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A Light-Filled Haven – East Fremantle House by Nic Brunsdon
East Fremantle House by Nic Brunsdon sees a traditional home on a narrow block reprogrammed into a light-filled haven for a growing family, offering flexibility, seclusion and a constant interplay with its exterior.
An alteration and addition to a Federation home in Perth, East Fremantle House offers a variety of experiences within a deceptively simple plan. Inspired by the indoor-outdoor living spaces of houses in Brisbane, the clients wanted a home full of light and air, where the transition between interior and exterior was seamless.
Challenged with a narrow site, architect Nic Brunsdon prioritised the northern aspect, extruding the mass of the new build to the eastern and southern perimeters. In doing so, a dark and compact period home has been transformed into a linear courtyard house where flexibility of use and free flow through public and private zones and interior and exterior spaces define the experience.
There are two entrances to East Fremantle House. The original front entrance brings you into the original building, now comprised solely of three bedrooms. This is a private zone, moodier and darker than the rest of the house. The view down the hallway is uninterrupted through the courtyard, through the back of the house and into the backyard. From this perspective, one has an understanding of the linearity of East Fremantle House, extruded along its narrow block.
If you take the new side entrance, you are instead brought into a mediating space, where the new house joins the original. A neutral space, neither light nor dark and with its own distinct materiality and transient feel, this is a hard-wearing threshold area that enables visitors to bypass the private zone of the front house. (Sleeping young children can be left undisturbed, beds can be left unmade). Entering East Fremantle House from this space, one engages immediately with the more public nature of this house, a series of living spaces surrounding the courtyard.
Comprised of three distinct zones arranged around a central spine, this house engages with both a linear and courtyard understanding of space. The courtyard acts as an outdoor room and floods the adjacent open living area with light. This is the public zone, a light and airy garden room where the threshold between indoor and outdoor is so fine as to be initially imperceptible.
The shifting of spaces to the perimeter of the site is continued in the placement of service elements in this living space. The southern elevation of the building is punctuated by alcoves and nooks where functional elements have been extracted from the free plan of the space and pushed to the outside of the building. The fireplace is neatly concealed within the wall, and the food preparation area of the kitchen has been similarly treated. The refined, white box of the living space remains uninterrupted and the clarity of the plan is maintained. The dining table sits into a third protrusion, an elegant alcove and the only disruption to the simple rectangular plan of the room. Diffused northern light is brought in through a skylight and neatly situates a central gathering point.
The back portion of the house is comprised of relatively more private spaces, such as the lounge room and attic master suite, and creates a complementary sanctuary zone at the end of the site. Unlike in the heavier front house where the brightness of the courtyard light floods the end of the hallway, rendering it in silhouette, in the lounge room the floor-to-ceiling glazing allows light to envelope the room and bring the outside in.
There is a consistent and elegant application of materiality throughout East Fremantle House which complements the varying experiences of public and private spaces. On the ground floor, the concrete floor and exposed, painted brickwork of the new build offer a modern interpretation of the materiality of the original Federation house. Where the front house is darker and more secluded, however, the living areas of the new house capitalise on the northern aspect and feel lighter, fresher, younger.
The exposed timber structure of the first floor of the new build indicates another new experience, a further lightening of the weight of the front house. The attic master suite sits above the back portion of the house, a timber lid on the white masonry box of the new living spaces. This is an alternative experience of seclusion, a distinct element of the house that interlocks with the heavier, anchored ground floor. The descending timber staircase connecting with the first few concrete stairs at the ground floor level the only hint of another zone to this house.
Below the attic, the sunken concrete floor of the lounge room offers a cue to habitation in this space – a gesture of grounding. Family members can choose their experience, from this slightly more secluded space to the adjacent living and dining area, where the transition from the interior to the courtyard is free-flowing and effortless.
Through spatial planning and the intentional application of materials, East Fremantle House can be understood as the breaking-apart of living zones that have then been thoughtfully interlaced to provide a nuanced experience. From a private zone of grounded or lofty seclusion to public living spaces, East Fremantle House offers a variety of experiences and connection to its exterior, enabling it to flexibly host this young family as it grows.
