Elongating a Narrative – Queens Park by Carla Middleton Architecture

Rejuvenating and extending its inherited bones, Queens Park extends the narrative of its former glory while being injected with a sense of the contemporary. Carla Middleton Architecture combines the old and new through a connected approach to create key conduits between the built and the natural.

Located overlooking Queens Park, the resulting home stays true to its original framework, while also opening up to encourage a meaningful connection with its natural elements. Abating the traditional lack of natural light in heritage builds, Carla Middleton prioritises carving into the building form and employs specific orientation to encourage natural illumination and positive thermal comfort internally. Inherited in a dilapidated state, the renovation and extension work become a triage of sorts, repairing and bringing the former home back to life. As a celebration of its crafted and detailed elements, the new addition acts as an homage to its history, and through a layered narrative, takes formal cues and reinterprets them with a contemporary relevance.

As a celebration of its crafted and detailed elements, the new addition acts as an homage to its history, and through a layered narrative, takes formal cues and reinterprets them with a contemporary relevance.

With landscaping by Garden Life,  Queens Park is situated on an enviable corner block and makes the most of its siting. As important as the interrelationships between zones internally, for Carla Middleton Architecturethe connection and ability to overflow between the built and surrounding gardens were paramount. As a play on scale, the newly proposed open living, dining and kitchen space offers a generous social meeting point, while at the same time intentionally creating a sense of intimacy. The extended form references the original roofline silhouette and extrudes outward, resulting in a series of three pitches. These undulations in the roofline then determine the delineation of zones that occur under each, while also allowing generous amounts of natural light inward.

While the extension encourages the inward flow of natural light, it is ultimately the climatic comfort of the internal experience that dictated the window coverings and how they engage with and allow for operability and building performance. The new offers a sense of dynamism and the connection to the old and is expressed through formal cues, window openings and a materiality that flows uninterrupted between the two era phases of the home. Externally, a muted grey and white palette is used, which highlights the existing crafted details that then transition into the contemporary. Internally, a similar toned approach is taken, seeing whites, greys and black refined details completing the home as a considered whole.

The new offers a sense of dynamism and the connection to the old and is expressed through formal cues, window openings and a materiality that flows uninterrupted between the two era phases of the home.

Queens Park beautifully extends the narrative of the original home and its unique detail. Carla Middleton Architecture has used subtle prompts to connect the existing with the new and propose a holistic home, which has been considered with appropriate sensibilities to remain relevant.