St Georges Residence

The client brief was ‘Danish modern’ - a dream for a modernist architect! The home has been very carefully designed for this family of five to provide them with a balance of public and private spaces, each with a relationship to the beautifully landscaped gardens. The entrance is framed by a large Stonyfell random stone blade wall that leads to the front door with a recessed planter in the floor slab. This stone is balanced with white bagged brick, hardwood timber battens and charcoal-coloured fascias and details to visually define the form of the building. Internally the modern architectural spaces have been complemented in some areas by the client’s own original Danish light fittings and furnishings. The open plan living, kitchen and dining spaces are framed by another large Stonyfell stone wall, and extensive overhead windows with remote winders to pull generous winter sunlight into the south-facing living area, and allow for excellent cross ventilation and passive cooling. The house has been designed to meet the client brief and budget, respect the existing street context, and maximise the local climate conditions – a south-facing site and strong gully winds. It contains five bedrooms, two living areas, a separate studio and study, a children’s tech room, a large garage and a large separate storage room. As with all good residential architecture, every step has been taken to ensure privacy to and from adjacent properties. A large underground rainwater tank provides landscape irrigation and swimming pool top-up, and the garden has been designed to complement the adjacent internal spaces with lush, evergreen, drought tolerant and low maintenance plantings. A boundary realignment with a neighbouring property has provided additional space to extend the garden with an orchard and a large flat grassed area for the children to play sports.