A Reflective Refuge – Graya House by Myers Ellyett
Inward and reflective, Graya House centres around a core courtyard space as the ultimate expression of the home as a refuge and escape from the surrounding density. Myers Ellyett intertwines the existing timber cottage with an embracing extension that utilises the full potential of the site.
In its highly densified inner-city siting of New Farm, Graya House aims to optimise the potential of its site through expanding on the home’s original footprint and instead looking inward. The creation of a private retreat comes from an underlying mission to bring the home and its occupants together and create its own removed feel, despite its location. Embracing the original weatherboard cottage at the front of the site, the extension takes similar materiality and combines with textural and permanent elements that intercept and engage with the curated landscape setting. Though sitting on a narrow allotment, the home aims to feel generous through the use of colour, finish and scaled proportions. Myers Ellyett works closely with an impassioned team to propose a home befitting of its context and dotted with curious moments that engage beyond the building envelope.
Together with engineering by Westera Partners, Graya House is built by its owner, director of Graya. The home fuses a knowing attention to detail together with a series of carefully crafted elements to both enlarge the existing home and inject a contemporary relevance. In response to its climate, the seamless transitions between inside and out needed to feel deliberate and effortless at the same time, and by the inclusion of numerous courtyards and openings that visually connect to nature, the overall home feels broken down into smaller and more intimate zones. The encouraged dense foliage also aims to ensure the home feels protected and removed from its inner-urban locale.
While secluded, the home aims to remain flexible in its planning and the ability to adapt elements for its young family as needed. The open and connected living, dining and kitchen all spill out and encircle an outdoor room as a natural extension of the home. The 100-year old original cottage on site is both restored and transformed to accommodate private and secondary retreat spaces for sleeping and a secondary living zone on the upper level. The newer elements then reference the original materiality and connect through a shared expression of raw and familiar elements, navigating the site with softness and modesty.
Graya House expresses reductive and meditative qualities. In redirecting its focus to the natural elements, Myers Ellyett has created a home that combines a considered simplicity that idyllically embraces the way of life of its sub-tropical location.
