Split Hip

The brief was for a contemporary home responding to and respecting the neighbourhood's character–but not to replicate a character bungalow. The design response was driven by responding to the overriding design principles of the local character Area, reinterpreting these into a contemporary home. Aptly named ‘Split Hip’, a simple hip roof over a single-level building form, to meet spatial brief requirements, was split in half and slid across the site. This move shifted the internal garage closer to the existing vehicle crossing, between established street trees, and opened up the site's northwest area for generous outdoor living and landscape areas. The main entry faces the street, with the roof popping up to a half gable as an architectural nod to the traditional porch identifying entry. Alongside the entry a picture window with cantilvered reinterprets a bay window, an over-clad concealed garage door setback reduces itsdominance and street landscape extends into the site with only low landscape walls introducedto delineate boundary and circulation. The spatial brief was to suit a wide market ranging from families to retirees, with the bedrooms,garage and services housed in the front (eastern) half, and spacious kitchen, dining and living spaces in the back (western) half, wrapping around a north-west facing outdoor living courtyard.