Lewisham
Brief
The clients are both landscape architects, and the garden was at the heart of their brief. They asked us to reconnect their freestanding Victorian terrace in Lewisham with the gardens they had designed.
They loved the character of the original house. A key requirement was to keep the two front rooms on both the ground and first floors intact, so the house's Victorian character would stay on the street and inside.
The rear of the house was a different story. The existing kitchen, laundry and upstairs bedroom were hot in summer, cold in winter, and had little connection to the garden. The clients asked for this part of the house to be replaced with new spaces that would be comfortable all year and open to the outdoors.
The brief called for:
• an open-plan kitchen and living area opening to the garden
• a covered outdoor porch
• a new laundry
• a north-facing first-floor bedroom overlooking the landscape
• a new bathroom
Design Response
The new rear addition is conceived as a pavilion: a garden room that opens to the gardens immediately to the north and west. It is a lightweight counterpoint to the solid Victorian terrace, sitting within the landscape rather than apart from it, and making the garden part of daily life.
The pavilion has a thin roof plane with deep overhanging eaves and exposed rafters. It is clad in dark charcoal weatherboards and raised slightly off the ground on a timber-battened base. Its lightness contrasts with the mass of the original rendered walls, and it recalls the verandah, the sleep-out and the garden pavilion.
Four themes guided the design.
• Architect as Custodian
We approached the existing terrace with a sense of stewardship, conservation and continuity. Its traditional form and the four original front rooms were kept and respected, so the house’s history continues to be read clearly.
The new work builds on the old rather than competing with it. Where new elements enter the original rooms, they stand apart from the historic fabric.
• Critical adjustment for passive solar design
Targeted changes make the house work with the climate. North-facing openings let in winter sun, while deep eaves, terracotta steel window hoods and operable slat screens block summer sun. Louvres and opposing windows allow cross-ventilation, and skylights bring daylight deep into the plan.
• Material honesty, expressed structure and craftsmanship
Materials are used for what they are, and the structure is left visible rather than concealed. How the building is put together becomes part of its character, celebrating the care and skill of its making.
The living / kitchen ceiling is the defining move of the interior: structure, light and landscape in one element. Clerestory glazing at the roof edge lets the ceiling plane appear to float.
The colours are drawn from the garden: greens, Australian hardwood, terracotta and white.
• Breathable facades
The pavilion’s facades are porous, allowing light, breeze and foliage to pass into the living spaces. Rather than being a hard line, the edge between house and garden is layered and permeable.
Operable windows, louvres and folding doors let light, breeze and foliage into the house. The covered porch, with built-in seating and doors that fold fully back, steps down into the garden, so the clients can live within the landscape they created.
Sustainability Features
- passive solar design
- cross ventilation during the summer
- solar penetration during the winter
- comfort hush glazing to mitigate aircraft noise
- high levels of insulation
- energy efficient lighting from Tovo Lighting
- native landscaping
Project Team : Matt Day
Builder : Tim Lambert Constructions
Engineer : PMI
Photographer : Clinton Weaver