Highgate Hill, Brisbane, 2013

This project is a remodelling and extension of a tiny timber workers cottage in inner city Highgate Hill. It illustrates our passion for crafting architecture, here via a collaboration with specialist bricklayers Elvis and Rose.

One generating idea for the extension was to invert the existing cottage’s gable roof, delivering north and south daylight into the spaces. Another was to employ the device of aperture to enlarge the experience of small spaces, creating perspectives through them and views out while maintaining visual privacy to neighbours.

The brickwork is designed to appear as a series of garden walls through which small apertures support vines, and larger ones frame courtyard vistas. The walls extend out into the rear garden forming patios and culminating in a pool enclosure reached across a ha-ha trough.

The house is a demonstration of how adaptive re-use of the smallest of cottages can be crafted to create flexible family environments, utilising built-in elements to maximise utility and enrich experience.