Kew House

Bryant Alsop designed, documented and oversaw the construction of a new 2-storey home in a period streetscape and garden setting in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs for a young family of four. The brief called for a timeless aesthetic that tapped into traditional values while maintaining a contemporary aesthetic with sustainability at heart. The house contains 4 bedrooms, 2 ½ bathrooms, a playroom, study and open plan living / kitchen and dining. Considered zoning allows areas to be sectioned off while only in use, and all spaces have a focus on the outdoors with living spaces opening out on to protected covered areas that create further connection to the garden and control sun and heat loads.
Much consideration was given to the siting and street presence. It was important that the house sit ‘quietly’; amongst the heritage neighbours, both in scale, material, and form. The 2-storey portion was pushed to the rear and a pitched roof favoured. Garaging and car access was also carefully designed to not dominate the front façade. A common problem in a suburban setting. The classic verandah was used to unify the house, carport and garage together as one and minimise the vehicle entry. The slope of the land was also used to make a large home look more modest from the street. The owners were very clear on not wanting an ostentatious house but value privacy and understatement while remaining connected to street and open.
Materials were chosen for their robustness, honesty and continuity from outside to interiors with stone quickly selected as a key material. The owners travel abroad informed their love of stone buildings. This also harked back to their Tasmanian heritage and was a good fit to use both in the house and garden.
The garden setting was central to the design development. The owners love of gardening and connection to the outdoors drove a collaborative approach that tapped into their country heritage. It was a challenge to find the balance between create a new home that transmitted a sense of tradition and permanence yet embodied current sustainable practices and is at heart contemporary. We sought to create a building that conveyed a strong sense of ‘home’ and family with connection to place and garden.
The success of this project lies in a strong, open and trusting relationship between the owners, architect and builder. It was wonderful to have clients with a clear brief and a desire to create a home that is both permanent, traditional and contemporary. It tested us to examine what this meant and what the definition of ‘home’ is. So often it is defined for people by that in which they grew up in and wish to recreate for their own children. We enjoyed the challenge of meeting this brief. The aesthetic differs to much of our work, and we enjoyed this. There is a strong need for new homes in our suburbs that strike a balance between contemporary and traditional and sit harmoniously in Melbourne’s heritage streetscapes. The integration of sustainable factors into such a home is also of great importance to us.