Preston I

Preston I is a single-storey home on a quiet side street off High Street in Preston, where most of the houses date from the early 1900s. A heritage overlay across the area meant that any change to the streetscape had to stay subtle. The original house had no real connection to its north-facing rear garden and no obvious entry from Gertrude Street, so the work was as much about reorientation as renovation.

Stonehouse + Irons Architecture worked with the existing materials and qualities of the house to keep a sense of continuity, a deliberate counterpoint to the upheaval the clients had recently been through. Because the plan needed to stay on a single continuous level, the design lifts an internal courtyard, using exposed rafters and a pergola to tie inside and outside together both spatially and physically.

Warm, understated textures run through the interior as a muted backdrop, letting the vibrant colours and natural materials of the clients' collection of implements and artwork from their African homeland take the foreground. The home was completed in 2017.

Architecture by Stonehouse + Irons Architecture, with Brett Stonehouse as principal architect. Photography by Tatjana Plitt.