Layered Warmth – Armidale House by Richards Stanisich

Carrying parts of their rural background into a more contemporary setting, the owners of Armidale House wanted to retain their outdoor lifestyle despite the location change. Richards Stanisich overlays rich materiality and spatial sensibility in carving the resulting home, where a sense of warmth and texture come together to create a dramatic result.

In reimagining the urban home, Richards Stanisich wanted to ensure the resulting residence felt equal parts familiar and refreshing. Responding to the move from farm to town, the site aims to capture the personalities of its custodians and support the functions of everyday life. By including material and textural nods to the occupants’ regional farming background, Armidale House unfolds with a modern farmhouse style, featuring characterful and rich elements such as exposed timber beams.

In reimagining the urban home, Richards Stanisich wanted to ensure the resulting residence felt equal parts familiar and refreshing.

Located in its namesake suburb, Armidale House combines the traditional with a more contemporary sensibility. By looking to the charm of a conventional country home, elements such as texture and an interaction with the surrounding nature were key. Though still regionally located, the move from a much larger property to an urban environment needed an aptly fitting residence to capture the milestone. Formed around a central courtyard space, the home is naturally lit and ventilated and feels secure yet privately veiled from the streetscape.

Designed as a retreat, the combination of generous volumes, a constant outlook to the environment and access to natural light ensures a soft buffering is present, blurring the boundary between the built form and the landscape. Providing access to light and air throughout the day was key and is achieved through several connections to nature both internally and across thresholds. An ingrained passivity and thermal comfort throughout the year forms the foundations of the home, with heightened detailing and an elegant refinement.

Responding to the move from farm to town, the site aims to capture the personalities of its custodians and support the functions of everyday life.

Whilst the overall form of Armidale House sits relaxed and modest, it aims to blend into the surrounding natural environment. Richards Stanisich combines historic and modern elements to assert a unique interpretation of the home.