Empire House by Austin Maynard Architects
Awarded the 2019 Canberra Medallion, Empire House has a firm focus on sustainability, design sensibility and celebrating the old and the new.
Photography: Derek Swalwell
The house is opened up to the outdoors and celebrates the exterior, creating a discussion between the old and the new. Photo - Derek Swalwell.
The new additions have completely altered the way the family live in the spaces. Photo - Derek Swalwell.
Australia’s capital city is home to some of the best examples of post-war and modernist architecture in the country. Designed by Austin Maynard Architects, Empire House is located in a culturally significant and important area of the city, on a ring-road that forms part of architect Walter Burley Griffin’s masterplan. Houses in the area are a product of an aspirational time in Australia, and Austin Maynard Architects felt an incredible sense of responsibility and sensibility to protect and preserve the original Canberra cottage. The brief? For ‘a long-term family home that catches the sun.’ The result is two added pavilions, sympathetic to the existing post-war house, but distinctly contemporary in detail.
The focus on the redesign was on retaining as much of the existing character of the site as possible and avoiding the common trend of knocking down or adding a dominant, unsympathetic addition. The two major challenges were how to have a conversation with the original building without attacking it, and also how to create sunny spaces when dealing with sloping site levels. The result is a sustainably focused home which maximises available daylight and architectural details and craftsmanship which is sympathetic to the old and new parts of the home.
Photo - Derek Swalwell.
The kitchen and living areas now within the garden, so the family have better flow and usage, more indoor, outdoor space and an increased exposure to natural light. Photo - Derek Swalwell.
The most striking element of Empire House is the craftsmanship of the Surfmist Colorbond shingles. Each one is hand-finished and hand-fixed, forming a snakeskin-like covering that merges roof and wall in one surface, contrasting with the white rendered brick of the old part of the house. Photo - Derek Swalwell.
“Empire House is an exercise in considered intervention and restraint. It would have been easier, and a lot less fun, to demolish and start again. ”
Photo - Derek Swalwell.
Photo - Derek Swalwell.
The new design of the house is now divided into pavilions - connecting the old and the new parts. The pavilion additions are connected to the existing house via a glass ‘link’. The linking corridors are highly detailed to appear as transparent as possible. The glazing frames, cut into the brick of the old part of the house, seem to disappear, the edges kept clean to make the roof appear recessive. Between the house and the bedroom pavilion, the floor floats in the form of a bridge, to cross the garden under the eaves of the old part of the house. In almost every inch of the spaces, there is a firm celebration of both the existing home and the new extensions.
The pavilion additions are connected to the existing house via a glass ‘link’. The linking corridors are highly detailed to appear as transparent as possible. Photo - Derek Swalwell.
“Our new living space improves our wellbeing beyond anything we had imagined.”
Photo - Derek Swalwell.
Photo - Derek Swalwell.
“We opened up to the outdoors and celebrated the exterior, giving clarity and creating a discussion between the old and the new. ”
Throughout the colder months the sun streams in through the north facing windows, heating the concrete slab which continues to radiate warmth well into the night. Photo - Derek Swalwell.
Photo - Derek Swalwell.
The view out from the master bedroom pavilion. Photo - Derek Swalwell.
The master bedroom pavilion respects the character of the existing house, and also creates a distinctly contemporary piece of architecture. Photo - Derek Swalwell.
