silver street - fremantle

Designed in collaboration with the owner, this house in south fremantle was built on a site with a 4m wide sewer easement running diagonally up the guts of the block. Many a punter passed over this compromised site with prime location but the neighbour Pat saw the potential, ponied up and we started dreaming on how this block could work. At ground level the sewer easement divided the site into two triangular pieces of available building space. All manner of weird ideas were floated including a retractable, aeroplane boarding style link between the two sections but eventually and after many talks with watercorp, we found a functional and inexpensive solution.

It was great fun working with Pat on this project. Between us we worked out how to make a flexible, multi-faceted family house with a connection to outdoors as a primary focus that could host parents and grown children as needs arose. The upstairs is like a big esky made from 210mm thick insulated panels, metal shrouds shade the windows and polycarbonate panels allow diffuse light in while maintaining privacy in what is a busy little street. Huge sliding windows at ground level open the living spaces up to the outside and the glorious south west Freo breeze is channeled through the site.