Northcote Music Studio and Extension. The owners' brief called for a 'multi-purpose' space for various incarnations such as for use as a professional music studio, reception room, guest bedroom, study & family room along with new bathroom and laundry spaces. Given the design brief, the spaces needed to work on a number of functional levels while working with and enhancing the existing house.
Initial studies of the site revealed nearby “All Nations" park's strong diagonal axis formed along its primary pedestrian pathway. The extension of this axial line to the south east passes right through this project site. Taking cues from the owners’ brief along with this theoretical axial line, the placement the spaces work with an angled internal 'piano wall' informed by the All Nation's axial line, allowing the piano to be played facing the axis.
The existing home had a well-worn 'lean to' laundry & toilet which was replaced with a new laundry with its messy bits and a guest bathroom hidden behind timber cupboards allowing the space adjacent to open up the living area of the house while providing a secondary link to the space to the yard and studio. This strategy of utilising the extra laundry space as transition and living spaces allowed the new works to increase the space and amenity of the existing home without increasing the footprint and cost of the extension.
A strong client-architect-builder relationship contributed to the success of this project. The studio has high thermal and acoustic properties, and comprises a materials palette of fanned rendered wall with a high R rating, recycled ‘Northcote Red’ bricks, sustainable plantation Karri hardwood and Oriented Strand Board.
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