Nick + Han's House

by po-co Architecture

Nick + Han’s House by po-co Architecture is a 2014 residential alterations project in the design centric suburb of Prahran, Victoria.

The challenge of the client brief was to add more program to a dark and dated 90’s lean-to on the rear of a corner house in a heritage overlay, but reduce the existing footprint. The solution was to treat the garden as part of the spatial layout of the living areas, which in turn helped the interior spaces feel much bigger, and allowed for functional inside/outside entertaining and circulation.

A practical off-street car parking space was included into the outdoor area by demolishing the existing storage shed, and the laundry room was relocated into the updated bathroom, which increased the overall permeability of the living areas and lengthened the views between the garden and the interior spaces. A new timber batten fence was shaped to correspond with the roofscape in view above and beyond the fence line.

The existing roofing, roof structure and the majority of the masonry walls were significantly retained (with some of them simply left to define the BBQ courtyard space) and exposed from behind existing plasterboard linings. A new recycled red brick boundary wall was built on the northern boundary to reduce an existing issue of sound transmission from the neighbouring house. This reflected the existing brick walls exposed on the inside, and was used to envelop the indoor/outdoor living spaces as one.

Where the tendency to knock down and build new is considered desirable for cost and ease, in this project the majority of the external walls and roofing/roof structure was retained. This was at once to ensure that the proposal would meet heritage requirements, but also meant that building waste was minimal.

Along with responsible passive solar design (shading to full height glazing, zero west-facing openings and good cross-flow ventilation) lead architects Fiona Poon and her team also reduced the amount of inside space requiring climate control. All external timbers including decking and screening was made with Accoya, which is produced from fast-growing radiate pine and made dimensionally stable using a non-toxic manufacturing process.

The end result of the work by po-co Architecture is a light-filled and permeable space which is modern yet sympathetic to the house’s original form and scale.

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