When speaking about the design of Mosman Minka, Cat Downie and Dan North describe their concept of curating a view, whereas concurrently nurturing non-public areas. The design of this home was spurred by the need to reside outdoors as a lot as potential and, consequently, the necessity for a number of methods to handle the weather, specifically the western solar. The pursuit of those concepts led them alongside a design path that was formed not simply by the rapid issues of privateness, gentle and shade, but additionally by their very own pursuits and expertise.
The unique dwelling – a freestanding Federation bungalow within the Sydney suburb of Mosman – has been maintained towards the entrance to protect the established relationship with the road. The entrance 4 rooms have been stored comparatively intact, with minor interventions to convey them again to their finest. Nevertheless, as is usually the case with homes of this sort, the connection between the rear of the home and its context was not ideally suited. Going through due west and with the positioning sloping away from the home, it was fairly uncovered to each the neighbours and the weather, and it was these issues that the brand new addition wanted to handle.
New dwelling areas supply a recent interpretation of the standard, grid-like association. Artworks (L–R): Le Corbusier Modulor lithograph, Rebecca Downie, Herzog and de Meuron and Ai Weiwei: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012 print.
Picture:
Clinton Weaver
Cat and Dan, co-directors of Downie North, initially investigated a courtyard home configuration for the brand new constructing part; nonetheless, the privateness points and orientation meant that this association didn’t fairly go well with the positioning. They started to research screens to handle privateness from neighbours and supply shade from the western solar. With a quick requiring three bedrooms and two loos, the design advanced into an concept for a protecting roof type that would envelop the non-public areas upstairs after which slide down low to guard outside areas on the bottom flooring.
The analogy between this protecting roof type and the “minka” – a vernacular Japanese housing sort characterised by a big roof below which multi-level areas are organized – turned a information for how you can arrange area and management local weather. Dan talks about their appreciation of “the intuitive order of the minka,” during which shared dwelling areas are organized on the decrease ranges whereas loft areas are nestled into the expressive, raking roof varieties above. “You additionally typically have deep, protecting eaves, and we beloved the sensation of a giant roof coming right down to the verandah – it directs the view to the panorama. We wished to borrow a few of this [in our own design].”
The proportions of the addition correspond with these of the unique home to create a harmonious inside.
Picture:
Clinton Weaver
A brand new, zinc-clad roof is positioned behind the unique bungalow roof type. Set low beneath the brand new roof and floating simply above the bottom, the brand new dwelling areas – kitchen, household and eating rooms and deck – are organized in a quadrant formation that opens out towards the rear yard and pool. The steps, laundry and toilet sit between the brand new dwelling areas and the unique part of the home. The steps swap up and right into a hallway that acts as a bridge between the bedrooms and toilet, terminating in a tall window that appears out concurrently by the roof airplane to the rear yard and in addition down into the double-height area above the deck.
Cat explains how the home windows and roof openings are configured to allow rooms to borrow gentle and views from and thru different rooms. She describes with delight how it’s potential to face within the yard and look by the big western window, by the sliding doorways of the deck and as much as an image window in one of many youngsters’s bedrooms. It creates “unbelievable reflections,” she says, that bounce across the authentic home and thru to the brand new areas behind.
The protecting eaves are impressed by the ‘minka,’ a Japanese housing sort.
Picture:
Clinton Weaver
These openings throughout the bottom and first flooring additionally permit the assorted breezes that blow from totally different instructions all year long to be captured and filtered as required. Even on super-hot days, the smallest of breezes may be harnessed and centered by the home to chill the inside right down to a manageable temperature.
Proportion has been rigorously thought-about within the remaining configuration of the brand new addition. The architects took quite a lot of care in finding out the spatial preparations of the unique home to make sure that the addition had an actual resonance with the retained sections of the unique constructing. The proportions of the brand new areas are based mostly on these of the unique home, with each organized in a kind of offset quadrant association – the offset areas being utilized as toilet and/or laundry areas. This units up a quiet concord in the way in which the areas work collectively to turn into a versatile, coherent household dwelling.
Like the unique minka homes of Japan, protected by their robust defining roof, this new dwelling allows and celebrates a cohesive and vibrant household life, introduced collectively by a chic design gadget that has been completely tailored to its location and local weather.
