DPR House by MCK Architects

MCK Architects DPR House sits within a quiet suburb of heritage buildings where, despite its fragmented and jagged exterior, it seems to happily belong. Fresh, yet respectful of its distinguished neighbourhood, DPR House showcases the young practice’s steadfast attention to context and innovative approach to both material and form. But don’t be wary of the house’s sculptural exterior – it isn’t just a retrofitted shell. Instead, DPR’s funky facade carries well into its internal spaces where versatility and vibrancy enhance even the most mundane aspects of everyday living. Described by MCK as an egg cracked open, DPR is a canny alliance of art and architecture. 

Designed for a family with young, active children, a love for entertainment (both inside and out) and frequent overseas visitors, the home is a powerhouse of activity. For the children, the house needed to accommodate ballet practice, a piano room and study areas. Central entertainment areas, dedicated guest quarters and a tatami room were imperative for both the family and their guests. In its entirety, the house needed living spaces that would accommodate and encourage active and communal family living. 

From the street the most charming aspect of the house is its playful use of the neighbourhood’s traditional material palette. MCK’s modern use of dark face brick, copper sheeting, slate tiles and timber shakes celebrates the house’s three abstract volumes, which are approached as singular shapes rather than a division of floor, wall and roof. Limited fenestration and a protruding dark brick front – treated as both volume and screen – mystify the house’s entrance for a heightened sense of abstractness. In addition to this, a slate clad volume on one side and a shingle volume on the other give the house a material purity that both reinvents and celebrates the very fabric of the neighbourhood. 

The house’s main entrance, accessible on both lower and upper ground levels, comprises of a long decked pathway that provides views into the house and backyard. Once inside, the sheer volume and vastness of the open plan living area signifies its role as the key congregational space of the home. From the entrance the communal area meets the house’s private quarters at an intersection. Here, a beautifully detailed walkway, showered with light from a courtyard, leads to the ground level bedrooms and media room. A set of stairs adjacent to this leads to the upper master bedroom, tatami room as well as the generously sized guest quarters of the lower ground level. This space is the meeting point and core of the house, celebrating and underlining the daily rituals of sleeping, working and coming together. 

DPR’s slightly angled plan subtly entwines indoor with outdoor spaces to give a sense of continuity between the house and its multileveled outdoor areas. The layered and sculptural treatment of the landscape unites the land, material and form to blur any distinction between inside and out. This adds a fresh twist to the open plan living area which integrates the kitchen with both the dining and entertainment spaces as it folds and rises to the swimming pool and elevated grass lawns outside. Somewhat escheresque, these material and level changes bring a suitable liveliness to the key communal space of the house. This adventurous, beautiful and ultimately functional play on form brings the entire house together. 

Finely detailed joinery embeds shelves and furniture into the walls to add a human scale to the jutting volumes of the home. From the wooden finish of the stairs and accommodating fold of the kitchen bench top, to the intriguing shadows of the curiously angled stair balustrades and embedded desks of the bedrooms; sculptural qualities add pockets of surprises throughout the house to enhance all facets of living. 

DPR House is a compelling addition to the established neighbourhood. Its playfulness of form may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but neither are many artworks. While neighbours were initially doubtful, the house has received praise and warm glances since its completion because of its unique character and simultaneous reverence for its surroundings. DPR House is as much an artistic contribution to the neighbourhood as it is a perfect home for its occupants.+

PHOTOGRAPHY Willem Rethmeier and Simon Wood

1. Dark face brickwork, timber shakes, copper sheeting and slate tiles are all materials typical of the neighbourhood. 2. From the back of the house, folding and cutting planes effortlessly sit through two deep levels. 3. The communal core of the house is kept open but lively as multiple levels converge while indoors meshes with outdoors. 4. Timber courtyards slice through the lawned garden to blur interior spaces with the outside. 5. The pool cuts through the lawn, past the ground level and down to the lower ground; an inviting feature embedded into the home.