been free-standing in either the country or coastal regions of
Victoria and so this project presented what were for all intents and purposes
new problems to be solved, or more accurately old problems to be viewed with
fresh eyes. Embedded in this condition was the belief that the houses I am
producing are part of a continuum of thinking and the exploration of certain
fundamental themes that are modified by the peculiar qualities that each client
brings to the office and that each site offers me. The semiotics of codes –
barcodes, gene codes, thumbprints exist in the plans of these buildings as
simple plan gestures. Notions of discrete space are reinforced by these
strategies. Public and private realms are defined via these investigations
rather than consciously considered and cultural overlaps between the
traditional Japanese house and the traditional colonial house in the Australian
context are a constant source of inspiration.
In the Davis House the issue of the size of the
inner suburban site is the extraneous force on this thinking. Local planning
controls limit height related to setback to the point where the bulk of housing
in inner suburban Melbourne is formulaic – each new dwelling following the same
prescribed profile. Worse still these same controls result in wasted space to
the side and rear gardens and inefficiencies of site usage. In this design we
decided to thwart the planning controls by siting the new house predominately
in the ground. The roof of the house is glazed and covered by a timber deck
which replaces the site lost to the building. The deck also acts as a linkage
device connecting the heritage building (altered to make two studio spaces)
with the garage building at the rear of the site. The house is further divided
into two pavilions – one for parents and one for children – separated by a
courtyard garden. The parent’s wing is a series of discrete spaces, divided by
storage walls with secret panels. Their bathroom sits to the side of these
spaces as a privy would do in an 18th century Japanese or colonial Australian
house. All of these gestures are held within the overarching investigations
into the fluid nature of verandah space as it exists in both eastern and
western cultures.
and their three young children. The site is in inner suburban Melbourne
approximately 4 km from the CBD. There is an existing bluestone duplex at the
front of the site that is Heritage listed. These are conditions that are unusual
and refreshing for my office which has not dealt with the problem of a suburban
house since Kew House of 1997. For the past decade or more the houses we have
produced have been free-standing in either the country or coastal regions of
Victoria and so this project presented what were for all intents and purposes
new problems to be solved, or more accurately old problems to be viewed with
fresh eyes. Embedded in this condition was the belief that the houses I am
producing are part of a continuum of thinking and the exploration of certain
fundamental themes that are modified by the peculiar qualities that each client
brings to the office and that each site offers me. The semiotics of codes –
barcodes, gene codes, thumbprints exist in the plans of these buildings as
simple plan gestures. Notions of discrete space are reinforced by these
strategies. Public and private realms are defined via these investigations
rather than consciously considered and cultural overlaps between the
traditional Japanese house and the traditional colonial house in the Australian
context are a constant source of inspiration.
In the Davis House the issue of the size of the
inner suburban site is the extraneous force on this thinking. Local planning
controls limit height related to setback to the point where the bulk of housing
in inner suburban Melbourne is formulaic – each new dwelling following the same
prescribed profile. Worse still these same controls result in wasted space to
the side and rear gardens and inefficiencies of site usage. In this design we
decided to thwart the planning controls by siting the new house predominately
in the ground. The roof of the house is glazed and covered by a timber deck
which replaces the site lost to the building. The deck also acts as a linkage
device connecting the heritage building (altered to make two studio spaces)
with the garage building at the rear of the site. The house is further divided
into two pavilions – one for parents and one for children – separated by a
courtyard garden. The parent’s wing is a series of discrete spaces, divided by
storage walls with secret panels. Their bathroom sits to the side of these
spaces as a privy would do in an 18th century Japanese or colonial Australian
house. All of these gestures are held within the overarching investigations
into the fluid nature of verandah space as it exists in both eastern and
western cultures.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.