barton-taylor residence
highgate, western australia
In this inner-city alterations and additions project, the grafting of a two-storey box to a single storey worker’s cottage with double-garage and roof terrace was an exercise in contrasting and merging. This dwelling has two faces – one to the streetscape presenting the traditional symmetrical cottage/verandah façade with cellular spaces behind, and to the rear a series of boxes and planes which attempt to dissolve the boundaries between interior and exterior and open up to as well as define external court and terrace spaces/levels of inhabitation, framing views to the city skyline. A play of playful punctuated window openings assist in linking the new parts back to the regularly spaced and evenly sized original windows. Emphasis was on open plan spatial qualities combined with simple material finish with a slightly raw urban edge –weathering steel gates and fencing, rendered painted brickwork, off-form concrete walls and grey concrete floors contrast occasionally with inlays of white Carrera Marble. A ‘Ned Kelly’ slit window through black-stained Eco-Ply stares at the city skyline from the upper level bedroom studio from bed-height. A condition of duality within the project expresses the dichotomy of ‘traditional style’ and ‘modern design’ typically found in Australian cities today.