Architect’s statement:

The new buildings create a central courtyard for the existing dwelling.

Located in regional Victoria, the Blackwood studio project was designed as two separate structures (garage and studio) positioned around the existing home to create a sense of ‘community’ between them, while still providing privacy to the front of the existing dwelling through a central courtyard.

The placement of the new buildings is important to create a sense of arrival for guests while maintaining a line of sight between the dwelling’s entry and the street. The buildings’ positioning is also key in deflecting the wind and is critical in directing views towards the surrounding gardens. The orientation of the dwellings also needed to consider the integration of the southern light, which as an indirect light source was a key requirement of the client’s brief for creating art and painting within the studio.

Views to the internal courtyard and garden were optimised.

The building forms are rural in nature, with their gable roofs referencing the typical historic barn forms. With unnecessary ornamentation stripped from the façades, the buildings’ contemporary exteriors are covered in a compressed cement sheet cladding and corrugated metal, both of which reference materiality of past generations’ construction methods for ancillary barns/sheds of the rural surrounds.

A custom lighting system was designed to accompany the minimal aesthetic of the interior.

Complementing the refined exteriors, the interiors were stripped back to create a minimal white aesthetic. Used as a painting studio/gallery space these pristine white spaces are enhanced with the integrated LED strip lighting at the ceiling’s ridge, which was designed to mimic a thin slice of sunlight. The lighting design also provides a wide spread of functional diffused light. The light’s integration within the ceiling was also able to enhance the clean and strong conceptual aesthetic, devoid of light fixtures. This approach also adds a sense of volume to the relatively small floor area. Contributing to the interior’s minimal aesthetic is the custom rod bracing, which is designed to reflect its essential requirements in as refined a manner possible.

The orientation preferences natural light so the client can paint throughout the day.

Sight lines were important for the layout of the new structures.

All photography by Adam Kane.

adamkane.com.au

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Take a look at another steeply-pitched gabled roof house, this one by Sans-arc studio.