Immersed in Nature – House A by Walter & Walter

As a series of volumes interconnected and symbiotic, House A is a conversation that connects building, living and landscape. Walter & Walter combines a familiar and warming materiality with a refined restraint to propose a both inward and outward focused home, immersed in its living elements.

Neatly tucked into the established residential fabric of Alphington in Melbourne’s inner north, House A asserts a private façade to its diverse streetscape. Offering a regular and controlled formal approach, the home that resides behind its enigmatic and dark façade is one of contrasts in materiality, openings and textures. Each of the interconnecting volumes offered are carved into, allowing for openings at various scales to connect the home with its natural setting. Instead of a formally set boundary containing the lived elements, that same boundary offers a series of connections and proposes a new dialogue between the built, the living and those who reside within. Walter & Walter brings together the familiar and known residential fabric and repurposes its parts to propose a home with embedded meaning.

Through the careful curation of resilient and appropriate landscaped areas, each internal space allows for a connection to its site, resetting the traditional boundary.

Built by Fido Projects, with structural engineering by Irwin Structures, House A sees its three bedrooms, living and ancillary spaces open and connect with one another and the surrounding site with purpose. Integral to this continued conversation between the built and the natural is the deliberate and considered nature of the landscape by Lygon Street Nursery. Through the careful curation of resilient and appropriate landscaped areas, each internal space allows for a connection to its site, resetting the traditional boundary. Each opening varies based on the space’s placement, orientation, interplay with light and the access to quality air and ventilation. Each opening is intended to add to the quality, thermal comfort, natural ventilation and optimised solar gains to create the ideal indoor environment. House A aims to offer a balance to its site.

Internally, the spaces are intentionally uncluttered and have an inherently flexible nature to them. While allowing for the changing outdoor environment, the internal spaces seem to allow also for the unpredictable nature of the home, expressed through a diversity of use. Extending from the foundations of contrast, the materiality is inspired by both the highly refined and a raw, honest untouched quality. At both ends of the spectrum, key junctions are detailed to precision and expertly crafted such as the custom joinery and internal stair, while other elements such as the encasing rough sawn timber remain unaltered, expressing their uneven and natural variation.

Extending from the foundations of contrast, the materiality is inspired by both the highly refined and a raw, honest untouched quality.

House A plays with opacity and porosity, responding to its site and embracing nature. Walter &Walter changes the expected conversation between building and its land, embedding valuable living and breathing gestures and purpose into each of its interactions.

Walter &Walter changes the expected conversation between building and its land, and instead embeds valuable living and breathing gestures and purpose into each of its interactions.