Boronia Park

Residential Category

29 Farnell Street, Boronia Park NSW

Project Summary

Architects - CarterWilliamson Architects

Team - Shaun Carter, Lisa Merkesteyn, Patrick Fitzgerald

Builder - Andrew Burton

Brick Manufacturer - Austral Bricks

Bricks - Bowral Blue dry pressed bricks

The existing Federation bungalow was a small congested 6 room House for 4 people. The kitchen and living rooms were essentially the tacked on lean too at the rear with the bathroom, plugged in the corridor to complete the conjestion. The brief: add a new living area [ kitchen dining Living room ] and a new main bedroom, relocate the bathroom.

The strategy was simple, the front 4 rooms were fine. Keep them. Add a new contemporary addition to the rear, but separate the new from the old, to articulate the difference and allow the separation to form a courtyard and light well for the house to breath. Materially, the approach was to use the federation palette of face bricks, battened FC sheet, and corrugated [Iron ] Zincalume Custom-orb. The imbalance in floor area between bedroom and living spaces allowed a Aalto-esque raking roof plane to straddle the larger floor area of the ground floor living areas to the smaller bedroom plan area of the level above. By locating the 2nd level, taller section of the house to the north, with the steeply falling roof down to the south meant we negated any solar access, shadowing effect to the neighbours whilst making striking spaces. The sympathetic material response of the new, though contemporary form sits well with the old and reads beautifully from the street. The new reading as subordinate and recessive but compatible.