Whadjuk People of the Nyoongar Nation
Western Australia
Located on a prominent Cottesloe site – and inspired by family holidays to Wadjemup/Rottnest – this house for an architect and a librarian capitalises on an elevated position and engages with its surroundings, while offering privacy and carefully curated views.
The design team turned the site’s significant constraints – a 3m slope, two street frontages and considerable passing foot traffic – into opportunities, producing a careful arrangement of horizontal and vertical spaces and volumes.
Mediated views in multiple directions – taking in the Indian Ocean, Fremantle Port, Perth CBD and Darling Escarpment in the distance – enhance the home’s relationship with the public realm, and constantly surprise and delight the owners as the seasons change.
The choice of materials – including a brickwork base topped by a lighter informal board and batten beach shack externally – and carefully detailed cork and timber textures internally – create a home that is both playful and calm.
Broome Street handles an awkward site with evident skill. Stacking programme over four storeys on an exposed, sloped, triangular site has been well resolved, both as a complex and rambling interior with a tightly composed external envelope.
Phil was open to collaborating with us, an architect and librarian, to develop our preliminary floorplans and ideas into a house that feels like being on holiday at Wadjemup/Rottnest. Framed glimpses of landscape from different vantage points throughout the house surprise and delight us as the seasons change. The arrangement of social spaces, daybeds and reading nooks enable us to choose where we want to be depending on people, activity and mood. Timeless, beautifully detailed textures and materials combine to give us an interior that is both playful and calm.
Philip Stejskal, Design Architect
Louise Allen, Project Architect
Tessa Ansell, Project Architect
Nathan Allet, Project Architect
DCB Engineering, Structural Engineer
Ecoform, ESD Consultant
TESG, Building Surveyor
Annghi Tran Landscape Architecture Studio, Landscape Consultant
Admiral Mechanical, Mechanical Consultant
West Coast Estimating, Cost Consultant