Brunswick St House

The still-emerging Melbourne architect Andrew Maynard self-professedly explores architectures 'of enthusiasm'. His small firm splits its time between broader socio-political design studies and the small but multi-functional and versatile built works for which AMA is increasingly well known.

AMA's projects include a number of Melbourne houses and proposals for flexible and social housing (the Holl House proposal, for example, a supremely flexible house which can be made to change in size and configuration as a family's circumstances change; or the ring of repurposed shipping container homes); a competition entry for the Japan Library in Tokyo; a proposal for a suburb-eating robot as a solution to Sydney's sprawl, pictures of which were well publicised at around the time of last year's national architecture conference; and a more reasonable proposal for a series of anti-deforestation protest shelters in Tasmania, which are deliberately anchored by tensile wires to several trees, so that a small number of activists may protect a large tract of forest.

This renovation of a Melbourne rowhouse on Brunswick Street is a small-scale manifestation of AMA's enthusiasm for flexibility in architecture. Work is limited to the ground floor, where the client wanted more natural daylight, and spaces more appropriate for social and family congregation. AMA characterises the project as the "unfolding of [an] internal warren". Given the focused nature of the project, AMA designed much of the joinery that went into the project.

Demolition and work on the existing terrace was minimised, and as far as possible the architects worked with reconfiguring existing features. The material palette was deliberately limited.

A wooden deck was extended from what is now the kitchen out into the backyard, and a bench/daybed installed which starts in the sun/guest room (where it folds out into night stands for the guest's bedding), and extends out into the yard; again subverting the distinction between interior and exterior.

Other rooms were opened up to make better use of what was once dead circulation space. What the visitor now sees first upon entering the home is the study, which was once a hallway; a cozy semi-enclosed desk with a window to the entry, and a wall of bookshelves which wrap right around and under the desk. The front of the house has had its carpets removed to expose timber floorboards, and is converted to a lounge and dining space which flows more naturally into the kitchen.

The flexibility in design of AMA's joinery in this project is also obvious in the kitchen's island bench, which can be used as a cooking and preparation surface; on the lower end, a dining surface; and where the two surfaces overlap, temporary storage.

The fresh white paint of the walls and the black colour of the new curved joinery are complemented by splashes of bright green, with which the interior of the pantry, and the surrounds of the fridge were painted. Even in a small space with a limited brief, AMA's enthusiasm for flexibility and detail are apparent. +