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Heritage areas such as Albert Park can be tough places to design anything with a contemporary whiff.
Architects who succeed often point to modest insertions concealed behind pitched roofs. Few get as far as Clare Cousins Architects, who managed to create a new courtyard-style house in one of the most controlled heritage precincts in Melbourne, an effort to be applauded.
The contemporary Albert Park home designed by Clare Cousins Architects.Credit: Tom Ross
This, along with the impressive result, was acknowledged by the Victorian chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects when they gave it an award.
As with all things related to heritage, architect Clare Cousins consulted engineers as well as conservation specialists RBA Architects. They concluded the former late-Victorian timber building, once a corner store, was well past its use-by date. “There was mould on the walls and many of the timber boards were disintegrating.”
The main feature, the chamfered edge, was the only characteristic Roger Beeson from RBA, could find that was worth acknowledging as a touchstone to the past, says Cousins, who didn’t want to rebuild in a faux-Victorian style.
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For the clients, a couple with adult children and grandchildren, the corner site, approximately 220 square metres in area, provided the opportunity to build a new house with themselves in mind rather than, as the catchcry goes, “for resale”.
“It was designed purely for them and for their grandchildren to occasionally stay over,” says Cousins, pointing out the two modest-sized attic-style bedrooms and small lounge tucked into the raked roof. Given it’s for them, Cousins and her team could break down some of the privacy issues normally associated with a family home – allowing bedrooms and even bathrooms to be visible from the courtyard garden at the core of the site.
The form of the house, just 180 square metres in area, was not only derived from the size of the plot, but also by a neighbouring two-storey home on the northern edge. “We spent a considerable amount of time seeing where the maximum amount of sunlight would penetrate our client’s site,” says Cousins, pointing out the courtyard garden designed by Eckersley Garden Architecture.