Living with the Living – Garden Wall House by Sonelo Architects

With a focus on bringing light and a natural connection into the centre of the home, Garden Wall House is the reimagination of an existing form that opens and engages with the elements. Sonelo Architects takes heeded musings from the owners’ love of gardening and living amongst other living organisms to propose an architecture that facilitates and embraces the landscape.

Located within Fairfield, in Melbourne’s inner north, on a reasonably sized allotment, Garden Wall House had recently been partially updated. As such, the front portion of the house had been addressed; however, the other living areas needed consideration. An additional ground-level power room and one of the bedrooms on the first floor were also included as part of this second stage of the project, and bringing all of the new gestures together through a similar contemporary binding lens sees the completion of the home in its entirety, encompassing both the living and the built elements within the boundary. Home to a family of four, flexibility in planning, with a variety of spaces for retreat and connection, was key. In response, Sonelo brought a layered approach to the fore, with the landscape acting as a direct buffering between inside and out to soften and temper transitions.

The large windows and sliding doors frame an idyllic garden vista, linking the newly extended living area to an inviting outdoor dining terrace.

With the open living, kitchen and dining space to the rear, this newly defined space feels truly immersed within the garden itself whilst still having a sense of separation and enclosure. Having lovingly cared for their garden for many years, the inhabitants’ personal passion is brought into the everyday experience of the home. This became an underlying principle of the project, informing how each of the elements came together. Enhancing the perception of scale and generosity of the addition, storage and other ancillary supporting facilities are concealed within joinery and within the architecture itself. In doing so, the openness amplifies an overall feeling of restful calm, allowing the meditative effect of the landscape to remain the focus.

Looking to several references to topiary walls in the UK, the team worked to integrate a living wall that was its own inhabited space in defining that which sets the home apart. Crowned by a skylight and adorned with generous sliding doors, the new wall ushers in a gentle wash of daylight throughout the day, merging indoor and outdoor spaces. The large windows and sliding doors frame an idyllic garden vista, linking the newly extended living area to an inviting outdoor dining terrace where a raised brick pod, basking in sunlight, serves as a secondary seating arrangement. Integrated vegetable beds and a barbecue add to the animation of the yard as an active and working function of the home.

Having lovingly cared for their garden for many years, the inhabitants’ personal passion is brought into the everyday experience of the home.

Wrapping of the new form of Garden Wall House in warmth and vegetation, an immersive environment is created. By creating and overlaying a framework for the plantings to become increasingly integrated within the architecture, Sonelo Architects proposes a composition that balances the built and the natural.