While the original late 1960s part of this house was thought of fondly by the owners, they also faced a common dilemma that the house was not working well for them. The layout did not suit their daily routine, nor have good interactions with the site and street. However, the owners wanted to avoid demolishing their home, instead preferring for it to evolve and reach its potential. The original structure was retained and an extension at the rear was removed, allowing the engagement with the site to be reconsidered. Constraints such as a diagonal site fall of 5.5m and overbearing neighbouring houses needed to be addressed to increase the amenity of the site. The starting point for the design also included recent work by the client to bench the back yard and incorporate a pool.

As a busy family home, the key functional strategy was to create an environment where parents and children could have their own territory when required, while still retaining a sense of connectedness. Breezebrick Courtyard House involved minor alterations to the existing house and the provision for a new extension at the rear, that together could frame an interconnected setting for family life occurring both indoors and outdoors.
The original house was an ugly duckling within the streetscape. Out of place alterations including mismatched windows were removed from the façade, and complimentary detail elements added, including a balustrade and eaves pergola. The existing garage was tight and the driveway too steep, so accommodating cars between the house and street was a requirement. Our approach at the front of the site demonstrates an appreciation for small scale civic moments in residential neighbourhoods. A new carport, pedestrian entry and breezebrick courtyard between the house and street creates a semi-public realm emphasising pedestrian exploration, detail scaled character, and structured landscaping.
The planning arrangement locates children in the original house and parents upstairs in the rear extension, with shared areas located centrally. The design is anchored to an ordering system that defines numerous territories that are distinct yet interconnected, without differentiating between landscape spaces or interior spaces. While still working as a coherent whole, spaces could then be fine-tuned to frame specific internal connections, and to remedy the previous lack of engagement with the site, without letting the outlook become dominated by the adjacent houses. By framing landscape as part of the everyday spaces of the house, a collection of compact areas combine to create an expansive feel. Circulation between these spaces takes on a feeling of exploration due to the variety of balanced contrasts and celebrated transitions.

The rear two-storey extension is ordered as three zones running towards the back of the site. Two of these continue the communal areas of the original house, including the timber and white palette. The middle zone extends the existing circulation line, expanding to a narrow double height volume that provides connectivity with the parent’s area above, unexpected natural light, and generous spatial qualities. This long circulation line has been given custom blended coloured tiled walls marking each end; a material choice linked to the mosaic tiled balcony of the existing house. The first is a coloured panel viewed at the entry approach to the house, and the other a deep reveal framing the view to the pool beyond, marking the end of the journey through the house. A different coloured tile blend was used in the kitchen and bathrooms.
The third zone flowing towards the rear of the site is a landscape focused courtyard, with a captured garden, lawn space and open dining room. A device conceived as a brick basket frames a territory occupied by these three spaces. Custom breezebricks create courtyards that let outdoor spaces feel like rooms. The masonry filter and a layer of vegetation on either side work to mediate the view towards the neighbour, allowing the interior spaces to be more outward focused.

The captured garden provides an intricate visual focus at the centre of the plan, seen from numerous vantage points. Surrounding spaces gain natural light from the opening above, which also directs a long view over the existing gable towards the tree-line beyond. A sculptural focus for the garden is created by a cut and polished rhyolite boulder, whose parts were displaced and recomposed by landscape architect Duncan Gibbs. Existing windows have been screened to provide a backdrop for a Japanese Maple as it matures.
The adjacent space in this landscape focused zone is a dining room located at the crossroads of multiple connections within the house. Door stack behind double brick blades, and a pergola frame above runs inside and out below the roofline, immersing this space within the landscape. The Dining space also identifies with a zone defined by a concrete floor and charcoal colour running perpendicular across the main direction of the extension. Within the main structure, this zone is occupied by the kitchen. Together these spaces create a robust hub at the centre of family life.

