A Considered Realignment – Ascot Garden House by Nicholas Harvey Architect and Rhea Jeffery

Reacquainting the home to its garden, Nicholas Harvey Architect and Rhea Jeffrey combine to further ground the existing building and create key conduits that optimise the site and its extents. Ascot Garden House realigns views and access, creating a softened transition between thresholds and connection between inside and out.

Like many traditional Queenslander homes, an openness elevates the residential experience, allowing for a free-flowing movement around the site. The existing conditions of Ascot Garden House, however, were void of a clear connection between the enclosed and open spaces and needed to be brought together. Across its sloping site, a number of landscaped elements offer moments to break the transition, yet the home felt disengaged from that modulation. Through a process of sculpting and filling, the team worked to rearrange the existing volumes and create an extension that would meaningfully add to the quality of the experience of the home for the family who live there. With architecture by Nicholas Harvey Architect and interior design by Rhea Jeffrey, the home is readied for its next chapter.

Connecting between the various levels was key, as was creating a clear line of access between the street, the garden and the house.

Build by Rycon Constructions, with landscape design by David Pratt and Brookes Blooms, the careful integration of disciplines helps to define the newly identified spaces and firmly ground the family home as a robust and open series of volumes. Linking between the various levels was key, as was creating a clear line of access between the street, the garden and the house. The addition offers an open and connected living area that then generously flows into the rear landscape area and pool. With a focus on the garden as a central living entity, the home is opened up and carved into to create moments that remind of that key connection.

What defines Ascot Garden House in its uniqueness in that the old and new coexist, integrated and woven into one another, rather than remaining as separate entities In binding the old with the new, the existing remains in its original light and elevated Queenslander spirit while the new elements are weighted and engaging with the earth. Together, the two balance one another. While the original form is opened in some areas, removing the floor plane to create a double-height area in its place, in other areas it remains untouched. A palette of natural and time-wearing materials then runs throughout, between eras, and is made even lighter through openings that encourage the natural elements inward.

With a focus on the garden as a central living entity, the home is opened up and carved into to create moments that remind of that key connection.

Ascot Garden House stays true to its name and nature, further identifying a sense of purpose and clarity. Nicholas Harvey Architect and Rhea Jeffrey embed a natural flow and openness while retaining the original character as a reminder of the home’s lineage.