An Embracing Exercise – Pirie Street by Preston Lane

Extending its previous occupation as a weatherboard cottage in Hobart’s New Town, Pirie Street sees an embracing exercise unfold, creating key connections to site. Preston Lane adopts an immersive approach, with added generous volumes allowing the home to drink in light from the surrounds and connect to the mountains beyond.

From its lofted positioning, Pirie Street sits overlooking a sea of residential edifices below and opens out to views of the mountains in the distance. The previous weatherboard cottage was built in the 1910sand needed to better embrace its aspect. The resulting design then became an exercise in opening and connecting to the landscape both near and afar while creating a deliberate presence. As an extension to the previous, the addition of generous volumes enhances the lived experience internally, as it sleeves out from under the eaves of the existing home. On its sloping site, the previous home sat projecting outward, elevated by metres above the ground and hovering without purposeful contact with its site. The new gestures aim to close this gap between building and terrain, earthing the home in the process. Preston Lane uses clear, familiar scales and forms and carefully carves into them to create connections and encourage an engagement with the natural, bathing the home in sunlight.

As the new extension opens to the mountain view, large glazing elements offer a visual connection, while external timber battens break down the scale and connect back to the site.

Built by Langford Projects, Pirie Street is home to a young family of four and as such needed to capture the character and layered narratives of its occupants. While a place to live and entertain, the home is also mostly introspective, where places of pause are dotted throughout. As the new addresses the site, it anchors back to its hillside, with the built form meeting and addressing the sloping terrain. Key to the proposal of the new was the preservation of the existing garden, and through a controlled and measured approach, the floor plan was kept restrained. A sense of immersion was vital, and the sunken lounge allows the existing landscaped garden space to feel like an extension of the interior. The fireplace then sits as a sculptural element, emphasising the added height and drawing the eye upward, while also being its own source of warmth and an object to gather around.

As the new extension opens to the mountain view, large glazing elements offer a visual connection, while external timber battens break down the scale and connect back to the site. Cleverly integrated joinery binds the open living, dining and kitchen space and becomes a defining element in the stepping of the floor plan, while still also providing amenity and storage. A similar restraint was used in the materiality and finishes, both internally and externally, and in doing so expresses their natural and raw natural qualities.

A sense of immersion was vital, and the sunken lounge allows the existing landscape garden space to feel like an extension of the interior.

The soft textural approach of Pirie Street means a home of enduring familiarity and relevance can ensue. Preston Lane has extended the story of the previous home by anchoring it to its site, connecting to the surrounding context and opening to its generous views, creating a home of purpose.