The remaining outdoor space within the landscape focused zone is a lawn courtyard which acts as an open-air companion to the adjacent living space, divided by a threshold of rock and succulents. Marking the rear wall of the extension, plywood alcoves provide the living room with a depth that can accommodate gathered objects.
Continuing towards the rear of the site, there is a flow from the lawn across a brick band and onto a ball court. While this could have been a potential eyesore from the house, the area is enlivened by a rugged landscape strategy and a Supergraphics mural. The semi semi-circle of a basketball shooters key became a starting point for the mural’s geometric language, with new iterations then deployed around the site through the precast concrete elements of the landscape architecture design. The concrete pipe planters add depth and variety to the pre-existing concrete plank retaining wall.
From the back of the property, the extension’s exterior becomes legible. A new brick base compliments the mottled red bricks of the original house; it’s attribute most favoured by the owners. They are still visible on the original rear elevation, where they become part of the new brick basket framing the extension. New bricks and concrete elements created a rugged materiality at ground level, building on lessons learnt from brutalism and other crafted modernist techniques.

Above the heavyweight base, a light-coloured upper level sits to one side, establishing an effective contrast. The pitch and width of half of the original gable has been rotated to establish the upper roof geometry. At the ridge, the roof then turns down steeply to navigate setback restrictions, before the metal sheeting continues down the wall to create a blank face to a neighbouring veranda built to the boundary. This sectional profile compliments the streetscape’s progression of roofs down the hill, with the existing roof falling towards the street acting as a suitable base for the more dynamic new elevation above.
With the full experience of the house, the design reveals our strategy for adding new elements to existing, which is to seek an underlying concept that lets both contribute in their own way. Rather than focusing on the difference of new and existing, the design weaves together other juxtapositions - expansive and intimate, heavy and lightweight, bright and dark, sheltered and open. The relationships between these characteristics creates a rich experience, particularly through movement as contrasts unfold, bringing drama to the everyday routines of the home’s occupants.

Level G Plan / Level 1 Plan / Level 2 Plan

Street Elevation / Cross Section / Rear Elevation



Axonometric View
Details


Project: Breezebrick Courtyard House
Architect: Cloud Dwellers
Project Team: Jason Haigh, Cherissa McCaughey
Builder: D Pearce Constructions
Landscape Architect: Duncan Gibbs
Photographer: Andy Macpherson Studio
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Design commencement: June 2017
Construction commencement: May 2018
Construction completion: June 2019
Internal Area: Renovation to original house 117sqm; Extension 111sqm





Materials


Brickwork: ‘Regal’ Extruded bricks by Claypave
Breezebricks: Custom profile by Claypave
Cladding: ‘Axon’ profiled sheet and ‘Hardiflex’ sheet by James Hardie
Timber windows: Brisbane Timber Doors and Windows
Aluminium Windows: ‘Kool Vu’ by Asia Pacific Louvre
Window Hood: Folded metal by Heka
Metal Roofing / Cladding: Trimdek profile metal sheet by Lysaght
Gutter: ‘Edge’ profiled metal eaves gutter by Stratco
Garage Door: Laser cut aluminium plate and timber battens
Letterbox: Arko Outdoor Furniture
Balustrades and Pool fence: Welded steel in custom profile
Timber flooring: Spotted Gum tongue and groove
Concrete: Honed and exposed aggregate finish concrete by Holcim
Linings: Plasterboard, Birch plywood by Wisa
Pendant Lighting: Verner Panton Flower Pot pendants by &Tradition
Internal surface mount Lighting: Fat Shack Vintage, Beacon, ISM Objects
External Lighting: Caribou, Masson for Light, SAL
Door Hardware: Tradco ‘Antique Brass’ finish
Tiles: Appiani ‘Seta’ in custom colour blend; Ceramica Vogue ‘Interni’
Kitchen benchtops: Brushed Beluga Granite
Cabinetry timber handles and trims: Spotted Gum
Cabinetry fronts: Laminex
Appliances: Asko
Rangehood : Belling
Basins: Globo
Plumbing fixtures: Bezzoni by Barben, Oliveri