Game On

You know the clients must have had an exceptionally high ratio of wacky ideas to useable space when you hear the architects, Mark Austin and Andrew Maynard – of Austin Maynard Architects (AMA) – describe one of the challenges of the project as channeling the best into one coherent design.

“Craig and Heidi were so excited about all these different ideas, and they just kept going off on tangents like, ‘What about if we do this? What about if we do that?’” Mark Austin says. “It wasn’t that we didn’t want them to. We got excited … and explored different ideas with them. But it was [about] consolidating all those ideas into a functional house.”

Clients Heidi Chapman and Craig McGrath were first-time renovators, and concede with a laugh they “weren’t very considered” in the fun, freewheeling conceptual design phase while transforming their 5.5-metre-wide brick cottage in Brunswick into a playful family home for three active teenage boys. “We kind of just leapt into it,” Craig says. Heidi’s pleased Mark and Andrew took their wacky ideas seriously, and contributed plenty of their own, before the culling process began. “The conceptual phase was a lot of fun,” Craig adds. “It feels like you’re putting together a production. But on the night everything has to work perfectly.”

An outrageously expensive above-ground lap pool you could see into from the basement was never going to make the cut. “We got carried away with it and eventually the penny dropped that it was crazy,” Craig says. “I know the architects were never really fond of it but they … knew it was going to die in the arse eventually and they just let it run for a while.”

However, the idea of an alternative route through the multilevel house to AMA’s signature spiral staircase became a central feature of the design, realised by a curvy, skate park-esque timber ramp in the basement topped with a glazed trapdoor, suspended climbing nets and a bouldering wall that leads to a window out onto the roof garden. An interior of floor-to-ceiling cross laminated timber (CLT) was another experimental element that proved central to success. Mark says this was one of the first homes in Australia to use CLT, and learning the ropes caused plenty of headaches for the architects and builders, CBD Contracting. “We’re super, super happy with it,” Heidi says. “It’s got a really warm feeling and it’s easy to dress and to live in.”

Underpinning all the playfulness was a serious commitment to sustainability and functionality. Hence joinery ramps, perching platform/seats with slide-out steps and pull-apart stairs all concealing storage, and a green roof deck that not only highlights view south to the city but insulates a potential ‘hotbox’. “It’s always fun when you get something to serve at least two functions,” Andrew says.

The clients were keen to retain the fa ade of their two-bedroom redbrick cottage, shared with a ‘twin’ next door. But with no heritage overlay on the property, the architects were free to stack four levels of programming (including a sunken basement) into an unabashedly contemporary form of glass, EQUITONE cement cladding and blackbutt shiplap timber.

Removing a two-metre-high brick fence that kept neighbours at arm’s length and the garden dark and damp opens the entire place up to the street. Inviting landscaping by Bush Projects and the addition of a low concrete bench encourages impromptu interactions with neighbours and passersby. At the north-facing rear, the upper levels are sunshaded by operable louvred screens of aluminium. The ground floor kitchen and dining space is protected by an extendable Warema awning in playful hot pink.

Inside, highlights for the family are plentiful. There’s the glamorous ground floor fireplace, a master bedroom that feels loft-like thanks to exposed brickwork, high ceilings and tall drapes, a custom-made powder blue fibreglass bathroom that’s dramatically illuminated by natural light and shadow play, multiple spots to prop, chat, read and play, and a basement rumpus room with big screen and Xbox that’s become a favourite hangout for the boys. Most satisfying of all is the way Mark and Andrew nailed their brief for a beautiful home that’s fun to inhabit. “We didn’t want the house to look like a playground,” Craig says. “I think we wanted a serious piece of architecture, but one that didn’t take itself too seriously all the time.”