Award-winning Dunstan House renovation respects heritage of Kodak worker homes
One of the design strategies was to create an adjoining wing along the eastern boundary of the house that not only loosely references other additions from the street but also provides more useful functions at the front, such as electric bike storage, laundry and, as in many houses built in the 1950s, a shed for pottery.
With its baggy brick walls, wood joinery and stone benches, the kitchen exudes a sense of sobriety and thoughtfulness.Credit:
However, unlike the original floor plan, SSdH’s design includes a contemporary open-plan kitchen, dining and living pavilion with a courtyard-style garden on one side and a north-facing backyard on the other.
When the large sliding doors on either side of this pavilion are pulled back, there is a feeling of being both outdoors and sheltered. “We wanted to use materials as honestly as possible and keep things quite simple, in the spirit of the original house,” says Smart, noting the thin creamy yellow painted steel pillars and timber-painted windows that also earned the practice a Dulux award.
Although the design is said to be “simple,” there is also a level of complexity to the design. The thick wooden ceiling in the new wing extends to the wooden pergola, also painted in pale yellow, extending sightlines and drawing one’s eye into the garden created by McNuttndorff Landscapes.
Similar restraint and care was applied to the kitchen, with its pegged brick walls, wooden joinery and stone benches.
Used to store coats, keys and umbrellas, the green closet also has a built-in seat for putting on shoes.Credit:
However, there is also a level of detail in this restrained design, including the sunken home office next to the new wing, designed to align with the height of the vegetation in the courtyard. Also in the new foyer is a rather unusual organically shaped cabinet made of wood and painted green. Used to store coats, keys and umbrellas, this bag also has a built-in seat for wearing shoes.
“We were conscious of not only how to do things, but also how to use the spaces,” says Smart, who sees the house as still relatively modest in scale, initially running from 100 square meters to around 200 square meters now.
“We also wanted to show that you can still move forward with even a simple heritage house but still ensure the streetscape is preserved.”
