PROJECTS

Denman Prospect, ACT

Quong Tart Avenue - A four bedroom home on a tight 347m2 block

A small block, hemmed in on every side

his block was three hundred and forty seven square metres, with an established house on each side and one behind it. The brief called for four bedrooms. Adrian, the architect, could see a straightforward three bedroom home in that footprint.

Fitting a fourth meant working within council rules on footprint, setbacks and outdoor space, on a block that also fell away from left to right. I did not want a split level house, and neither did the client. On a sloping, tightly bordered block, that is a harder brief than it sounds.

The garage sat against a brick retaining wall, holding back the neighbour's yard at one thousand six hundred millimetres high. We had a hundred and eighty millimetres between the outside of that wall and the neighbour's fence. Barely enough room to get a hand in and waterproof it properly.

So we bricked it in stages. Three courses, then stop. Let it cure fully. Waterproof it. Wait out the curing time properly before the next three courses went up. Repeat. That process alone took over five weeks.

There was no shortcut available. Get that wall wrong and water ends up inside the house, sitting right against the garage.

The brief from the owner was simple on the outside: a garage door, a front door, one window upstairs. Adrian popped that upstairs window out from the face of the house in a black framed box, set against white render, with a cedar front door and a recycled timber soffit above it, sourced through Thor's Hammer.

Inside, we used ceiling height to do some of the work a bigger block would have done for free. The hallway runs at two point seven metres. Walk through to the kitchen and living area and it opens up to three point three. Paired with the sliding doors out to the alfresco and the highlight windows either side, the house reads larger than its footprint.

We also raised the garage by two steps so it sits almost level with the street, which is where most blocks on this slope drop straight down from the kerb. The whole house sits on one level from there. No split levels, on a block that made that hard to achieve.

What I would have pushed harder on Para: I got the one level result I wanted, but the two steps from the garage into the house are the one thing I have never fully loved, even though it worked. Given the block, I do not know that there was a way around it, but it is the detail I would go back and argue with myself about again.

I would also have liked a larger main bathroom. Nobody has ever told me it feels small. That is me being harder on the job than anyone who has actually used it.

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