Engawa House
Architecture Residential Victoria, Australia
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Description
Engawa House is a small renovation that aims to tend to and care for an existing 100-year-old cottage-style house. This project is, first and foremost, a celebration of the co-existence of difference, incorporating a strategy of intricate additions and decisions to carefully reorganise the home, only where necessary.
From the outset, the existing house exuded a comfortably eccentric aura. Looking at the street façade, the house’s previous renovations are evident in its charming assemblage of terracotta roof, brick chimney and part-weatherboard, part-stucco frontage. The new, yet subtle, additions are simply but another chapter in the house’s extended arrangement.
On the interior, the primary goal was to provide a simple, open backdrop for the clients’ eclectic interests and personality to be on full display. The re-organisation of the rear house was designed as a natural reaction to the clients’ curious collection of souvenirs; to push the kitchen back, both to reorient the space towards the centre of the house, and to allow their curation of objects to take the spotlight.
Essentially, the house aims to be unapologetic in the pleasant messiness of living with things.
Questions and Answers
What was the brief?
The clients, a family of three, wanted to update their kitchen, laundry and bathroom that were a result of previous renovation in the 80’s. There was also an inefficient use of already limited space and poor thermal performance typical of a 100-year-old house. Located in a densified battle-axe subdivision, the clients required an intricately tailored approach.
What were the key challenges?
A 6.5m rear covenant setback imposed after the site’s initial subdivision greatly limited the scope of any extension or addition. Therefore, any addition to the house had to work hard and honest decisions had to be made to avoid any further unnecessary modifications.
It was also important to uphold the conditions of the existing house and much had to be left as is, as much as possible.
What were the solutions?
A general strategy of nooks rather than rooms became a primary approach to navigating the small footprint, borrowing space from one another to blur boundaries. Whilst certainly not open plan, spaces were broken by implied zones rather than walls or doors to divide space without explicitly boxing them in. Such a planning strategy was also critical to affirm the clients’ use of their home; as rooms that allow objects to fill up and flow out.
Consistent decisions to soften boundaries created a feeling of spaciousness without an increase in the space itself. This approach is reflected at the rear of the house, where the internal corridor flows out to become an engawa, a continuous verandah edge, that ties the spaces together and allows the internal volume to share its spatial quality with the private yard beyond. At the smaller scale, the logic of sightlines and flow carries through in a play of opacity along the engawa axis, such as through the punctuated bathroom wall or the play between opaque and clear roofing to the verandah.
How is the project unique?
The site sits small at an area of less than 400m2 as a by-product of a battle-axe lot subdivision. Thus it was integral to be forensic in the re-organisation of the house to incorporate the clients’ desire for more leisure space within an efficient footprint; to effectively make do with what was available.
The leading formal move was the incisive extension of a rear corridor stretching across the house that ties the common spaces together. The timber in the exposed roof beams that continue out onto the verandah, in conjunction with the generous glazed doors and windows, help to delineate the rear wall and give a greater feeling of spaciousness to a modest kitchen and dining area. The steep pitch of the eaves visible from inside direct the view out, with the edge of the eaves 1.2m out from the interior help to form the edge of the room, in lieu of the walls. The structure frames a horizontal view that envelops the private backyard in union with the spaciousness of the interior.
Overall, only 15m2 is a true ‘addition’ to the house. Everything else is simply a reorganisation of spatial efficiency within the pre-existing footprint.
Who are the clients and what's interesting about them?
The clients are avid travellers, amassing a wide range of souvenirs over the years. In essence, the house is a celebration of their love things: objects, mementos and artefacts that facilitate their authentic, everyday life proudly on display. An approach towards a simple, honest structure was deemed necessary to ensure their books, music, art, a turkey taxidermy and a Tanuki statue all achieved an equal spectacle within their home.
What are the sustainability features?
The project was conducted within the mindset that the most sustainable approach was to try and do only as much as necessary. Thus, it was imperative to improve the quality of the 100-year-old house, rather than demolish it.
However, where work was required, the project uses sustainably sourced timber in its cladding and locally crafted windows, doors, and bathtub. The approach was practical and affordable with the goal of improving the thermal performance, comfort, and amenity of the 100-year-old house and further extend the longevity of the home.
Key products used:
Roofing: Existing roof in terra cotta tiles and new extension in Zincalume steel roofing
Wall: New extension in Lunawood with Cutek black stain oil finsh
Windows: Binq timber windows
Details
| Project size | 65 m2 |
| Site size | 399 m2 |
| Completion date | 2019 |
| Building levels | 2 |
Project team
| Steph Richardson | Architect | |
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John Liu | Project Architect |
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Inbetween Architecture | Architects |
| Scale Constructions | Builder |