From the architect:

This two-storey split level house was approved under CDC controls on a moderately busy suburban street. A discreet facade is presented to the street, with a north facing internal courtyard.

pipi house

pipi house

The first-floor features aluminium batten cladding with integral privacy screening of the windows. The battens create a subtle relief pattern on the front of the house. When coupled with the natural variation in sheen and tone of the dark bronze anodizing, they impart a shimmering, lively quality to the austere form.

pipi house

pipi house

The street elevation is necessarily solid to fulfil the client's brief. It embodies denial and almost erasure. But in its blandness, there is nonetheless a richness in its experience and a sense of depth or mystery as to what it conceals. This is the suggestive blandness as extolled by the French philosopher Francois Jullien in his study of Chinese cultural history.

pipi house

pipi house

The entry door is offset behind the front by an angled wall, affording some protection from the noise, but also to comply with the CDC requirement that an entry door must face the street. Again, we saw this as an opportunity to skew the entry path and curate the entry experience.

pipi house

pipi house

Visitors enter the public domain of the house – there is a small foyer space with its own WC and a ‘front of house’ home office. Here, a skylight provides ambient, southern lighting when the space is closed off from the rest of the house.

pipi house

A warm white narrow-gauge brick with matching mortar appears monolithic at first glance, but subtly accentuates the horizontal and contrasts with the verticality and colour of the battens.

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