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Local House by MAKE

Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Year: 2014
Photo courtesy: Peter Bennetts
Description:

A large part of the inspiration for the extension of this St Kilda Californian Bungalow comes from thinking about how this family live and connect with their community. Spaces are playful and have been conceived more like a favourite local café than a private house, reflecting this family’s desire to create a space that allowed them to connect with friends, family and their larger community.

Concrete has been used to form a heavy base to the project and large board marked concrete elements lift up and emerge out of this base. The concrete has been formed up insitu using recycled fence palings to give texture and grain. Concrete is also used internally to create integrated seats, benches and durable surfaces for family life. A decorative timber screen gives contrast to the concrete and clads the extruded upper level roof form that contains the main bedroom. The screen has been designed for sun shading and to control overlooking to the neighbours, while still providing distant views over the rooftops beyond.

A flexible studio garage space was also an important part of the project. Rather than turn its back on the rear laneway it faces, the studio space has a fully operable window, a desk and a small porch that all activate and connect with the communal public space. The result is that the frontage looks more like a little shopfront than a garage. Bluestone pavers extent the bluestone cobbles into the site and further reinforce the connection.

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