Swan Street Residence Australia : Architecture

Swan Street Residence - Alterations & Additions, Mosman Park, Western Australia Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects Project Description The Swan Street Residence sits at the end of a mature tree lined street opposite a private girls school (St. Hildas). The narrowing of the street and the no-through road resulted in an initial desire to create a project that was concerned with notions of discovery and retreat. The wooded street and a previous completed project on the edge of the city of Perth provided an opportunity to connect with the contextual physical quality of 'landscape' and a sub-conscious connection to living on the edge of a city, the desire to be physically connected whilst offering qualities that exist in outer suburban areas, areas of natural landscape. photos © Peter Bennetts Green light and folding light filled spaces dominate the interior whilst externally the concern is the formal connections to the existing circa 1920's house and the surrounding context whilst exploiting subtle and exaggerated differences. The green light emitted strategically permeates the house, creating 'green' space while re-emitting this to the street at night, producing an effect reminiscent of the coloured glass over the entrance doors of neighbouring Federation homes. Time Swan Street considers multiple moments of time - immediate time, daily time, seasonal time and long-term time. This is partly achieved by the materiality that actively encourages the visibility of time. The recycled jarrah timber battens that lap the vertical plywood joints will weather naturally based on their exposure to the elements, creating an evolving and inconsistent contrast with the dark, painted plywood panels. Slow time will emerge as the copper fence capping oxidises and stains the (manipulated) traditional, white, painted picket fence. This is complimented with a mass of green-leafed Anigozanthos (Kangaroo Paw) planted at the base of the fence, flowering each spring against the 'evolving' qualities of the picket fence. There are other, more immediate moments - the expression of the water flowing from the roof, the shifting sun patterns on the folding ceiling of the main bedroom, the deciduous trees placed on the axis of Olivia's room, the fractured prism of light that slowly moves up the wall and the diffuse and direct green light. Eventually these become a collection of moments that require and demand contemplation….a distraction to the everyday…a dream like quality typically reserved for holiday experiences or outback travels… photos © Peter Bennetts Movement The folding plan creates an a-perspective quality; traditional reference points are reduced to create an unfolding and refolding space in a dynamic equilibrium that responds to the activities of everyday living carefully connecting interior and exterior in a mutually beneficial manner. Space is held in the delicate balance of reality and abstraction. This, combined with the green light, alludes to living in an a-typical suburban space, perhaps closer to a forest, passages of filtered green light, fractured views through the woodland… Craft Swan Street re-interprets the craft of a past time and the original Peppermint Grove and Mosman Park houses by Sir Talbot Hobbs and William Williams, while indirectly referencing Australian vernacular interpretations of the English Arts and Crafts houses by Eustace Cohen. Swan Street Residence Western Australia images / information from Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects