Stuartholme House
Stuartholme House is the renovation and addition to a post war cottage sitting on a long block which backs into the foothills of Mt Coot-Tha to the west. The driveway dips down and back up to the house across a designated overland flow path which renders much of the eastern part of the site as landscaped gully.
The existing rectilinear house runs north/south on the block, with a previous addition by Peter Kuhnell to the south east. Our client had purchased the property and wanted new work to allow a better connection to the bushland to the west and to privatise the living areas of the house from a regrettable development to the south. He loved cooking and entertaining and had come to us through his connection to a previous project that we had done for some restaurateurs.
A new lounge room and master bedroom suite are arranged to define and prioritise a new private courtyard which connects directly to the bushland beyond in both plan and section. The new work uses the geometries of the boundary setbacks to flare slightly apart from the old building edges and allow increased amenity to existing spaces.
Western (bushland) elevations of new rooms were required to comply with a FZ BAL rating while northern and southern edges were downgraded to BAL 40 which allowed for increased operability. Materials have been chosen for longevity, economy and bushfire resilience. Filtered light and canopy views are brought into the building through high level glazing but the building and courtyard are deliberately sunken into the hill slightly in order to achieve a sense of refuge within a larger landscape.
