Perforated House by Kavellaris Urban Design (KUD)

  Terrace houses are a ubiquitous feature of inner city suburbs. Their ornamental facades nostal- gically speak of an earlier time and they are trendy and coveted homes – however, as anyone who has ever lived in a terrace can attest, the romantic idea of a terrace can be much more enticing than certain aspects of the reality. Perforated House, which was highly commended in this year’s Asia Pacific Property Awards for a single unit property, is a quirky, beautiful and consummately functional home, which thoughtfully re-imagines the idea of the traditional terrace house in the contemporary city.

Billy Kavellaris noted certain design problems afflicting traditional terrace houses, and sought to address them in Perforated House. These included, “the terrace houses inability to address solar orientation, the poor linear program that is constantly remodelled with predictable repetitive and limited planning to achieve some sort of link between the active habitable space and the external private open space and the lack of natural light and ventilation to the house.” While the perforated steel screen façade depicts the instantly recognisable ornamentation of the terrace, Perforated House utilises its tight urban site in a completely different way to create a shifting, exciting home which challenges preconceived notions of the constraints of inner city blocks and the necessary stasis of buildings. Sandwiched between a row of single fronted Victorian terraces on the one side, and a double fronted Edwardian weatherboard house on the other, the building also engages with the idea of the how we conceptualise heritage significance as a society, and how this is narrated in the built environment. The façade is also an important part of the structure of the house, it is a multi-functional device which transforms the house as it opens to reveal an airy, light filled open living space, or closes to provide privacy. The house is a shifting, dynamic building, and the feel of the environment can be changed depending on the occupants’ mood. When closed, the perforated steel screen creates a perfectly private interior space, while the occupants are still able to see outside. So much more than simply a graphic on a façade, the screen provides functional, and also intelligently symbolic, street frontage. The facade also means that the appearance of the house changes from day to night. During the day the steel screen is reflective and has a heavy, solid feel completely different to the glowing structure it becomes at night when it is lit from within and appears ethereal and translucent. 

The house flips the layout of a traditional terrace literally upside down, with the bedrooms and bathroom downstairs and the open living space and kitchen, as well as the open terrace, upstairs. This has meant that although the block faces south it can gain a primary northerly orientation. Solar orientation and environmental sustainability were important areas of investigation for KUD, resulting in passive sustainable interventions. Bi- folding glass doors and louvres for cross ventilation are the primary means of cooling the house and the house also utilises solar hot water.

The terrace’s funky mural is a colourful and charming homage to backyards past – complete with a barbeque, a hills hoist and a man mowing the lawn. The mural is a witty gesture to the idealised traditional quater acre suburban block and how this dream is redefined in the contem- porary urban setting.

Perforated House remains a beautiful and intelligent addition to the continuing narrative of our architectural history – and, more importantly, looks thoughtfully to its future. The house is an ironic statement about the nature of heritage within the urban built environ- ment, but more importantly it is also comfortable and functional family home, which utilises thoughtful design to overcome the challenges of building in the inner city. +

PHOTOGRAPHY Peter Bennetts

1. Perforated House's flipping, graphic facade.

2. Like its façade, the interior of Peforated House is sleekly contemporary.

3. The house opens to create a breezy space that blurs notions of indoor/outdoor and private/public spaces.

4. Sliding doors and curtains enhance the dynamic and mutable feel of the house.

5. The house sits within a street of heritage buildings.