St Kilda East House
The house is built on the corner of a dead end street in inner city St Kilda East in Melbourne. The block is only 183m2 and 6m wide but fortunate to have the dead end section of the street to the north. My intention was to make a house that felt bigger than what would be expected for such a small piece of land, one that extends outwards and takes advantage of the street space and two large trees at either end of the north boundary and uses the roof as a social space which allows for private spaces at the lower level.
The house is built in horizontal bands of materials that order the building in elevation. At the ground level is a double brick wall of handmade bricks to a height of 2.2m above floor level for security and operable glazing for light and air above. The entry has a laundry behind sliding panels to one side and a garage behind a frameless glass wall on the other that can be used as an additional interior space when needed. The glazed partition to the garage allows the entry to feel large and the garage to receive natural light. The stair void makes the ground level feel more spacious again after which are two children’s bedrooms and a bathroom that extend outwards to the south boundary through a private courtyard and a master bedroom and ensuite at the end of the circulation space that extend out to the east boundary through another courtyard.
At the first floor level is a horizontal band of overlapping steel cladding to a height of 1.2m that is both balustrade and wall as the internal space steps in and out along the five bay grid creating balconies at the first and third bay while the fifth is a void space to retain the exiting tree to the east side of the front facade.The single linear interior space containing living, kitchen, dining and sitting areas is enclosed at the north and west facades by sliding glazing at the balconies or fixed or openable glazing above the walls to ceiling height. The balconies provide articulation to the facade to meet planning requirements but the full height glazing to these spaces extends the internal space to the balustrade which then inhabits the street space to the north and includes the two large trees.
An external stair on the central balcony leads to a roof deck enclosed on all sides by metal cladding to balustrade height with a long stainless steel bench to the south that restricts the view angle into the southern neighbour’s property as required. The roof deck gives the house an outdoor social space connected to the interior living space that was unavailable and not appropriate at the ground level containing the bedrooms. The large tree at the front of the house provides relief from afternoon sun.
The galvanised steel portal frame is exposed to order the building in plan and keep the glazed facades as light as possible. Stainless steel cabinetry along the length of south wall of the first level unifies the different functions and reflects light and views to make this level feel as big as possible. A powder room and toilet are concealed behind the cabinetry. Each level of the house has a different and appropriate flooring material - concrete and carpet to the ground floor, timber stair treads leading tot a timber floor at the first level and granite stair treads to the granite roof deck.
