A Crafted Addition – Brookes Street by Hogg and Lamb, James Russell Architect and Heath Williams

Sitting between two established and integrally significant heritage buildings, Brookes Street is part adaptive re-use and a complete reimagining of the potential of the unused public space. Hogg and Lamb and Heath Williams work with the original architecture by James Russell Architect to propose a crafted response, navigating the open and closed, old and new elements of the site.

Located in Fortitude Valley, the previously vacant courtyard space is given a new life through the creation of new residence, borrowing the walls of the flanking heritage buildings on either side for support and to define its boundary. As an example of the potential of other opportunistic reinventions of outdoor space, and perhaps even as a response to the increased density demands on cities, the proposal represents the idea of a home open to the surrounds to allow the free flowing of air while also creating a destination in itself. With architecture by both Hogg and Lamb and James Russell Architect and interior design by Heath Williams, the resulting home is conceived as a concentration of its parts.

Transforming a courtyard undeniably requires the incorporation of a living landscape as a key part of the experience of the space.

In acknowledging an element of temporality, the home sits sensitively in place. Rather than being a celebration of the actual whole, the building borrows principles of how a piece of furniture adds a heightening to a space yet does not encompass a large form. The result is more a series of forms within a space. Transforming a courtyard undeniably requires the incorporation of a living landscape as a key part of the experience of the space. Designed by Steven Clegg Design, the pockets of greenery throughout remain as an important reminder of both the past and of the context the home now sits within. A similar connection to the natural is expressed through the materiality and the use of textural timber, adding more nature in amongst thee crisp and clearly defined spaces.

The core premise of the design is a uniquely crafted series of spaces that sit lightly in place, borrowing surrounding walls as their own internal walls while remaining mostly open in gest. Spread over multiple levels, the lower-level tucks away integrated carparking, keeping the original floor space open to the living spaces on that level. The upper level then looks out over the newly formed courtyard below, with an emphasis on the home remaining open for both comfort and to engage with the natural elements throughout the day.

In acknowledging an element of temporality, the home sits sensitively in place.

Lightly inserted, Brookes Street brings a richness together with a respect for the past. The combined efforts of Hogg and Lamb, James Russell Architect and Heath Williams sees dutiful homage paid to the surrounding lineage while adding another considered chapter to the story.