Rhythmic Animation – Toowong Lighthouse by Alcorn Middleton

With separate bookended addition to an existing Californian bungalow home, Toowong Lighthouse sits jubilantly as a fusing of heritage and response to context. Alcorn Middleton combines a rhythmically repeated structure with a vibrant use of materiality to cleverly animate the proposed spaces as key destinations of their own.

Through a considered and overarching approach, Toowong Lighthouse draws strong influence from the owner’s Greek heritage and fuses with a contextually sensitive response. Adding amenity and increasing the overall useable footprint of the family home, additions both rework the existing elements and re-sculpt the transition between inside and out. Culminating in the double-height point peeking up above the overall form of the home, the namesake ‘lighthouse’ structure sits as a celebration of brick materiality. In proposing the amendments, Alcorn Middleton combines a conscious rigour of detail and craft, elongating the relevance and presence of the home in its inner Brisbane locale.

As an expression of an outdoor life and a celebration of having dedicated and functional destinations within the home for engaging with the landscape, a new colonnade structure was conceived was a key feature of the rear addition.

Built by RM Housing Group, Toowong Lighthouse draws on a classical approach. The original proportions and volumes are carried forward into the new, with solid masonry and geometric gestures as key formal features throughout. Built in the 1930s, the original California bungalow-style home presents a subdued front behind its deep verandah form, with the addition sitting to the rear as a capture of the site in its entirety, bookending it. Connections to the landscape remain throughout, with openings and visual vistas prioritised and accentuated throughout

Home to a growing family of five, the renovation and addition expands on the previous formal footprint, combining existing rooms to create larger zones, while the new form aims to accommodate larger gatherings. Connecting back to their origins from Greece, the owners wanted the home to combine their own narrative with that of the style of the original house. A palette of mostly white forms the basis, with insertions of vibrancy to further animate and reflect the personalities of the occupants. As an expression of an outdoor lifestyle common to both Mediterranean and sub-tropical climes, a new colonnade structure was conceived was a key feature of the rear addition. Abating unwanted solar gains, the colonnade acts as a deep eave structure as well as an open living and dining space. Meanwhile, the intentional vaulted ceiling space sits sculpturally and injects an element of drama at the same time.

A palette of mostly white forms the basis, with insertions of vibrancy to further animate and reflect the personalities of the occupants.

Alcorn Middleton’s Toowong Lighthouse evokes a resort style of living in its openness, while also presenting as an approachable and engaging series of spaces.