An Extended Engagement – Ashgrove Hillside House by Kieron Gait Architects

Optimising its setting and outlook, Ashgrove Hillside House adds invaluable living space for its young family to engage with their opportunistic surrounds. Kieron Gait Architects extends the already established sense of proportion and scale to open the home further, allowing more of the outer landscape into the experience of the home.

Located in Ashgrove, with views out toward Mt Coot-tha, Ashgrove Hillside House is the further opening of an existing residence to add much needed amenity for its family. In proposing a response to the surrounding lush landscape setting, the new addition needed to not compete with the natural elements and instead offer a balanced harmony. The structure aims to make better use of an existing floor plan, reaching out toward views and the aspect beyond, allowing a greater sense of immersion amongst place. Kieron Gait Architects sculpts the final resolve to be both its own formal expression while also being a respectful secondary element to the landscape, envisioned through a sensitive lens.

The original home feels connected and weighted to its site through the use of masonry elements at the base, that then transition into lighter elements as the levels ascend above.

In order to ensure a firm anchoring to the site, Ashgrove Hillside House sees a close collaboration between A.H. Done Builders and Landscape Designer Steven Clegg. The careful integration of both disciplines ensures the overall approaches feel deliberate and considered, working together in unison. The original home feels connected and weighted to its site through the use of masonry elements at the base, that then transition into lighter elements as the levels ascend above. Combining both timber, detailed steelwork and concrete, the home feels appropriately open where needed and more contained in other areas. The feeling of balance, openness and a needed privacy then adheres the many guises of the typical family home, customised in this case to these specific custodians.

Across its steep slope, the addition takes on a terraced approach, where each introduced level works with the landscape in some way. The addition of a new bedroom and study area are oriented toward mountain views to the north, with other views to the south. Wrapping the form in charred timber adds a richness to the cloaking form, while allowing the vibrant natural landscape to stand out as its own distinct element. The openings carved into the form then direct framed views out and act to break the exterior rhythm of the timber cladding. Internally, a lighter tonality offers a sense of respite and calm, quietening the experience and creating a feeling of difference and departure from being outside, engaging with nature.

Combining both timber, detailed steelwork and concrete, the home feels appropriately open where needed and more contained in other areas.

Ashgrove Hillside House by Kieron Gait Architects draws on its enviable surrounds, further emphasising key connections outward while safeguarding a quiet haven within.