Turning Inward – Jacaranda House by Architects Ink

Introspectively focused, Jacaranda House takes form around an existing and established tree in a harmonious relationship between the built and the natural. Architects Ink layers gestures of considered resolve to create a light filled and texturally animated series of spaces.

While a home traditionally brings together a brief formed on function and an aesthetic that connects with its owners, some homes also make a bold statement through how they engage with the existing streetscape. In this case, the home takes a more inward approach, turning the focus inward and then outward to the surrounding and curated garden setting. As a deliberate softening of the sharper lines of the built form, the landscape becomes an offering of calm, changing with the seasons and needing tending to flourish. Architects Ink expresses a sense of permanence through a weighting of materiality, allowing the coexistence between the solid and the void elements to become a balance offering to one another.

The shared openness between the spaces and across the site further celebrates a life lived outdoors, where the thresholds between inside and out are deliberately blurred.

Together with joinery by Admor Dimensions, Jacaranda House was built by Krivic, and combines a refinement that will ensure its presence for many years to come. In referencing a Roman village in a way, the home is formed through a series of solid volumes circulating the jacaranda tree, adding and expanding based on use and the flow of movement needed between them. The shared openness between the spaces and across the site further celebrates a life lived outdoors, where the thresholds between inside and out are deliberately blurred. A sense of drama is created through the increasing and decreasing ceiling heights internally, and with a non-traditional and unexpected approach to bringing light into the home. Shards of light then dance across the floor and walls across the day, changing with time.

In imagining Jacaranda House, the preservation of the existing prominent tree in the centre of the site guided the form of the home, with areas circulating around its trunk, instead of imposing themselves on the site. Through a textural approach, the masonry elements are expressed as a key feature of the home. Muted and putty-like, the various vertical and horizontal surfaces have a sense of movement integrated within them, while also adding interest. The slightness of tonality imbeds a subtle and timeless nature, ensuring the natural elements remain as a key focus.

In imagining Jacaranda House, the preservation of the existing prominent tree in the centre of the site guided the form of the home, with areas circulating around its trunk, instead of imposing themselves on the site.

From an honest and authentic expression of its parts, Jacaranda House emerges steadfastly as the ideal family base for the chapters to come. Architects Ink brings a connection to the past and carefully layers in a richness intended to endure beautifully with age.