Outside Inside House

A strong relationship between internal and external areas was sought for the main everyday living areas of the house, being the kitchen, meals area and dining room. Devices such as the highlight windows within these spaces allow a constant glimpse to the sky, the blurring of internal and external boundaries through the use of external materials within the house and the large openings making visual connections. The stone walls used externally have also been used internally to the south wall of the meals area and the copper soffit lining to the upper terrace runs internally in the bulkhead and ceiling to the kitchen, meals and dining room thereby blurring the internal and external areas. The ceilings within the dining room and kitchen / meals area are lined with timber battens. Along with providing warmth and detail to these spaces the timber battens also conceal acoustic insulation to assist with deadening the reverberant noise. The stone to the walls and cabinetwork fronts within the kitchen were selected to compliment the alluvial stone walls while providing a more resilient and refined finish. The kitchen range hood has been concealed with a wall mounted timber ‘box’ which reflects the timber used elsewhere within the kitchen. The concealment of the range hood allows a less utilitarian feel to the kitchen. A timber wall mounted shelf compliments the ‘timber box’ and adds to the composition of the backdrop wall to the kitchen. The design and usability of the upper terrace itself was pivotal to the success of the house. It is the external area of the upper terrace that connects to extend the internal areas with the boundary between the two being blurred. A balance was reached between solar access and protection from the rain while maintaining a non-restricted view to the sky from internal areas through the use of glass roofs and automated awnings. Photo by Angelita Bonetti