Flexible Functionality – Westmere House by Studio LWA

As a modern iteration of its neighbouring Californian bungalow-style homes, Westmere House shares principles of spatial arrangements and forms, while forming its own unique proposal. Studio LWA combines formality and warmth in proposing the resulting home, optimising efficiency and a flexible functionality.

 A home imagined respond to how its inhabitants innately live, Westmere House draws on gestures of push and pull to form a fitting brief. In its slightness, the intentional inbuilt efficiencies ensure every area of the home and its landscape are deliberate and serve an equally important function as part of a greater whole. While the internals are wrapped in warming timber, the access to natural light throughout the home ensures a heightened liveability is engrained. The combined use of polished and textured materiality offers an element of contrast between each surface and finish, adding a depth and sense of curiosity as you move through the home. Studio LWA prioritises the familiar and carves a warming embrace.

Within its restrained footprint, curated openings increase the perceived feeling of internal volume, while conserving the sense of protection from the outside world.

Both from the materiality and the incoming sun, Westmere House sits comfortably between being open and connected while also feeling private. Within its restrained footprint, curated openings increase the perceived feeling of internal volume, while conserving the sense of protection from the outside world. In responding to the context within which it sits, the exterior of the home is light and amenable to its neighbours, through a structured and defined form as a gesture to fit in. Internally the home unfolds as a personal journey for its owners, shared on a more intimate level between themselves and with invited visitors.

Behind the porch that faces and engages with the street, the home opens up unexpectedly. Homes are an opportunity for unique personal expression, and the preservation of each as public and private is made even more clear by creating and emphasising contrast between the inside and outside experiences. Behind the asymmetrical structure sits an open and connected home with volumes that flow intentionally and effortlessly into one another. The use of timber in the main living and convening spaces in a liberal sense sees it wrap from the floor surface, up walls and onto the underside of the ceiling, creating a cocoon within which furniture and lighting sit. Moving upward and into more private zones, painted plaster replaces the textural timber and softens the spaces, emphasising a muted stillness.

The use of timber in the main living and convening spaces in a liberal sense sees it wrap from the floor surface, up walls and onto the underside of the ceiling, creating a cocoon within which furniture and lighting sit.

Westmere House is both a bold and expressive individual insertion. In responding to both the surrounds and its owners, Studio LWA creates a welcomed addition to the neighbourhood.