Lightness and Charm – Peek House by Kuzman Architecture

Expanding on the original charm and quaintness of a Victorian-era cottage in Brunswick, Peek House is reacquainted with light and opened both to the rear and to the sky. Kuzman Architecture draws on the ingrained warmth and proportions of the original to propose a home of unexpected responsiveness.

With the owners having lived in the previous cottage for some time, coming to know it intricately and intimately, as their needs changed the bones of the heritage home needed to follow suit. As a worker’s terrace cottage from the Victorian-era, the home sits as part of a row of similar forms, all of which with their own internal nuances beyond the front facades, while being bound by their connecting front faces. In needing to retain the original character and front existing rooms of the home, the extension and alterations efforts restore and open the home to align with a more contemporary brief and its growing family. Kuzman Architecture draws on the charm of the original home and its handmade elements as muse for the coming insertions with an approach that rejects the expected.

Imbedded into the essence of the design is a want to create a home that spoke primarily to the needs of the owners, not necessarily to a traditional and expected renovation, and this required an attuned approach.

Imbedded into the essence of the design is a want to create a home that spoke primarily to the needs of the owners, not necessarily to a traditional and expected renovation, and this required an attuned approach.

Imbedded into the essence of the design is a want to create a home that spoke primarily to the needs of the owners, not necessarily to a traditional and expected renovation, and this required an attuned approach. The kitchen best expresses this intent with a mix of open joinery elements and a warm approach to materials. Instead of concealing life, it celebrates it with pieces on show. Throughout, storied pieces and heirlooms of the owners own pasts are dotted, as a careful weaving of past and present. Tasmanian oak flooring and exposed concrete flooring run underfoot adding warmth and a needed robustness, while textured terracotta and a palette of warm details allow the black steel detailing to neatly frame joinery, accentuated by the use of terrazzo.

Tasmanian oak flooring and exposed concrete flooring run underfoot adding warmth and a needed robustness, while textured terracotta and a palette of warm details allow the black steel detailing to neatly frame joinery, accentuated by the use of terrazzo.

Focussing on both connection and light, Peek House transforms an existing dark and damp terrace cottage. Kuzman Architecture brings important parts of the home and the owners’ stories together.