Far pavilions

Steep sites bring with them myriad concerns when it comes to building a house. The obvious solution building with the incline is not always the easiest. Also, when the site slopes up from the street, there's a real danger of ending up with a monolithic structure that dominates the streetscape.

For the owners of this property, the desire for a larger residence that made better use of the site led to the demolition and rebuilding of more than 80% of their existing home, as well as an a innovative new addition, says architect Bruce Stafford, principal of Bruce Stafford Architects.

"The clients had outgrown their house a fairly standard 1980s double-storey structure with a pitched roof and were looking for ways to achieve more space.

"Council guidelines were such that the only option was to extend to the rear of the property, an unused and overgrown, rocky escarpment."

In order to maximise available space while minimising impact on the site, Stafford and his team designed a pavilion-like structure that would sit above the rock face, and connect to the rest of the house via a glass-walled staircase.

"With all of our designs, creating a sense of arrival is key. The beauty of this site, and design, is that it allowed us to replicate that sense over and over again within the house, so that there is a strong experiential process as you move from outdoors to in and back out again."

In order to complement the aesthetics of the pavilion, the original pitched roof from the existing house was removed and replaced with a flat one. This had the additional benefit of opening the view up to the pavilion.

"The new design gave us the opportunity to address the way the house relates to the streetscape," says Stafford. "A series of setbacks and a varied material palette not only reference the natural attributes of the site, but also establish a visual dialogue between the spaces."

The new, fully glazed living area, lying between the central courtyard and the deck that faces the street, epitomises a design that deftly balances privacy with openness.

"Sitting in the courtyard, you can look through the living room out towards the view, and when you're on the deck you can look through the living room to the backdrop of the lit-up rock face beyond the pool. While they can work independently, because of the glazing, the spaces also read as one area," says Stafford.

"We continued this theme with the pavilion. It too is glazed on both sides, creating a sense of seamlessness between the built environment and the natural one."

In order to get the pavilion into place, a steel frame was prefabricated off site, then craned in and finished in situ. A bridge element connects the pavilion to the rest of the house.

"The staircase leading from the second storey of the house to the pavilion is actually cut into the rock face," says Stafford. "This has been glazed so that the experience is of emerging into the light, having passed through the rock.

"It's that experiential process again. From the street to the front door there is a three-stage process that includes a very natural element, lush green planting, which makes way for a water feature and then the entry itself. Once inside there's almost the reverse effect, as you move from the house, through the courtyard and pool and back into nature."

This concept appears again in the way the interior spaces are divided. The pavilion is entirely given over to the parents, while the second storey contains the children's bedrooms and a rumpus room. The lower level is the communal space, where the family comes together to reconnect, and to entertain.

"The purpose of this house is to create an environment of relaxation, for the owners to feel at one with their surroundings," says Stafford.

Story by: Justin Foote