A Discovery of Subtleties – East Kew Residence by Workroom

Founded on subtleties, East Kew Residence unfurls itself across its site through the journey of movement and experiencing elements individually, where Workroom combine a tactile and discovery-based approach to create intersections of form and volume that engage with light and the surrounds.

 Concealed behind a clean yet arresting front face, East Kew Residence confirms its presence on site and amongst its streetscape as one founded on privacy and restraint. As it spreads across its generous inner eastern allotment, the resulting home uses bold formal gestures to mark its impressive outline, while creating a sense of intrigue through concealment. The home is intended to be experienced through discovery, and through movement internally and across the thresholds between inside and out. Operable and flexible elements are built-in to allow an expansion and contraction as needed, allowing for large and more intimate gatherings. Workroom bring a muted and highly controlled palette together with considered rigor, and in the process, create a soft and calm place of repose.

Workroom bring a muted and highly controlled palette together with considered rigor, and in the process, create a soft and calm place of repose.

Built by Preferred Properties, together with landscape design by Acre, East Kew Residence is its own refuge of sorts. Protected from the surrounds behind its solid face, the family home beyond is both mysterious and heightened in privacy. Situated on a triangulated site, the resulting forms respond in a push and pull interplay and become a resolved jigsaw with purpose. An emphasis on light ensures that as each of the spaces open up deeper into the site, more and more light enter and allows an open connection to the landscaped spaces. While light floods the convening areas, in the more passive areas of the home it sits controlled and focussed, matching the function.

The act of journey allows the home to reveal itself, and its spaces, over time and through movement within. The associated story of its owners then becomes more relevant during the process also, with detail used in subtle ways to imbed character and narrative. With the structural concrete panels left exposed, the height and scale of the home is felt both physically, and through a tactile engagement, while acting as a reminder. Kept raw and minimal, the palette speaks to the same subtleties as the approach to planning and form, where a small movement in the finish is activated through light.

Protected from the surrounds behind its solid face, the family home beyond is both mysterious and heightened in privacy.

In its deliberate absence of decorative adornment, clean lines define both the internal and external expression of Workroom’s East Kew Residence, ensuring its purpose as a place of recharge is reinforced throughout.