Drawing Room Architecture have devised the forever home for a creative couple in Kew, dubbed Kew Courtyard. Supporting the couple’s mutual love of entertaining, art, gardening and mid-century architecture, the home connects to its surroundings and is awash with natural light.
The practice was given a brief that called for a forever home on a narrow site that maximised daylight with really good connections to a garden, with a study, a studio, a darkroom and a pond & with a nod to mid century architecture. Working on a subdivided block that was 7m wide yet 45m long, the practice had to devise a home within a unique building envelope with room for parking cars made essential by the couple.
The home comprises two bedrooms, a generously spaced study, two bathrooms, a kitchen-dining hybrid space and a separate living room that clearly differentiates from food preparation and consumption areas. The living rooms have been thoughtfully placed to maximise natural light and garden views, which created the need for the implementation of a central courtyard that acts as the heart of the site. A pond also runs externally parallel with the living room. The study is given a window to the street outside, with the two bedrooms placed on the first floor where they have private leafy views over the surrounding rooftops. The detached studio, darkroom and garden shed bookend the eastern end of the site.
Being a two-storey home, the practice was mindful of building and planning regulations when implementing the staircase. It needed to be compliant but not seen and to not overlook or overshadow & to fit into strict setback conditions on a tight site. The staircase effectively operates as a transitional object, giving the occupants clear boundaries between work and living spaces and private sanctuaries. It also doubles as a small heat stack, with operable louvres running floor to ceiling to let hot air out.
The house itself is a sustainable entity, built to passive design guidelines. While the living room cops the majority of the natural light due to its positioning, the bathrooms and laundry are placed to the south. The outdoor deck has a generous roof ensuring the occupants can enjoy the external space at all times irrespective of the weather, with awning screens placed at the entry and study to ensure neither space is exposed to the harsh western sun. Dense, light coloured porcelain blocks make up the ground floor perimeter walls, their mass stabilises internal temperatures as does the cut and polished concrete slab. Thin water tanks are placed along the southern fence and feed the hydroponic rack, which is home to a number of edible plants.
Working within the confines of a narrow block and the need to create a forever home, Drawing Room Architecture have responded to various adversities with aplomb. The home itself has been ingeniously positioned to ensure natural light floods through the spaces where it is needed most, while being given the facilities it needs to ensure it is a standalone home that is self-sustainable and conscious of the environment. Overall, the home is an architectural marvel, and is completely worthy of its forever home title.
