Expanded outlook

This renovation creates space and connects interiors with the outdoors – the linking strategy utilises a surprising, usually downplayed, feature

The project is sited on a 2200m² suburban

The fineness of the repetitive steel screen and

The regulatory pool fence (typically an obstruction between

Intimate courtyards are created for the lower level

The key public rooms of kitchen and dining

Further, the interior circulation edge is lowered while

Classic mouldings were retained while contemporary versions also

Interior walls were removed, opening up the home

The functioning public spaces, such as the kitchen,

Giant pocket sliders draw back to make the

Renovation by Lineburg Wang

From the architects:

The project is sited on a 2200m² suburban corner block, a grand two-storey existing Queenslander enveloped by significant trees, a lap pool, deck and tennis court.

While generous in scale and without lacking in program, layers of intervention through time resulted in each public room and external feature being disconnected and in isolation.

A diluted organisational diagram with deep rooms and no outlook, the homeowners sought a renovation that would optimise outdoor living, be more fitting to their active social lifestyle in retirement and be suited to comfortably entertaining friends and family.

Three layers of walls were removed to bring the northern aspect deep into the plan, reactivating the existing formal sitting room.

The key public rooms of kitchen and dining were reconfigured along the length of the northern edge, offering visual connections to the pool and new garden perimeter.

While layers of skin were removed, the bones of the existing rooms remain with their characteristic Queenslander ornamentation above door height – the rooms’ proportions retained.

Contemporary takes on mouldings are inserted in memory of the home's past and new accretions, or layers – treated like loose furniture and distinctly modern – weave through the existing structure.

The regulatory pool fence (typically an obstruction between house and pool and with a function that seeks to be hidden) was embraced with the project conceived using the pool fence as a celebrated feature.

The pool fence ‘net’ is cast right around the project – a full height metal screen envelops the north and eastern edges of the home – in an attempt to capture and bring in all external features into the new kitchen, living and dining rooms and open up the edges of the house.

The existing pool was shortened, giving room to entertain alongside it; activities and structures – a barbecue and firepit – straddle its edges; there’s a garden on all sides and a generous outdoor room.

All these elements are captured within the pool fence ‘net’.

Further, the interior circulation edge is lowered while the pool surrounds are lifted, setting up a garden edge in the zone previously required for fall protection.

Both this section and the planning strategy work together, creating an ambiguous line of enclosure that minimises the delineation between inside and out, capturing the pool and garden surrounds to bring them into the interior public rooms.

The fineness of the repetitive steel screen and balustrade is contrasted by the solidity of the mass board-formed concrete planters that bring gardens to the elevated outdoor rooms.

The planters organise the secondary entry – alternating between short and tall to greet guests, providing shelter to bedrooms within, creating pockets of space for quiet contemplation.

Harking back to the existing house, it’s defined by its fine repetition of details, linear shadows cast by weatherboards, lattices, and architectural ornament.

The new works borrow from this repetition in both materiality and planning diagram – the repetition hopes to exude a sense of calm, to unify the edges of the renovation, and lastly to create an ordered backdrop through which to appreciate the natural disorder of the man made gardens and landscape beyond.