Henry Street House
HENRY STREET HOUSE
Eugene Cheah Architecture
MANUFACTURERS
Australian Sustainable Hardwoods (ASH), &Tradition, Masson for Light, A&A Cabinets,
Austral Plywood, Timberbuilt, Whittle Waxes
LOCATION
Australia
CATEGORY
Houses
In keeping with the unassuming character and intent of the original weatherboard cottage, this extension is a modest project, in scale and budget.
The project starts with the Victorian cottage - a row of dense enclosed spaces along a narrow circulation space.
The new extension inverts this figure-ground diagram, with a density of program in a narrow strip along an expansive open space.
The new addition is therefore an extension of, and contrast with, the existing fabric.
The structure and cladding of the extension is almost entirely of a singular material - laminated hoop pine - acting as a unifying texture.
Structural elements are employed as the main expression of the building fabric and define the experience of the new space.
A full-length skylight on the north edge of the space brings in abundant light, which is filtered and diffused by the exposed rafters, changing through the course of the day, and amplified by the varying depths of the rafters.
The experience of the house is of the tracks of sunlight and shadow moving across the space.
