Hedderwick

The client had a substantial brief for a family home. They were keen for a house that made a statement at street level but did not entirely give away what was going on beyond the front facade.

The front façade is a collection of asymmetrically arranged elements that present the public face of the building. It was important to the client that the arrival to the house was central to this and that beyond the threshold at the front door, that the experience of the house was unexpected and dramatic.
The interiors are contemporary and minimal and connect with the external spaces through the seamless flow of materials and colour

Architecturally North Balwyn’s heyday may be seen in the houses of the 1950s and 1960s, with many of today’s new houses being non site specific mock styles. The client was keen to make reference to this early era of design with a bespoke and site specific house that captured some of the spirit and detail of this period whilst not pursuing a replica.
The resulting house is heavily informed by the slope of the site and the irregular boundary condition along the northern edge of the site, and is very textural in its finishes that flow from inside to out.

The house provides a complete design solution for the inhabitants – an integrated approach to Architecture, Interiors and Landscape. The design is about the scaling of forms and spaces together with a seamless connection between inside and outside. It allows the inhabitants to live in the house harmoniously with opportunities to interact or withdraw as required. The design allows for strong visual connections within the house along its central spine and to outside via windows and screening devices that clip and control views.

Light, quality of spaces and livability were key to meeting the clients’ requirements.
Programmatically the house is loosely zoned to the parents at the front, the boys’ upstairs and shared spaces to the rear. The entrance hall forms the main spine of the house, and it is from this spine that the other rooms radiate. There is a double height volume that continues to rake up higher as it progresses towards the rear of the house. This volume provides a strong visual and acoustic connection between the interior spaces and enables the family to remain connected in a large house.

As an owner built house, this project was a labour of love for our client for a number of years. The key consultants on the project were companies with whom we have had long relationships and we all worked closely with our client over this time to ensure that they were able to deliver the detail they were looking for in the project. We believe that the integration of the landscape with the house is a particularly successful collaboration as the demarcation of where our works and theirs starts and stops is not clearly evident.

As an owner built project, the build cost is difficult to relate to a commercial value as there were countless hours of the owners time spent in the process. This immersion and investment of time in the project however, ultimately drove a great financial outcome for the client because all elements were assessed against their financial value to the project. This did not hinder the process, but rather provided clarity as to where money was being sent.